ROCK-LIKE STAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 March 1941, Page 5

ROCK-LIKE STAND

MADE BY THE GREEKS AGAINST ITALIAN ATTACKS. NO OFFICIAL NEWS REGARDING TEPELENE. In London, states the 8.8. C., much satisfaction is expressed with the rock-like stand of the Greeks against a week of fierce attacks. It is considered that if the Greeks had captured Tepelene they would have said so officially. ENEMY ATTEMPTS TANKS USED ON SOUTHERN FRONT. THREE DESTROYED BY GREEK ARTILLERY. LONDON, March 20. The objectives in the Italian attacks on the central front in Albania in the last two days have not been in the northern part as hitherto but toward the south, where the attackers have used every available technical means. For the first time in the fighting behind Kalamas, the Italians developed the combined movement of tanks and infantry. They used tanks as mobile artillery, while the regular artillery maintained heavy fire. The Greek troops were brilliantly deployed with well placed machine-gun nests while the artillery laid down a barrage, successfully impeding the movements of the enemy tanks, which soon gave up attempts at combined tactics and finally withdrew after three had been destroyed. The main force of attackers then fell back. A hundred killed Italians were found near the smashed tanks. The attacks on the northern front are apparently feelers. Skirmishes in the Vojiuza Valley prevented the enemy consolidating their positions and enabled the Greeks to improve theirs.

GIVEN TO YOU ALL

GREEK COMMANDER ON BRITISH HONOUR. TRIBUTE TO HIS ARMY. RUGBY, March 20. The Greek Commander-in-Chief, General Papagos. informing his army at the front that he had been awarded the G.8.E., says: “This signal honour is reflected particularly in our fighting army, the heroic deeds of which have made Greece, as it were, a splendid meteor shining forth in this universal war. This honour belongs entirely to you valiant sons of Greece who replied to the voice of your country and who have shown the world a Greece motivated by vital spirits, a Greece more beautiful than ever in her struggles. I am proud of the honour which has been conferred on me and which through my person has been conferred on each and every Greek officer and soldier. It was given to you all, and I assure you I glory in commanding such heroes,” MOBILISATION OF YOUTHS LONDON, March 20. The Greek radio says Greece has ordered the mobilisation of the 1923 and 1924 classes in northern Greece.