REPELLED BY BRITISH FORCES IN GREECE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1941, Page 5

REPELLED BY BRITISH FORCES IN GREECE

German Munition Train Bombed and Blown Up GREEK WITHDRAWAL FROM KORITZA MADE. IN SECRECY AND WITHOUT LOSS On the front in Northern Greece, several thrusts yesterday by enemy mechanised forces on the right of the Biitish line were beaten back, the 8.8. C. states. Upon other fronts there has been no contact with the enemy. Reports from Greek sources state that the Germans have not yet come into contact with thp main Greek line. Several German tanks .16 miles to the south of Monastir are reported to be stuck fast in the mud. Further south, a clash between German and Allied tanks is reported. The Greek forces which withdrew from the northern sector of the Allied front at Koritza did so in complete secrecy during' three days. They brought away all equipment and destroyed guns that could not be moved and made roads and bridges impassable. Not a single Greek soldier fell into enemy hands. FIVE JUNKERS SHOT DOWN British fighters shot down five Junkers 88 s which attempted a dive bombing attack on Piraeus, the port of Athens and the surrounding' areas. In addition to the five planes certainly destroyed, many others were severely damaged and are unlikely to have returned to their base. Slight damage was done to R.A.F. property but no planes were damaged. The R.A.F. is playing havoc with German communications. Many enemy mechanised vehicles have been destroyed. One pilot scored a direct hit on a munition train. He said he had never seen and could not imagine anything like the explosion that occurred, which tossed the plane about like a leaf in the wind. He saw trucks and debris flying into the air before he was almost blinded. In a raid on Sofia on Sunday night many fires were started in a goods yard. Enemy transport was attacked in Western Macedonia. Three German bombers and one German fighter were shot down and one Italian fighter was shot down by anti-aircraft gun fire when a raid was made on Candia, in Crete.