COASTAL ZONE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 December 1940, Page 7

COASTAL ZONE

IMPORTANCE OF GREEK ADVANCE ENEMY BEATEN ON HIS OWN GROUND. MORE SIGNS OF HASTY ITALIAN RETREAT. (By Telegraph—Press Associaiton—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.40 a.rn.) LONDON, December 4. Announcing that the Greeks are within I. 1 , miles of Saranda, an Athens radio message said: “Our- forces have pursued the enemy without losing contact. The importance of this advance is particularly evident when- it is remembered that the enemy launched their initial attack by mechanised units on low-lying ground bordering the coast, and succeeded in driving our troops back 20 miles. The Italians are now defeated on their own ground. Bitter fighting continues amid snow and mud and sometimes on mountain peaks 5,000 feet over the battlefields. The Italian ’army is rolling back, its two flanks being battered and the centre front, where the Greeks have captured two important heights overlooking Argyrokastron from the east. On the northern front, despite severe weather, the Greeks are pressing so hard on the heels of the Italians that they often find half-finished meals in the abandoned Italian camps. The Greeks have occupied strategic heights north-westwards of Moscopolye, after fierce hand to hand fighting.” An Athens night communique states: “In the Pogradec region we have captured new heights. Our troops also progressed on the remainder of the front. Our bombers attacked enemy columns and depots, starting big fires. Two enemy fighters were brought down.” It is officially stated that Italian air raids on undefended Greek towns and villages in the first month of the war killed. 604 civilians and injured 1070.

An Athens radio message, commenting on the air raid casualty totals, says: “We are encouraged and susta'ined'to bear the ordeal of modern totalitarian warfare by the proud and magnificent example of London and her sister cities. Corfu is hardest hit among the defenceless. This beautiful old place is severely danjaged because there Fascist vandalism can be carried out in comparative safety. The famous fortifications, of which the Italians talk so much, were installed in the Fifteenth Century and now only serve as.refuges for hundreds of homeless, huddling into vaults. We hope to capture the Italian air bases in Albania and the arrival of more eagerlyawaited British planes will end Corfu's agony.” The latest communique from the Greek Ministry of Public Security mentions three further raids upon civilian populations, when a .majority of; the bomb victims were women and infants.

Admiral Cunningham has sent a letter to the Greek Navy, paying a tribute to the skill of their officers and seamen since the outbreak,of hostilities, especially mentioning the successful operations of Greek destroyers and submarines against much superior enemy forces. He concluded: ‘We are proud to collaborate with the Royal Hellenic Navy.”