Evening star., 1941-04-25
BY GEORGE WELLER,

ATHENS. April "a Delayed -
Suspended half way between war
and peace, Athens today fought off
new seaside and waterfront air
raids by German dive bomberS,
while Greek soldiers, newly re-
leased from the Albanian front,
greeted the duel between expert
Nszi flyers and Hellenic anti-aircraft
eunners with cheers.
The principal victim of today's
sustained attacks on the coaStline
was a small freighter with large
number of British civilian pasSen-
gers. including many women and
children aboard. In full view of
metropolitan roofs, the boat was
attacked and sunk at Piraeus tin
Attica, port of Athens. miles
southwest of the city, by II German
planes, of which did the actual
dive bombing from a height of a
few hundred feet
A brown tide of soldiers engulfed
the city, many from the Albanian
army. Some who had been in loan
1lIld Sdlu lIIS SClllldll odlllOAA AbASn
there had allowed them to depart
without hindrance, although en-
titled TO hold them as war prls-
oners
Because the capital is the only
absolutely safe place against the
omnipresent German aviation, living
accommodations are becoming
scarce, some of the soldiers being
obliged to sleep in the buses in which
they arrived. But gliStenlng-eyed
soldiers and their sWeetheartS, re-
united for the first time, strolled
the boulevards in enlocked pairs,
oblivious of everything except the
fact of being together after six
months of war.
The German Legation, located in
the same building as the American,
was patrolled by a guard of soldiers
placed there by temporary military
authorities under Gen. Kavrakos,
who is controlling Athens for the
time being.
In the cinemas tonight there was
evidence that Anglo-A American SYM
pathy has been little dimmed. VIM
ston Churchill was roundly applaud
ed and President Roosevelt received
even louder applause. The streets
we're choked with people until the
q O'Clock curfew suddenly emptied
them. The crowds were orderly.
even quiet in some cases, and the
young people were cheerful, ap-
parently thankful of having done
their duty to their country yet hav-
ing saved their lives as we'll as their
honor.
Must Fly High Over Athens.
Dorniers, Messerschmitts and
,Iunkers, bent upon attacking ship
ping around the port of Athens and
strafng small surface craft and
ports, from the Peloponnessian
Patras in the west to Chalkis and
Laurion on the Aegean, must fly
high over Athens for the spears of
its anti-aircraft guns still are
pointed upward in an encircling
ring.
In their repeated attacks upon
Piraeus, the Germans still avoid
the puffs of black and white smoke
the ack-ack send up around each
marauder. Respecting Athenian
gunners as much as the city's status
as a shrine of antiquity they attack
obiectives by coming in from the
sea or stealing over the backbone
of Mount Parnes or HymettoS for
a quick blow and quicker getaway.
A single siren begins the warning
moan and then others take up the
sound from dozen roofs.
The Parthenon's tawny marble
columns stand serene above the
Scurrying streets of the city, un-
moved. untouched and eternal. The
guns crack and white puffs appear
in the sky. People. fully aware
that only narrow line of British
troops at Thermopylae is protecting
the city they love, linger at the en-
frances to the ''kataphygion" (raid
shelter. knowing that only single
German bomb has fallen in a sub
urb of Athens since the war began
and unwilling to miss vicari0uS par
ticipation in this testimony of un-
broken Greek spirit.
Every trail of white vapor means
for them that a German has been
shot down, though oftener it is
simply a stiff dive through at
mosphere too high to be heated by
refraction from Atticas stony hills.
The authorities. once extremely strict
about shooing people into the
"dataphygion," have relaxed some
what and photographs taken in day
light by German accommodating