Evening star., 1940-11-23

chaotic in many places that it is
Impossible for the Greek command
TO assemble complete lists of pris-
bners or booty seized. During the
past two days what has been the
most striking feature has been the
Sudden retreat of Fascist aviation
as well as infantry, particularly
from the Koritza sector. The Ital-
ans strafed Greek troops on the
heights outside Koritza with several
hundred planes over last week end.
Then Royal Air Force fighters
dashed to the spot and single
squadron doWned II Italian planes
within 40 minutes.
Since then, it is stated, Fascist
planes have simply vanished from
the air in that sector. Military
experts here insist that if the air
forces of the Anglo-Greek allies
could be tripled at this juncture,
The Italians almost certainly would
be driven out of Albania into the
Adriatic within two or three weeks.
It is also the opinion of experienced
aviation circles that 200 American
built bombers, injected into the
Eastern Mediterranean conflict at
an early date would be almost GER
lain to complete the decentralization
of the italian people and precipi-
tate a crackup inside Italy.
But whether or not democracy
golden opportunity is taken full ad-
Vantage of before Christmas, what
already has happened in the Italo-
Greek war is astounding enough.
And at last. after Is long months of
covering the far-fung fronts of the
European conflict, we have partici-
pated in a real lids-off delirious VIC
tory celebration.
Yesterday, with the news of Ko-
ritzas fall, Athens went simply mad
with JOY. There is no other word
for it.
Crowds Swarm Into Streets.
The news reached the Greek capi-
tal shortly after noon and Athen-
ians reacted as ages ago they re-
acted to the battles of Thermopy-
lae, Marathon and Salamis. Tens
of thousands of people swarmed
into the streets. Blue and white
Greek flags caparisoned every
balcony, every taxi and every motor
car. Truckloads of cheering SOL
diers drove through the city. the
soldiers waving laurel branches.
Bands appeared from nowhere.
Long lines Of lads in their teens, in
the uniform of the national youth
Organization, paraded, shouting and
singing Hundreds of uniformed
girls also joined in. On all central
arteries, sidewalks were jammed
and traffic was continually blocked
in the same fashion as it was in
every large American city on the
first armistice day.
From the balconies Athenians
their faces beaming, threw count
less flowers upon the parading
troops and the milling, shouting
citizenry.
I saw a Scottish Highlander borne
triumphantly on the shoulders OF
two Greek soldiers. He had the
Greek flag tucked in his brilliant
plaid overseas cap and was waving
huge chrysanthemums in each hand
while the crowd roared with delight
We were trying to complete a
shopping trip for absolutely essen
tial supplies preparatory to leaving
for the Albanian frontier. But we
had to fight our way to cover 10C
yards from one stone to the next
and frequently could not move at
all. On every side, the joy was SC
unconf1ned it seemed like gigantic
football celebration in its most
e1ervescent, understandable form. 1t
was so contagious you wanted to
pummel strangers on the back and
wish you could shout in Greek in
chorus with hundreds of youngsters
crying ''We want Tirana, too"
Parade Far Into Night.
IT ever any people got the
quintescence of their hearts delight
out of great national victory the
Athenians yesterday got all of that
out of Koritza's capture. Far into
the night crowds of the city's youth
paraded the streets, singing and
shouting, and the capital echoed
with jubilation.
After seeing Is months of war
without victory and after Finland
Norway and Rumania, it was some
thing to remember. You wondered
LII Mussolini could have been here
and seen and heard it ALL how he
would have felt. You wondered if
perhaps, the echoes also reached as
far as Chigi Palace in Rome. You
wondered if, perhaps, the echoes of
this Greek victory might be ring
ing in another and different phase
of the European conflict.
(copyright 1910. Chicago Daily News, Inc,