REARGUARD ACTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1940, Page 7

REARGUARD ACTIONS

FOUGHT BY ITALIANS EXTENDED RETIREMENT IN PROSPECT. PITCHED BATTLE IN MARSHES. (By Telegraph—Press Associaiton —Copyright) LONDON, December 3.' After making a stand northward of Pogradec, the Italians are again retreating. It is now revealed that two Greek cavalary companies drove an entire battalion from heights of the utmost strategic importance, in ' consequence of which the main body of Italians was forced to evacuate positions affording excellent possibilities for defence. The Athens’ correspondent of “The Times” says the main Italian forces on the northern front will henceforth be able to do little more than fight rearguard actions until installed in the next defence line, 50 miles beyond their present positions. Considerable hard plodding confronts the Greeks if they attempt to gain this line, but • the intervening struggle, according to the present outlook, is unlikely to consist of more than methodical thrusts and mopping up, though the Greeks, if successful, will undobutedly be able to give an imposing list of captured villages. The latest dispatches received from Athens emphasises that bad weather is preventing major operations on the northern front, though there have been heavy artillery duels. The Greeks are advancing slowly northward of Pogradec along the lakeside road and have reached a point just beyond Mumuniste. The Greek advance posts in some places are within 100 yards of the Italians. 1

The most marked Italian retreat yesterday was in the southern sector, where the enemy withdrew to the Delvine heights. i Italian and Greek infantry are today fighting a pitched battle in marshes. The Greeks surprised the Italians at dawn by. attacking across bogs which the Italians considered impassable. The Greeks are now twice as far into Albania as the Italians ever penetrated into Greece. Greek fighters in the Epirus sector today destroyed three Italian planes in a fierce dogfight lasting only ten minutes. Near the Vojiuza river yesterday the Greeks, fighting with unbounded courage, captured a height in the Politsani mountains where the Italians possessed strongly defended positions. Greek pressure is also accentuated in the Premeti region. A vigorous Italian counter-attack between the villages of Theri and Pestuna, south-west of ■ Pogradec, was smashed by the Greeks. An Athens message states that Italian soldiers continue to enter Yugoslavia, where they are interned.

HEIGHTS CAPTURED MENACE TO' ARGYROKASTRON. LONDON, December 4. Greek troops are only a mile from Sarande. The position of the Italians at Argylokastron has been made desperate by Ihe capture by Greek forces of new high points on the mountains fronting the town.

FRENCH TAUNT NOTICE TO GREEK ARMY. POSTED AT RIVIERA BORDER. 4 LONDON, December 3. " Americans who have just returned Irom France report that French troops in a Riviera town on the Italian border display a placard bearing the words: ‘ Notice to the Grfeek Army: this is the Trench frontier.” ENEMY AIR LOSSES FOUR PLANES SHOT DOWN ON MONDAY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY, December 4. It is confirmed that in addition to ) two aircraft destroyed by R.A.F. fighters and bombers in Albania on Mondav two other enemy aircraft were destroyed. In the Permeli area British fighters intercepted and shot down two enemy reconnaisseurs.