Evening star., 1941-03-07
BY GEORGE WELLER,

Chicago Daily News Foreign Correspondent.
BELGRADE, March THE pres
ence in Bulgaria of two-score Britons
and about so Dutch, Belgian and
Polish diplomats who have lost their
official status became today mill
tary advantage greater than five dl-
visions in the pattern of the Nazl
mobile attack upon Greece now
racing southwark for the border.
Until the diplomats OF the three
governments and the English are
evacuated, on Sunday and Monday,
the British bombers now waiting IN
the Greek airfieldS cannot check
the heavy German columns now
passing down the Struma valley
road. Nor can they, for fear OF
having their nationals held as
hostages, blast the pontoon bridges
over the Danube over which the
Nazi troops are following their Lutt-
waite predecessors.
Thus. while the BritonS, many OF
whom insisted until the last that
the Bulgarians would not let in the
Germans, are getting health certln-
Gates for dogs. automobile cachetS
and German military permisslonS to
90 bv car to the Turkish border, the
Germans are taking over formally
the anti-aircraft posts, listening
stations and airfieldS upon which
they have been working for the past
several months with the coliaoora-
ton of the Bulgarian general stan
and the government
Figures Exaggerated.
For the British and their Allies,
Bulgaria has been a second nome
that they are saying farewell to IN
the measured English fashion. Mean
time. the Germans speedily are con-
verting it into a fortress and base to
strike the English in Greece.
How many of the approximately
25 divisions and $500 airplaneS in
Rumania have crossed the Danube
is still uncertain because the sud-
dennesS OF the step has caused the
circulation of exaggerated figures.
Judging from the strength of the
general staff in Sofia, under Field
Marshal Gen. Siegmund Wilhelm
Won List, the number probably does
not exceed six divisions and possibly
A single division of the LuftWaffe, as
of today.
Since correspondents are not al
lowed to leave Sofia, besides having
their communications severed for the
past three days, it is impossible to
say how many soldiers have been
routed around the city through the
bypass at Gornabanja and how
manv have been sent through the
Shipka Pass to HaSkovo and Plovdlz.
The German technique has been to
strive for air mastery south OF the
Balkan mountains first. and that is
why almost all the trucks and cam
paign cars passing from Sonia bear
the license letters WI" meaning
WehrmaCht LuftWaffe.
Must Have Air Mastery.
In a column of about 120 armored
cars, trucks and officers cars passing
the palace of King Boris Wednes-
dav noon. the writer counted % OF
the type of German anti-tank guns
which is also used for anti-aircraft
defense. Evidently the Germans
recognize that. in the mountainous
terrain along the Struma, the single
narrow road with its small bridges
and sman-gauge railroad are easy
marks for British bombers unless
they first gain air mastery here.
In this war column the writer saw
a single sign of humor in the entire
phlegmatic invasion: A big army
truck, caked with mud, bearing the
words, scrawled on its dirty rear by
a soldiers finger, Grand Balkan
Express"
On the downtown boulevardS the
Bulgarians stand around the for