Evening star., 1940-11-08
Unafraid SaIonikans
Confident Greeks
Will Win War
Reporter Takes 3K Days
To TruveI IS Miles
From Border TO City
Nv LELAND STOWE,

SALONIKA, Nov delayed We
finally reached Salonika today, just
In time for a series of three air
raids, during which the Greeks, with
remarkable accuracy, shot down
three of six Italian airplanes in the
first raid, ana one bomb shattered
a newspaper office 60 yards from
the restaurant where we were seek
ing "breakfast" at o'clock in the
afternoon.
A few minutes later SalonikanS
rushed to the streets and cheered
wildly as one burning bomber
= crashed two blocks from US, on the
very spot where two horses, killed
in Saturdays terrific bombings, still
lay.
These events climaXed our 3ia day
struggle to cover IS miles between
the Bulgarian border and Salonika,
in which two accidents crippled
our car and Edmund Stevens of
the Christian Science Monitor and
myself were unscratched in another
crash in which our chauffeur and
a Greek officer were injured and
one horse was killed.
Walked for Three Days.
Along with Russell Hill, New York
Herald Tribune correspondent, we
ended three successive days of walk
ing through the blackout for several
miles in search of help and sleeping
quarters. When I hiked the last 8
miles into Salonika today it didn't
seem that anybody could have a
longer or tougher trip trying to reach
anybody'S war.
Unable to obtain other transporta-
ton, we averaged less than l mile
an hour during these maddening "a
hours, but we learned a lot about the
extraordinary fortitude with which
the Greek people and army are
meeting Italy'S attacks. Everywhere
civilians and soldiers show the
greatest determination to defend
the nations liberty at whatever the
cost, while lack of respect for Italian
fighting qualities is strikingly unani-
nous.
Nowhere in any town or village
did we see the slightest sign of
panic. Everywhere people were
calmly doing their jobs and, except
for the abnormal number of troops.
life was going on at the ordinary
Greek tempo. 1t is symptomaic that
Greek tempo. 1t is symptomatic that
the simple statement that "one
Greek soldier is worth five Italians
any day" so it is no wonder the
Italian invasion begged down at the
start.
In Excellent Spirits.
The spirit which animateS the
Greeks is eXemplified by the towns
man saying, I'VE know we will Suf-
fer, but we shall fight with all our
strength. We shall have the last
word, not the tyrants"
After two days of heavy civilian
casualties, SalonikanS met todays
raids with admirable courage in
city which already suffers severer
damages than Helsinki throughout
the entire RuSSo-Finnish war. Their
enthusiasm over the Greek anti-air
batteries effectiveness this after
noon is completely understandable.
1t was topped off when civilians
joined the military in chasing down
and capturing a paraChuted Italian
pilot who had landed on roof in
the center of the city.
1t was almost a relief to be able
to participate in these incidents
after the heart breaking struggle.
uninterrupted since we left Sofia last
Wednesday October 3O), to reach
the war zone. We encountered so
many obstacles that Salonika began
to seem more remote than Shang-
hal, while the cars engine Imped,
coughed and died again and again
between repair efforts.
Everything was fine until we were
5 miles from the Greek frontier on
Wednesday night We were forced
to drive through mountain streams,
since bridges were out, and were
uuagmired in the last one with
waters rushing over our seats and
engine until the car was hauled out
by oxen three hours later. the car
buretor and all the parts soaked
and sand-filled, so we had to work
on repairs all day Thursday.
Crashed Into Peasants Car.
That night we crossed into Greece
but we had covered only Is miles
when we crashed into the rear of
peasants car in the blackout,
smashing in our radiator hood. We
were rescued by an extremely cour-
teous Greek major at Siderokas-
tron, where we spent a second day
patching up our car. On Friday
night we advanced IA miles, when
the engine died, so Stevens and my
self hiked in miles to Series.
Again Greek officials came to our
rescue dispatching an officer with a
car En- route, half a dozen horses
suddenly loomed on the road. the
driver sWerved the car as it struck
one horse, and the machine plunged
into a ditch, overturning. When
we got out Stevens and myself were
nursing only sore spots, but we were
much upset because our hoSpitable
Greek friends appeared to have bad
body injuries. We we're much re-
lieved the next day when we learned
that these were not serious.
But our jinx appeared to be
bounding us all the way. Saturday
was the third day we lost making
repairs and we restarted at day
break Sunday, at last nmping into
Salonika at noon. After the previ-
Gus four days and nights, we eX-
pected an air raid and were only
surprised that a bomb didn't hit our
car. 1t seemed like an awful lot of
trouble to get back under the
bombers again.
tcopyright, 1910. Chicago Daily News, Inc)
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