GREEK STRATEGY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 254, 6 January 1941, Page 5

GREEK STRATEGY

VINDICATED BY RESULTS

ITALIANS WELL BEATEN The Greeks continue to vindicate their audacious strategy. On the principle of striking hard and repeatedly they have secured brilliant results; and there is now no doubt that their gains far transcend the give-and-take of frontier warfare. They have rolled the Italians back on all fronts. The plain truth is that General Metaxas is applying the lessons he learnt when he was a trainee in the. German Army, where he was reported to be the outstanding foreign student of his ger—ation. He was a pupil of the Berlin Academy of War for no fewer than four years, and has maintained touch with German; military science. The Germans view his many essays on Middle Eastern tactics as the leading contribution to that subject. - Metaxas has always instilled into the Greek minds the idea of a Balkan blitzkrieg as the means of saving Greece's independence. Using every geographical advantage, his armies are now giving the Italians a taste of the technique so much extolled by Axis theorists. The Greeks* intense patriotism leads them to the most reckless bravery in" fighting for their own mountains. Moreover, they are one of the few races in Europe who like the use of the abyonet, as the experience of the 191213 Balkan Avars aniply demonstrated. The Italians, on the contrary, shrinkfrom cold steel and personal com-» bat. •