TAKEN BY GREEKS ON ALBANIAN FRONT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1940, Page 5

TAKEN BY GREEKS ON ALBANIAN FRONT

Five Thousand In One Sector ENEMY RETREAT BECOMING DISORDERLY MORE GERMAN DIVISIONS ENTERING RUMANIA Five thousand Italian prisoners have been captured by the Greeks on one sector of the Albanian front, a 8.8. C. broadcast states. There is a general retreat of the enemy forces on the whole northern front. Huge gaps have been broken by im Greeks in the enemy lines. One Athens dispatch says the i tory is, without exaggeration, of great importance. . The Italians are trying to give to their operations Lie aspe, of a counter-offensive, but their troops are said to be abanaoi - ing many important positions and the retreat is taking o c. disorderly character. Prisoners taken P“es many famous regiments which distinguished thenroelv SPa Sections of the Italian forces, it is stated, have abandoned all idea of resisting the Greek advance. Successful attacks are being carried out by thv k.a.x • on Italian supply roads and other objectives in Albania, in addition to damage done to roads, military buildings . .. attacked and demolished and numbers of enemy al^ tacked on the ground. Two Italian bombers were destroyed and two others severely damaged. Other enemy planes weie heavily damaged as they lay on the runways. Silence on the subject of these events is being observed by the Italian Press and radio. The Italian public are now being told that the war against Greece is a minor affair and that the main Italian offensive is against the Suez Canal, it is pointed out that the Italians, at their point of maximum advance, are still 400 miles distant from the Suez Canal and that their, commander, Marshal Graziani, is at present reviewing troops in Libya. j j • In London it is considered that the danger of a drive on Salonika has disappeared, unless an enemy advance is made through Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, where the weather is now severe According to the Borne radio broadcast, Mussolini does not want help from any quarter. He is able to put in the field an army as big’ as the population of the whole of Greece. Four more German divisions are reported to be moving through Slovakia to Rumania, where the Nazis will attempt to restore order in Bucharest. There the Iron Guard has now split into three sections and the army is said to be uncertain what course to take. General Antonescu yesterday had to take the salute of German troops at a parade to celebrate the signing of the Tripartite Pact. Germany marked the Yugoslav national day with a threatening broadcast. While the Yugoslav Regent, Prince Paul, was declaring his country’s determination to maintain its neutrality and independence, the German radio was telling the Yugoslavs they must liquidate their national life and conform to the new order in Europe.