The Wilmington morning star., 1940-11-20

NEW YORK, Nov. 19.-To the
historic honors won at Adowa,
|Caporetto, Guadalajara and LISA,
the dashing invincibles Of Benito
Mussolini have now added new
glories, inflicted by the Greeks in
Albania and the British at Taran-
to, where the Duce's indomitables
upheld the famous, if somewhat
queer, traditions Of their arms. To
be sure, the flight of the irresisti-
bles in Albania did not equal in
magnitude the spectacular ad-
vance to the rear which has made
Caporetto a name too sacred to
be mentioned out in Italy, nor in
speed and form with the magnifi-
cent feat Of footwork achieved at
Guadalajara in Spain. But, man
for man, the forces which ran the
Greeks to exhaustion over the
mountains in recent days have no
need to apologize to the survivors
of Caporetto, and the heroes of
Guadalajara will have to admit
that they did their running on a
faster and straighter track. After
all, spirit counts for a great deal
in Mussolini's scoring system, and
the forces in Albania certainly de.
served to be marked A in earnest
ness as they tore for home when
the fighing started.
Blame Duce
If there was any blame at all, it
belongs to the Duce, in selecting
for this contest a terrain in which
the roads were narrow and wind
ing and the curves improperly
banked. Reports from the Greek
side agree that the track was not
at all suitable for championship
performances. The conquering le-
gions were compelled to slow down
on the turns to pitch over the
cliffs and there were ~bottlenecks
in which some of the slower men,
bers impeded men behind W h o
were full of run and wanted only
road room.
So, Notwithstanding the fact that
an extraordinary proportion Of in
vincibles were caught, the forces
involved doubtless will receive
from the Duce the cherished right
to wear the proud insignia OF a
cloud of dust, which is awarded to
all distinguished regiments of his
forces. This device, unlike the bat
tie honors of other nations, is Worn
in the space between the shoulder
blades, where it is most likely to
impress an enemy. If it were
worn in front of course, no enemy
would ever see it.
Undoubtedly, the Duce's quar-
termaster department will now be
called on for a technical report on
the efficiency of a type of running
shoe worn by his invincibles in
the flight from the Greeks. After
Guadalajara, when so many casu-
altes were found to be suffering
from hob-nail wounds in the rear,
it was decided to do something to
abate this hazard, and rubber
spikes were substituted for a time,
but were abandoned when the SOL
diers stewed them in gear grease
and ate them for mussels, a great
delicacy as long as they lasted.
The more daring minds on the
Duce's staff proposed long, wicked
sprinters' spikes and a mere shell
of a shoe for the utmost speed and
a regulation issue of tin-body ar
NOR in the sole of the pants to re.
duce casualties from tramping.
But, after all, the Imperial Le-
gions of the All Conquering Will
are not mere sprinters. They are
distance runners, too, so we do not
know whether they were using
spikes in Albania where they ran
a marathon race.
1t is hard to see how Mussolini
can conscientiously honor the he
roes of the naval engagement at
laramie on an equal scale with
those of the old battle of LISA. 1t
is true that. on net results, they
upheld the traditions of LISA, but,
after all, they didn't run away
during the action. They had al
ready run away and were hiding
at the time, whereas, at LISA, the
Italian fleet not only achieved a
historic defeat but followed that
with a magnificent flight from the
Austrians comparable, in sea war
fare, to the most glorious feats of
running ever recorded by the land
forces.
If the Duce starts rewarding
men for inartistic defeats he will
cheaper his honors, and his i'm
perial hosts will begin to sock
themselves on the chin just to win
medals for their shoulder blades.
In the Duce's hosts of land, sea
and air, two elements should al
ways be combined in any tradi-
tional performance, defeat and
flight. laramie was not entirely in
the best tradition. I