Evening star., 1940-12-22
Greeks Capture
New Heights
In Advance
300 Prisoners Also
Taken; Assaults
Made With Boyonets
BY the Associated Press.

captured new fortified heights in
the Tepeleni- -Klisura sectors and
have taken 300 prisoners and a
quantity of war material, a govern
ment spokesman reported tonight.
He declared the Greeks also were
continuing their advance in other
sectors, especially in the coastal re-
gion toward Chimara.
Important Italian positions also
were taken in the north beyond
Pogradetz, the spokesman said.
Conditions are just the same as
in past days." he commented. THE
initiative belongs to- us and all ef-
forts by the Italians to counter
attack have been crushed
Fascist positions on the noun
tain heights naturally are strong
and fortified also by concrete, but
these machine gun nests have been
abandoned under the bayonets OF
charging Greeks"
Allies Strike Sharply.
British Greek forces in close COL
laboration were reported to have
struck sharply against Italy by land
sea and air.
British flyers participated in two
of these, directly in their own at
tacks on Italy's home and Albanian
bases, and in support Of Greek
troops in the front lines. They
earned thereby the praise of their
commander for doing what he called
one of the best aviation jobs of the
war under about the worst con-
ditions.
BY ARR. A. F. bombers based in
Greece were said to have bombed oil
tanks and railways overnight at the
Italian port of Brindisi, across the
Adriatic Sea from Albania, dropping
all their bombs in the target area
and setting off Large fires" and
several explosions"
Also the r. A. F. reported attacks
yesterday on Berati, at vital road
junction on the Albanian front and
on an Italian airfeld.
BY land Greek infantrymen
hammering at the gates of Tepeleni
and Klisura, were said to have taken
two villages and two strategic
heights in the Tepeleni area. over
coming cold, stubborn Italian re-
sistance and strong barbed-wire
barriers. An Italian colonel and
two battalions were said to have
been captured in fierce fighting
around Tepeleni.
Greeks Preceded Armada.
BY sea-a naval communique to-
day said a Greek destroyer force
preceded the British battleship-
cruiser-destroyer armada which was
reported yesterday to have pushed
into the lower Adriatic December
18 and shelled Valona, Italy's port
of entry into Southern Albania. The
Greeks said their destroyers pene-
trated the Adriatic as far as the
Island of Saseno, at the entrance
to Valona Harbor. on the night of
December 1916 without encoun-
tering any signs of the enemy"
Air Vice Marshal John Henry
d'Albiac, commander of the r. A.
F.. in Greece, expressed satisfaction
with the progress of the air war.
British fighters, he said, have es-
| tablished one of the best records
made anywhere during the war, and
British bombers have fulfilled their
tasks despite weather handicaps en-
countered nowhere else in Europe.
D'Albiac summarized the r. A. F
record thus:
Fighters-39 italian craft de-
stroyed and IL probably destroyed;
r. A. F. pilot killed and l miss
ing.
Bombers-70 raids carried out, 120
tons of bombs dropped, 9 aircraft
lost.
On Valona alone, he said, the r
A. F. has made 18 attacks and
dropped $4,000 pounds of explosives
On Durazzo, another of Italy's main
Albanian ports, he said there had
been eight raids in which $1,000
pounds of bombs were dropped.
Italian Planes Ineffective.
The italian Air Force. on the other
hand, has been Ineffective and mis-
directed, d'Albiac declared, and hac
shown signs of confusion and in
decision.
He cited constant shifting of Ital.
ian planes from one point to an
other. He said he had been m.
formed that the Italians already
had transferred a number of plane!
from Albania to Africa since tht
British desert campaign began.
"It is not so much material de-
| struction that counts in bombing
attacks, d'Albiac asserted. "as dis
organization of trains, warehouse
facilities and so forth, which cause
delay and confusion"
He laid the British success to gooc
fighting spirit and perfect co-ordi.
nation during air combat.
One instance illustrating morale
he said, occurred when a gunner
kept his weapon firing despite such
cold that he suffered frostbite that
may cost him his fingers.
Flying conditions in Greece are
more difficult than anywhere else