EXPECTED SOON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 September 1943, Page 4

EXPECTED SOON

EXPLOSION & UPRISING IN BALKANS AGAINST GERMAN INVADERS SOME ITALIANS JOINING PARTISANS. SENIOR ALLIED OFFICERS VISITING YUGOSLAVIA. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 1.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 13. While the position inside Italy is apparently chaotic, despite German claims regarding the revival of Fascism, also that Italian soldiers are rallying to them, the situation in occupied Balkan countries is rapidly reaching the point of explosion into a general uprising, says “The Times” Cairo correspondent. Italians in many areas of Yugoslavia and Greece laid down their arms and either moved off . in an attempt to reach Italy or

openly sided with the partisans. The Germans have left some of the internal, mountainous regions and are moving towards the coast, presumably fearing Allied landings. Partisan forces consequently are enjoying a much greater freedom of movement. For instance partisans at Banjaluka, in Bosnia, repaired the railway, which they repeatedly broke up when the Axis forces were using it, and are now moving their forces by rail. Partisans in some sectors of Dalmatia control not only the interior but some coastal regions, including a number of islands, and have a fleet of small ships for raiding purposes. Some Italian units are definitely fighting with the partisans at the important railway junction of Karlovac.

Reuter’s Zurich ’correspondent says reports from Belgrade state that fierce fighting occurred there when the Germans tried to disarm Italian troops. The population, according to the Italians, went to their aid. The Germans at Zagreb disarmed all when the news of the capitulation was made known and are reported to have manhandled Italians when they occupied the Italian Legation and the Stefani News Agency offices. Reuter’s Cairo correspondent says senior Allied officers are now at General Mikhailovitch’s headquarters in Yugoslavia.