Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-31
Greece Pins Hopes
On Mefaxas Line and
| Natural Defenses
Fortificotions, Eorthworks.
PiIIboxes and Tank Trops
StroteeicoI|y Placed
BY ELMER w. PETERSON,
Associated Press War Correspondent.

BUDAPEST, Hungary. Oct. 81
Greece pins her initial hopes OF
resisting Italian invasion from AL
bania on natural fortresses of her
mountainous northwest augmented
by the extensive system of the
Metaxas line"
The Metaxas line, named after
Premier John Metaxas, runs the
length of the Albanian-Greek
frontier from the Iionian coast to
Lake Ventrox-about 100 miles as
the crow fiies-and stretches on
along the Yugoslav and Bulgarian
frontiers to the Turkish border
The original MetaXas line was
directed chiefly against Bulgaria
But when Italy seized Albania in
April, 1899, the Greek government
built new Notifications, at re-
ported cost of more than $4,000 900
to defend her northwest frontier
against the new threat.
Lines Details Secret.
Details of the line are secret, but
1t is believed to consist of Stra-
logically placed concrete fortiflca-
tions, earthworks, pillboxes and
barbed wire tank-tra ps-all designed
to supplement the natural defenses
afforded by the rugged upland
country.
Special attention is said to have
been devoted TO the old fortified
town of Ioannina tJanina), which
commands two of the four principal
routes from Southern Albania and
which already has emerged as a key
Italian objective in the very opening
of the invasion.
The mountains make Northwest
ern Greece natural walled fortress
and apparently the Greek Army
general plan is TO force attackers
into narrow mountainous bottle
neckS.
Invaders pushing into Greece
would find these four more or less
favorable attacking routes through
the mountains:
l. Around Lake Ventrok along the
railway line leading to the strategic
port of Salonika.
2. From Corizza, Albania, to Kas-
toria.
3. From Vojusav to Ioannina.
4. Along the coastline to a lower
range of mountains to the west of
Ioannlna.
Greekx Lack pIanoS
So, once again, the Greeks are
defending their mountain passes.
as did Leonidas at Thermopylae
where 300 Spartans held the narrow
def1le against Xerxes "innumber-
able Persians.
Neutral experts call the modern
Greek Army happy and willing
but point out that modern warfare
is thing OF machines and that
holding mountain passes is no longer
matter of hand-to-hand en-
counters.
These experts say the Greek Army
badly lacks airplanes and other
modern equipment. The air force
is reported to have perhaps $50
serviceable planes and the Greek
Navy is weak.
Greece can muster about 500 900
soldiers, these observers report. but
part of the army must watch other
frontiers besides that with Albania
Heights Held by Bulgars.
The possibility that Bulgaria
might attack has complicated the
Greek defense system, since the
dominating heights of the Greek
Bulgarian frontier are held by the
Bulgars.
The Greeks. who knew about
Trojan horses long before the
blitzkrieg theory developed, claim to
have no fears of fifth columnists
The minority groups in Greece,
chiefly Turks and Albanians, are
not large
The minority problem was solved
nearly two decades ago by a mass
population transfer in which nearly
100000 Greeks were repatriated
from Asia Minor and Bulgaria in
exchange for Bulgarian and Turkish
nationals.