HEAVY TOLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 April 1941, Page 5

HEAVY TOLL

TAKEN OF ADVANCING ENEMY MANY PRISONERS REACHING ATHENS. OUR TROOPS & AUSTRALIANS WIN DISTINCTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, April 20. The situation of the Allies in Greece remains very serious. Nobody attempts to evade that, but there are aspects of yesterday’s fighting which are satisfactory. The Greek and British movements were carried out in spite of extremely fierce German and Italian on slaughts, and the bitter resistance and counter-attacks by the Allies, notably the Anzacs, inflicted casualties that probably marked yesterday as the bloodiest day for the German forces so far in the war. . Turkish sources confirm that trainloads of German wounded are arriving at Bucharest and other Rumanian towns, and large contingents of German prisoners are arriving at Athens, considerably heartening the sorely tried Greeks. The Greek Press Ministry says the Allied forces are inflicting heavy casualties and the bodies of dead and wounded are strewn all over the Macedonian battlefield. The New Zealand and Australian troops daily distinguish themselves in intrepid actions, not only repelling violent lassaults but also charging the enemy and spreading *panic and havoc in his ranks. The Greek radio declared that the Germans were unable to pierce the main Allied line. British sources in Egypt also regard the results of the recent fighting as cnf icffs ntnrv The battle hourly reaches new ferocity. Both sides are strafing to the utmost from the air. The Greek spokesman last night said that German motorised columns from Monastic made no progress on Friday, and the columns in the Grevena region, the Vistritsa Valley, and the Olympus chain, were confined to the positions they had captured on Thursday. Greek artillery near Argyrokastron (Albania) stopped an Italian attempt to approach our lines and dispersed two columns, including motorised forces, which were moving toward Ersek.

British and Greek announcements emphasise that the Germans are throwing in huge masses of men and materials regardless of their enormous losses.

Athens reports that successive waves of Germans bombers attacked Lamia yesterday, damaging houses, and others bombed and machine-gunned Chalkis, Metsovo, Agrinon, and Kastro, doing slight damage.