STILL ADVANCING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1940, Page 5

STILL ADVANCING

GREEK FORCES IN ALBANIA THRUST TOWARDS ELBASAN. R.A.F. AGAIN ATTACK VALONA AREA. It was reported yesterday afterioon from Athens, stated a broadcast by the 8.8. C. this morning, that the Greek advance continues in northern and central Albania. Resistance by the Italians in northern Albania is very strong. The Greeks are apparently making a thrust towards Elbasan. The weather conditions are severe and are hampering transport. The R.A.F. headquarters in Greece report another attack on the Valona area, in which warehouses, buildings and railway yards just south of Valona were bombed. Nine Italian fighters attempted to intercept the British planes but all of the latter returned safely.

FURTHER CAPTURES STRATEGIC HEIGHTS & TOWNS. GREEK PRESSURE VERY STRONG. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 26. The Athens radio stated: “The advance of the Greek troops continues on the entire front. Along the coast our troops captured several strategic heights, despite snowstorms and blizzard. West of the River Drinos we pushed back -the Italian forces. Farther northward we captured 10 new villages and took many prisoners.” After a slight abatement caused by the piercing cold, the battle for Elbasan continued today with increased violence. The Greeks vigorously attacked northward of Pogradec in the direction of Lin, which Greek patrols are reported to have entered. Greek pressure is also very strong in the valleys of the Shkumba and Devoli Rivers, particularly in the direction of Chukus. The Italians are making a great effort to hold their positions in the northern sector and also doing their utmost to cover the retreat from Himara. They are desperately organising defences on the heights protecting Valona. The Athens correspondent of “The Times” says the Greeks retain the initiative along the Albanian front and Christmas brought no respite for the Italians. Westward of the Drinos River and roughly within a triangle embracing Argyrokastron, Tepelene and Himara the enemy rearguards 'have been kept moving, despite the establishment of barbed-wire defences. Local attacks on Christmas Day followed the Christmas Eve capture of an important and stubbornly-held position to the north-east of Tepelene, and also several villages. Fighting continues near Kelcyra, toward which the Greeks are advancing from the east after a magnificent manoeuvre in which they rolled up the Italian line with a wide encircling movement till heavy snow intervened to aid the Italians. The Italian radio says the Italian forces are experiencing heavy resistance in Albania, and claimed that, the enemy being numerically superioi, the Italians were obliged to retreat.

ITALIAN DEFEAT WORSE THAN CAPORETTO. ENTRY OF GREECE MAY DECIDE OUTCOME OF WAR. NEW YORK, December 26. An Italian prisoner, Major Cambolio, a veteran of the Libyan war, told the United Press of America's correspondent with the Greeks in the coastal sector that “this campaign was a worse defeat than Caporetto and was largely due to the breakdown of the' Italian transport system.” Another prisoner, Lieutenant-Colonel Borsini, said he and most Italian officers regarded the Greek campaign as a blunder “since it threw the Greeks into the British arms, which might decide the whole outcome of the war.” Major Cambolio asserted that the Italians, since the initial .allied bombardment were frequently without food and their clothing was inadequate against the terrible cold.