RETURN TO GREECE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25660, 7 October 1944, Page 6

RETURN TO GREECE

The Allies have redeemed their pro-, mise to return to Greece on a mission of liberation. This time, we may be very sure, there will be no repetition of the grim days of April, 1941. It was in the last week of that fateful month that the Greek Government, recognising the futility of offering further resistance to the powerful German forces which were over- 1 running the country, requested the Imperial divisions to withdraw. The withdrawal was completed by May 2, its success, despite appalling difficulties, being due to the heroic intervention of ships of the Mediterranean Fleet. The Germans had entered Athens on April 27, and had dropped paratroops in the neighbourhood of the Corinth canal, dividing the mainland from Peloponnesus, in an effort to interfere decisively with the evacuation. Now the northern part of Peloponnesus, including Patras and its valuable airfield, is again in Allied hands, and there are signs that a wholesale German retreat from Greek territory will not be long delayed. Indeed, the enemy may well discover that he has already stayed too long in the southern Balkans to make escape either easy or certain. It seems that the Allied landings, which are described as not being of invasion strength, have not been confined to the Greek mainland, but have embraced portion of the Albanian coast and some of the islands of the iEgean. There have been reports during the past two months of stealthy German retirements from the Greek islands, and it is known that the Greek guerrillas,

apparently united at last as a fighting force for the liberation of their country, have been successfully harassing enemy garrisons stationed at posts in the interior. The freedom of movement won by the Allies in the Adriatic is no doubt a factor which has been causing the Germans much concern. Air and naval forces have been operating freely in this narrow sea, and the association which was begun with Marshal Tito’s partisans in Jugoslavia has now been effectively extended to the Greeks. The threat of German isolation in Greece has been tremendously increased in recent weeks by the junction of the Russians with the Jugoslavs and the. shamelessly expedient volte face of the Bulgarians. It may not be the task of the mixed command known as Land Forces, Adriatic, to attempt penetration of the Greek mainland at anything like invasion strength. But its components are apparently assured of Greek co-operation on a useful scale, including air co-operation, and they should be able to make the enemy’s withdrawal from Greek territory so costly and, by the sabotaging of communications, so slow that time and opportunity may be given to the Russians and Jugoslavs to complete their work of destruction farther north.