Evening star., 1940-12-01


tollotoing article from the Asso-
ciated Press Special NetDS SerUice.
BY FRED vANDERSCHMIDT, j..
Associated Press staff Writer
NEW YORK, Nov. 21.-The Italian
dead Lie In the mountains and the
mud of Northern Greece and the
living fight to turn the tide on soil
they call their own. This is the
story of month and little more Of
Mussolinis private war.
Thumb back a year through the
bloody pages. Find the place where
the 44th and 163d Divisions of the
Red Army, trapped by gliding,
white-clad Finnish ghosts in the
SHOWS of Suomussalmi. froze in their
tracks. That was the story of a
month and little more of Stains
private war.
The Greeks themselves, in their
hour of glory, even while they
pushed the last of the original
Italian invaders back into Albania,
have not forgotten the lesson of
Finland.
That lesson is written in five sor-
rowing words: TOO little-and too
late"
That was Finland's epitaph, the
story of help from the Western
World that never came
That is why Theo Nicoloudis, the
Greek Press Minister, appealed to
"the free countries and
the United States-for planes,
planes, planes" even while "our
heroic army is mopping up the last
remnants of Greek territory which
has been profaned by Fascist Italy"
Cannot Become Bulwark.
The Greeks, of course, know that
MuSsolini cannot turn back, what
ever the COST They know, too, that
Hitler, even though he may be Sc
cretly pleased by the discontinue of
his partner-in-axis, cannot, in the
long run, afford to let Greece be-
come bastion of British strength
in the Mediterranean.
For this is, in many ways, the best
battlefield the British have found.
Unhappily, they cannot turn to it
with all their might.
There are certain important SIM
tlarities and certain important diff
ferences between the Greek and the
in clear outline before conclusions
can be drawn.
These are the main similaritieS:
Both Greece and Finland were in
vaded by neighbors of overwhelm-
ing potential military strength; both
for the reason, or on the preteXt,
that they were about to become tools
for powers hostile to their invaders
(Greece ''conspired" with England
and offered her bases, the Italians
say; Finland was "a pistol pointed
at Leningrad" by the Western pow
erS, the Russians declared.
Weather and Terrain Factors.
Conditions of terrain and weather
thwarted both invaders; so did lack
of preparation at the start. The
first Soviet invaders were not
equipped, clad or trained for their
struggle in the deep SHOWS of the
Finnish border; the Italians appear
to have believed that they could
overrun Greece with 100000 hastily
prepared electives, and with tanks
that split their iron sides against
the crags of Epirus and the Pindus
Neither invader expected valiant,
skillful resistance from hardy troops
who knew the ground and thrived
on the difficult conditions: The Fin
nish ski troops, on the one hand;
the tough mountain infantrymen
and gunners of Greece, on the other.
Here, however, are the differences:
Soviet Russia entered upon her
Finnish adventure without any other
preoccupation She had made her
arrangement with Germany; she
knew that Britain and France would
hesitate long time before they
came to Finland's aid (they had no
treaty obligations to Finland, and
she counted on the neutrality of
Sweden and Norway to keep the
Western allies at distance, even
If they did decide to go into Fin
land.
help LOO Ldte.
How well the Russians calculated
Is matter of history. BY the time
the French had organized an ex-
peditionary force of $4,000 men and
had prevailed upon the furnbling
Chamberlain government to seek
passage for them through the neu-
tral Scandinavian states, the time
IoL on,,aa rr,ooy, fHou rn111d houn
done no good and Sweden and Nor
way were we'll aware of that fact.
They refused, fatty.
The Italians, on the other hand,
are also fighting war with Britain.
That war, so far as the Italians are
concerned, has not really started,
but all the while ItalY~is extremely
vulnerable in the Mediterranean, for
the British Navy rules those waves.
Moreover. the growing air strength
of Britain was making an impress
sion on Italy even before October
%, when Mussolinis troops began
to pour into Greece.
From her friends and neighbors
Finland got. in the words of Pre-
mier Risto Ryti, IAN abundance of
sympathy" and then when she be-
gan her vital defense, humanitarian
and material help and munitions
plus "a few reinforced battalions' of
volunteers, mostly from Sweden.
Greece, however, has received i'm
portant if limited aid from the Brit
ish although most of it, obviously,
has been of the type which dovetails
with Britains own war effort.
British Air Force Effective.
The British fleet air arm has Grip
pied boarded heavy units of the Ital-
ian fleet at Taranto; the Royal Navy
has interfered materially with Ital-
ian reinforcements and supplies be-
tween the italian mainland and
Albania; the British have estab-
Hshed an air and naval base at Crete
from which they can dominate and,