The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-04-09

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later. EsS t
BRITISH F0kCB INTACT
All was not totally lost yet
however, for { The Yuaosiav,
Greeks and British. Strong Brit
ish forces estimeted "a number
as high as 500, 900 troops-,yers
reported drawn up on q seconc
line Of defen. southwest of Sa,
lonika, and major battle be.
tween the British and German.
appeared near. London advice.
said the British ground forces
had not yet gone into action il
the Balkans.
Cut off from western Greece
hard-fig' ting Greek Earrisons OF
the Struma valley forts -ere re.
ported still holding out grizzly
-. retaking I fort, capturing
Nazi parachutistG and. smashina
repeated German tanj- assaults.
To the northest, Premier Mus.
solini's high command reported
that Fascist troops had entered
the town of Kranj, Yugoslavia,
10 miles from the Italian border,
and that Italian armies in north
ern Albania had launched an Of
fensive into Yugoslavia to met
Nazi panzer divisions driving
through from Bulgaria.
Stefani, official Italian news
agency, said the offensive was
developing powerfully today"
SLAVS OPEN WING
In Athens, the Greeks said
the Germans lightning thrust to
Salonika had been made possible
by the retreat of the Yugoslav
ring wing, exposing the allies
Achilles heel" in. the so-called
"hot corner" of the Balkan con
flict-the bloc,..y. engle of
Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria
between the Struma and Var
dar river valleys.
A Yugoslav communique said
that Slav troops. after abandon
ing Skoplje to the Germans,
were now fighting tterly in the
mountains northwest of the town
to prevent the invaders from
cutting Yugoslavia IN two.
Hitler's high command ac-
knowledged that the break
through Greece's Metaxas line
"a modern Notifications system
built by the late Premier Gen.
John Metaxas-had been effect
ed only latter an embittered
struggle"
A Nazi spokesman paid t~ib-
ute to the Greeks courageous
stand but declared:
THE British still won. come
out and fight"
The German high command
said Nazi Field Marshal Gen.
Lists fast troops striking from
Bulgaria had advanced more
than so miles into Yugoslavia,
crossing the Vardar river, and
"thus Yugoslav and Greek Eng
lish forces have been separated"
In Africa, the British were re-
ported to have captured Mas
saua, big Red Sea port, complet-
ing the conquest of Italian Fri
trea. =.
Axis-hammered wedges at the
eastern and western junctures of
Greek and Yugoslav forces
threatened today to cut off Yu-
goslav. trap Greece's Struma
line defenders from the rear,
and wrest from Greek and Brit
ish hands the big port of .Sa-
lonika.
Thus Blitzkreig came to the
Balkans.
In a lightning drive through
the mountains of southeastern
Yugoslavia a German armored
division struck down the Var
dar river, broke through Greek
defenses so miles north of Sa-
lonika and swept in a single day
into striking distance Of the port.
The Greek High Command
said the Germans were "dan-
gerously" near the city and had
cut of communications with de-
tenders still holding out against
fierce Nazi frontal assault in the
Struma valley, farther east,
where the Greeks had set up a
first line. of defense.
Now that strategy seems col
lapsed.' There have been TO esti-
mates of the number of troops
feared cut of. British forces
were reported setting up a Sec
ondary line in an effort to block
the Nazis west of Salonika and
avert a second Dunkerque.
At the same time Adolf Hit
ler's italian allies were reported
in Rome to have launched a ma
jor drive eastward from Albania
in an effort to sever most of Yu-
goslavia from Greece by effect
ing q juncture with Nazi troops.
The Germans, reporting the
capture Of the Serbian rail CEN
ter of Skoplje, seemingly al
ready were half way across the
l00-mile Yugoslav waist to-
ward Albania.
Yugoslav troops, whose with
drawal from southeastern Serbia
was blamed by the Greek High