NAZI TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1941, Page 5

NAZI TACTICS

WHOLE OF BULGARIA & SALONIKA OFFERED TO YUGOSLAVIA. AS BRIBE TO JOIN AXIS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON. April 15. “Germany offered us not only Salonika but the whole of Bulgaria in return for joining the Axis, but according to the traditidn of our ancestors we preferred attack rather than a burial of Balkan independence,” says an official declaration by the Yugoslav Government which has been issued from the temporary headquarters at Sarajevo. The declaration added: “We did not want war and nobody in Yugoslavia has any illusions about the eventual outcome of the war with Germany. Our purpose is, by our resistance, to lighten the position of our Greek and British allies. The Yugoslav army is not seriously dented and will again astonish the world as it did in the last war.” APPEAL TO AMERICA. The high spirit of the troops and of the Yugoslav people in face of the violent German offensive is emphasised in the course of a message to “The Times," in which the Yugoslav Premier. General Simonvitch, declares: “Our people do not entertain the idea of surrender and prefer an honourable death to the shame of capitulation.

The spirit of our people is excellent and they are resolved to fight bravely.

“I am deeply grateful for Mr Churchill’s promise of help. I know the workers of Britain are working 24 hours a day in shifts to fulfil the existing commitments in other fields and that the supplies, are limited. I appeal to Great Britain. I also address myself to the United States, the great land of democracy which we have long respected and admired. I appeal to our American friends to send us help at once. We have wonderful pilots, but we need machines.

“Mark my words, the Germans may rape this province or that, but we shall remain united. We shall fight to the end alongside our Allies for our freedom and for that of the other southern Slavs, for Balkan unity and for a Europe of free peoples.” RACE AGAINST TIME.

In a leading article “The Times" says that General Simovitch’s message “is proof that the old spirit which was never so bright as in days of adversity is still alive in the Yugoslav nation. It has already been magnificently displayed in the exploit of the detachment which crossed the border into Albania at the outset of the campaign and is now reported to have entered Durazzo after an astonishingly rapid drive. “Here the Yugoslavs arc engaged in a race against time which must be admitted to bo perilous since the Gormans arc making every effort lo hold out a hand to the shaky Italian forces in Albania and may come in on the flank of the successful Yugoslav column. Yet there is no doubt that: the moment is one for bold decision and bold action, and if the Germans, who so far claim only to have made contact with the Italians down at Struga. on the shore of Lake Ochrida. can be held off a little longer the Italians in Albania may receive further heavy blows.

“It would be folly after all we have seen' in the past to underrate the violence of the German offensive against the Yugoslavs in their present positions. or that which will probably be launched at any moment against the new Greek-British line. But it is permissible to point out that in the south at all events the enemy is now meeting with resistance from the air of a quality which he has not previously experienced in land operations, though he learnt what it could be in the Battle of Britain. He is also engaged in one of the most difficult ventures which he has ever taken in hand.

“The present is dark and the immediate future is not bright, but the enemy has a great deal more to accomplish before he reaches the decision which he is seeking.”

APART FROM ITALIANS DESIRE OF GERMAN PRISONERS. (Received This Day. 11.25 a.m.) ATHENS. April 15. A number of German prisoners taken to a concentration camp all expressed a fervent wish to be kept apart from Italians.