AXIS DEFENCE LINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1943, Page 4

AXIS DEFENCE LINE

IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE BREACHED IN BALKANS & AEGEAN GERMAN REINFORCEMENTS POURING IN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) LONDON, September 27. While Yugoslav Chetniks and Croat patriots are fighting desperately to maintain their hold on the Dalmatian coast, the Germans are reported to be pouring reinforcements into the Balkans. It is difficult to get a reliable picture of the situation in Yugoslavia, but it appears that the patriot armies have badly breached what military experts consider the probable Axis defence line along the east Adriatic coast. The patriots hold Split and great stretches of the Dalmatian coast. The Berlin radio says the patriots are receiving supplies by sea and that many Allied officers are aiding them. Axis sources also tacitly admit that the patriots have cut rail communications between Yugoslavia and northern Italy by the statement that seven trains are held up on the line between Trieste and Yugoslavia. Some disbanded Italian troops are aiding the patriot's, but to what extent it is impossible to ascertain. It is certain, however, that the patriots have taken over quantities of Italian equipment, which is enabling them to extend their operations. The “Daily Telegraph’s” military commentator says that mountainous shores of the east Adriatic, Albania, Greece and the Aegean quadrilateral surely constitute a front which the Germans will still try to re-establish and hold. This front line at present is breached both in the Balkans and the Aegean and the Germans, reacting violently, are pouring in reinforcements, because they must re-establish this front at all costs. FURTHER GAINS MADE BY YUGOSLAVS FIGHTING IN DALMATIA (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.50 a.m.) RUGBY, September 27. The capture by Yugoslav partisans of Plevlja, 60 miles south-east of Serajeva, Gacko and Avtovac, 60 miles north-east of Dubrovnik and Savnik and 40 miles north of Cetinje, is announced in a communique from the headquarters of the Yugoslav People’s Liberation Army broadcast by the “free? Yugoslav ’radio. In the Split area,.the patriots have taken the initiative and are strongly pressing the Germans- in the direction of Sinj, 16 miles north-east of Split.