SNOW & FOG

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 December 1940, Page 5

SNOW & FOG

AIR & LAND OPERATIONS HAMPERED REINFORCEMENT EFFORTS BY ITALIANS. GREEKS CONSOLIDATING THEIR POSITIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 1. The first snow and fog today hampered air and land operations on the Pogradec front, where the Greeks yesterday were reported to have taken up positions beyond Pogradec, aiming to cut off the retreating Italians by concentrated artillery fire. Though the Greek troops have been in Pogradec for some days, the Greek High Command has only now announced its capture because it awaited the consolidation of strong positions on the heights to the north-west. The Greeks captured these positions after furious fighting. Their capture facilitates further operations and renders Italian movements difficult in the southern sector. Fifteen officers taken prisoner at Pogradec belong to almost as many units, proving the Italian hasty efforts to reinforce the troops in this area. The Greeks in the southern sector continue their advance. They are occupying heights and consolidating their positions. An official Greek communique says that operations are developing favourably. Further west, in the centre of the battlefront, there is bitter fighting in the mountains, where the opposing forces are sometimes barely 100 yards apart and are settling the issue with hand grenades, rifles and bayonets. In the air, too, the Italians are being badly ’ mauled. Yesterday Greeks caught some Italian machines over Albania, and shot down eight of them.