BADLY BEATEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 March 1941, Page 5

BADLY BEATEN

ITALIANS IN ALBANIA MORE R.A.F. SUCCESSES. ENEMY’S HEAVY LOSS OF PLANES. Hurt her active support has been given to the Greek Army in Albania by the R.A.F., a8.8. C. broadcast states. On Saturday a number of enemy aircraft on the ground were destroyed and others damaged and a petrol dump was set on fire. At Valona four enemy aircraft were, destroyed on the ground and others probably damaged. All the British machines returned safely. The pilots of Iwo British planes previously reported as shot, down have reported back for duty. Last Tuesday, seven, and not five, enemy planes were destroyed, and on Thursday the enemy lost 15 and not 14 machines. In four days, the Italians have lost at least 30 planes to British fighters, apart from aircraft destroyed on the ground and Greek successes. On land, the situation is reported as comparatively quiet. There was no serious Italian offensive yesterday.

VAIN EFFORTS

MADE BY THE ITALIANS ON FRIDAY. SORRY TALE FOR MUSSOLINI TO TELL. RUGBY, March 15. Despite their recent bitter repulse, the Italians yesterday returned fiercely to the attack in Albania, but with as little success. The Greek night communique states: "The enemy launched today a series of violent attacks the whole front after a violent artillery preparation and accompanied by numerous planes which followed the firing with a bombardment. The attack met with no success and the enemy losses were considerable and unexpected. In counter-attacks we captured a number of prisoners.” Mussolini, who was reported to be returning to Rome from Albania today, will have a sorry tale to tell the Fascist Grand Council, a tale of disastrous failure and the wholesale slaughter of the legions which were recently reinforced with fresh troops from Italy. A conservative estimate of the enemy’s losses during the five days’ desperate offensive, is 15,000 dead. Five whole divisions, states the Greek Press Ministry, have been completely disorganised, half the men being put out of action.

The Italian attacks on Thursday are described as “without precedent.” The Athens correspondent of “The Times,” reviewing the Albanian campaign, says the publicists, Signor Gayda and Signor Ansaldo, warned the Italians that important military events were expected to liquidate the Greek affair, but the most eloquent commentary on the situation is the continued "silence of the Italian communiques. Further hint of troubles is given by General Santorini superseding General Gieloso as commander of the Eleventh Army holding the central sector. Few believe that Mussolini has gone to the front. Prisoners report that none saw him and all were told that he was visiting the next unit.

VALIANT GREEKS

CONGRATULATED BY GENERAL PAPAGOS. RESOLUTE AND VICTORIOUS ARMY. (Received This Day, 9.20 a.m.) ATHENS, March 16. General Papagos, Greek Com-mander-in-Chief, congratulating the Army, said: “The six days’ effort on the part of the enemy has left you unshaken. Moreover, for four months, since the attack against Greece was launched, you have proved yourselves victorious, and covered yourselves with unprecedented glory. The efforts of the enemy are now spent and your determination remains as strong as ever. Your faith in victory has not wavered a hairsbreadth.” A semi-official statement says the Italian offensive has been checked and the enemy has failed to occupy a single yard of territory. The statement reveals that, though the offensive raged principally in a sector twenty miles wide, the Italians threw their heaviest concentrations into action over a width of only two and a half miles. The Greeks have taken over 3000 prisoners, including several high officers, who state that one division suffered 40 to 50 per cent, losses, another was decimated and replaced, while a third was completely smashed. Black Shirts also suffered heavily.

TERRIBLE LOSSES

REPORTED BY ITALIAN PRISONERS. FAILURE OF REPEATED ATTACKS. (British Official Wireless. I (Received This Day, 10.25 a.m.) RUGBY. March 16. Last night’s Greek communique, indicating that the Italians had been unable to maintain the violence of their attacks in face of repeated defeats, was elaborated in Athens by an authoritative commentator, who said: “At 4.30 a.m. the Italians launched an extensive attack in the central sector against positions they had vainly attacked on the previous day and they were repulsed with heavy losses. At 6 o'clock there was a new attack by reserve forces in the same direction, but this failed lamentably, the Italians suffering heavy losses. At 6.3'0 a.m.. a carefully prepared attack was carried out on another position in the same sector, but the result for the Italians was even worse, their losses being particularly heavy. Following artillery and mortar fire preparation, the Commandant of the Eleventh Italian Army launched a new attack at 2 pm., in which strong effectives, recently arriv-

ed from Italy, supported by large numbers of aircraft, took part. The battle raged throughout the afternoon, fresh waves of Italians being thrown in to take the place of those w’.;„ had fallen. By nightfall, however, the attack was checked. The Italians left many dead and wounded on the field before the Greek lines.' The Greelcs did not lose an inch of ground and they captured a great deal of war material and fifty prisoners. 'The prisoners stated that during the six days of the offensive, the Italian losses had been terrible.”

DAYS OF DISASTER

ITALIANS MOWN DOWN. LOSSES ESTIMATED AT 50,000. (British Official Wiredess.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, March 16. Messages from war correspondents with the Greek army on the Albanian front state that the Italian forces thrown into the offensive, launched by Mussolini’s orders six days ago, are put at 120,000, operating on a front of about twenty miles. Mussolini, the messages state, lost several of his closest collaborators, including six members of the Fascist Grand Council, of. whom some, like Professor Pellegrini, were taken prisoner and others, like Barbelini, were killed. The Italian losses are estimated at some 50.000 killed, wounded and captured. The debacle is attributed by correspondents to the accuracy of the Greek artillery, the skill and ability of the machine-gunners and the alertness of the infantry, as well as lack of morale among the Italian troops. Whole Italian regiments, it is stated, have been flung against positions held only by small Greek detachments, only to be mown down by shell fire when they were still 500 yards from their objective. What enthusiasm these unfortunate troops had when they started soon evaporated. Their formations were broken up and thrown into a state of confusion. Officers tried vainly to restore some sort of order at the revolver point, but few of them lived to return to their starting point.