THE CENTRAL SECTOR IN ALBANIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 285, 19 March 1941, Page 4

THE CENTRAL SECTOR IN ALBANIA

AT the present stage of the campaign in Albania, it is the central sector which is the most vital. It is significant that the Greeks are concentrating their efforts in this central sector, ancl that operations on the northern and the coastal sectors have- apparently not been sq strenuous. The advances which were made along the coast provided some spectacular victories, but this movement, which has the port of Valona as its objective, must necessarily wait upon the further development of the position in the central sector, in order to straighten out the front. It would be too risky for the Greeks on the coast to advance to Valona—assumtin? that they could do so—until they are free from the risk of a flank attack cutting them off from their source of supplies and contact with the other units engaged in the attack upon the Italians. That the Greeks are gaining ground in the central sector, despite the threats made by Germany, augurs well for the campaign, for if the central sector can be sufficiently advanced the Italians will have to fall back in a northerly direction from there right to the coast, when the capture of Valona would become a much simpler task. With this objective attained the Italians would have to reduce their present forces in Albania by about 40 per cent, of their effectives.