ITALY’S PROBLEMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 November 1940, Page 5

ITALY’S PROBLEMS

SUGGESTED STRATEGICAL DILEMMA FORMIDABLE OBSTACLES TO ADVANCE. REPORTED BULGARIAN MOVEMENT. LONDON, November 7. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Istanbul correspondent says it is reliably reported that Italy has eight divisions in the southern sector against Greece, four in the eastern sector, and three in the interior of Albania maintaining order. Allied and Turkish military experts cannot see the advantage for the Italians if they occupy Panina, except the possible moral effect. Even if Italian operations based on Konispolis are successful, they will find themselves in a huge basin from which there are only two possible exits.

One is eastward over the Pindus mountains, crossing a pass at an altitude of 5000 feet, which the Greeks would vigorously defend. The other exit goes to the south to the Gulf of Corinth, passing’ for many miles through marshes. The Pindus mountains, over which wheeled transport is impossible, separate the southern, and eastern sectors. Reinforcements from one to the other are possible only through Albania.

In the eastern sector it seems strategically possible for the Italians to extricate themselves from their present dilemma only by trying to turn the Greek flank by penetrating to Dibra and then going down the Vardar valley. This would seriously complicate matters for Italy as it would involve violation of Yugoslav territory. The Istanbul correspondent of “The Times” says travellers from Bulgaria report a movement of Bulgarian troops from the direction of the Turkish-Bul-garian frontier, presumably' to the Greek-Bulgarian border.

PEOPLE OF ITALY REBUKED FOR EXPECTING , - QUICK VICTORIES. CONDITIONS IN GREECE. LONDON, November 7. Italian war correspondents are publishing stories about the difficult nature of the country in which the Italians are trying to advance. The Stefani news agency says that engineers who are working to establish bridges in the rocky mountains are often compelled to down tools and take up arms against the Greeks, who are constantly harrying them during the work. In a broadcast, Signor Ansaldo explained the difficulties of the war, reproving those who had been expecting quick victories. He said that conditions in Greece made it impossible for a blitzkrieg similar to that in Poland and Flanders. Tanks were of no use in the mountain regions, and the effectiveness of aircraft was limited. NEW DEFENSIVE LINE ON AKARON RIVER. LONDON, November 8. It is now learned that at the coastal end of the front the Greeks have gone back 15 miles to the Akaron River under heavy Italian pressure. This river runs into the sea parallel with the Kalamas River, which is 15 miles to the north. If the Italians are at the Akaron River as they claim, they have advanced approximately 20 miles into Greece at this point. The Greeks have made a small advance toward a town just inside the Greek border and 12 miles south of Koritza, which is still said to be in

Italian hands though menaced by the Greeks. The recent report that crack Italian alpine troops had been cut off by the Greeks seems to be confirmed to some extent by the arrival of some hundreds of Italian prisoners at a Greek military centre.