SNOW & MUD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1940, Page 5

SNOW & MUD

FIGHTING INCREASING IN INTENSITY ITALIANS BRING UP PICKED TROOPS. GREEKS PUSHING FORWARD CAUTIOUSLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 2. With snow three feet deep in the nortfi and mud knee-deep in parts of the central and southern battlefields, the fighting in Albania is daily increasing in severity. The Greeks are advancing most cautiously beyond Pogradec because, besides the bad weather, the Italians are still holding some heights in this area. The slopes of the Mokra mountains are at present the scene of the fiercest fighting in the northern sector. According to the latest reports from Athens, the Greeks captured the village of Mumuniste on the western side of Lake, Ochrida, about three miles from Pogradec. Dispatches from the front point out that thh Italians are endeavouring to make counter-offensives and are often resisting most furiously, but they have not prevented the Greeks from pressing on and occupying many useful positions by the familiar technique of cutting the supplies of each attacked body and then surrounding the position. The Italians sometimes resist to the last moment till they face starvation or annihilation. Here, as all along the front, the Italians have flown up picked troops who are making the resistance fiercer. The casualties on both sides are heavy and are increasing. The Italians are believed to be rushing all possible reinforcements of men and material from the north Adriatic. The Greeks emphasise' that the superiority of the Italian resources is the dominating factor in the Greek slrategy, for which reason success will continue only if British assistance is unremitting.

GREEK NOTABLES SEIZED BY RETREATING ITALIANS. CORFU AGAIN BOMBED. (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) ATHENS. December 3. The Ministry of Public Security stated that the retreating Italians carried off eighteen notables from a town in Epirus, including doctors, business men and teachers. Their fate is unxThe enemy again bombed \he defenceless town of Corfu, cons.deiable damage being done. Greek newspapers reveal that numerous Italian pusonersjiavc been taken to Corfu. air fighting THREE ITALIAN PLANES SHOT DOWN. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.17 a.m.) RUGBY, December o. An Athens message states that three Italian aircraft are reported to have been destroyed over the Albanian fiont yesterday.

Such of the cable news on this page as is so headed has appeared in “The Times,” and is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by special permission. It should be understood that the opinions are not those of The Times" unless expressly stated to be so.