The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-18

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 combat, were said to have routed Italians from their new positions in the mountains around Klisura. The Italians were barricaded behind barbed wire entanglementS, machine gun nests and artillery emplace- ments, a government spokesman said. In routing them, the Greeks were said to have taken many pris- oners, including a commanding of- ficer.
 Reports here indicated that the Greeks were closing in on Klisura and that the fires had been set by Greek artillery, which had had the town within range for several days. | A blizzard swept the whole front and in the north sector, beyond Pogradec, the Greeks were maneu- vering through 30-foot snow drifts under appalling conditions. Wolves and wild boars, driven from the mountain peaks by the bitter cold, were said to have sought refuge in the deepest rayines. Greek ad- vance troops were short of blankets and wounded were said to be lying on stretchers in the snow for hours, covered by single blankets, await ing removal to emergency hospitals.
 Scene of Bitter Fighting. Tepelini and Klisura, 10 miles apart in the southeast, were the scenes of bitterest fighting. AL though there had been no an- nouncement of it, dispatches indi- cated that the Greek army in the south coast sector had veered in- land to assail Tepelini from the southeast.
 Yesterday 1t was announced that the Greeks had captured a peak in the Skivovik mountains four miles northeast of Chimara, coastal town. Today government spokes- man said the Italians routed from Skivovik were retreating northeast ward to the Kuvelesh mountains and along the Benca River valley, to join the hard-pressed Italian garrison at Tepelini. Presumably the Greek coastal army, or a sizeable part of it, was in pursuit.
 Skivovik is 16 miles southwest of Tepelini
 A further indication that the coastal force had turned inland was seen in government spokesman s denial that Porto Palermo was in Greek hands. He said Greek artil- lery had Palermo Gulf under artil- lery fire and he referred to heavy Italian resistance in the area. Last Friday government spokesman said Palermo had been captured, and that the Greeks were pushing on toward Chimara, five miles up the coast. The action in the Ski vovik mountains would indicate, however, that the Greeks had turned inland on road branching of to Tepelini just below Porto Palermo, and had skirted both Pal ermo and Chimara to threaten Tepelini from the southwest.
 The only important coastal ob- jective rValona, 28 miles up the coast from Chimara, and the pos Sibility was seen that the Greeks might plan to attack it from the west, after taking Tepelini, rather than send a more or less isolated coastal army to attack it from the south. Valona was reported to have been practically useless as an Ital- ian debarkation port anyhow, as a result of persistent British air raids.
 Henry T. Gorrell, United Press staff correspondent with the Greek western Macedonian army, reported that three to nine feet of snow had fallen over the north front, cover- ing six-inch layer of frozen mud, and that troops were operating un- der extreme hardships. His dis patch, timed 10 a. m. Tuesday, said it had been showing for 60 hours, the temperature was six degrees be- low zero, and there was a furious gale.
 Italian Communique. Rome, Dec. 18.-(UP)--A high command communique said today that Italian airplanes had bombed British warships which appeared before the Port of Bardia," impor- tant Italian base on the Libyan coast now under attack, and that J0onod fn fIraot T2rifoi,a f0 ha ra