The daily monitor. (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1940-1942, 1941-01-08
War

Continued from Page ~
pieces in three dive attacks.
Hitler's high command report
ed also that a lone German
speedboat, boldly raiding the
English east coast near the mouth
of the Thames river, attacked a
British convoy strongly protect
ed by destroyers and sank a q
500-ton merchantmen.
In another attack, Nazi scout
ing plane was said to have scored
several hits on a ship of a British
minesweeper flotilla in the North
Sea and left it in a burning,
sinking condition"
Germany's mass troop move
ment into the Balkans was part
ly disrupted when a Nazi NUM-
tons train exploded after crash
ing into another train ON one of
the three main lines from Hun
gary to Rumania.
The shattering blast damaged
a large part of the town of Beret-
tyc Ujfalu, Hungary, inflicting
an undisclosed number of casual
ties.
On the Greek Italian war
front, the Raj compand report
ed British bombers, flying
through snow, sleet and rain, de-
livered fiery attack on the mid
Albanian town of Elbasani, key
Italian supply base.
High explosives and incen-
diary bombs were seen to hit
several military stores buildings,
causing a number of fires" the
Raj communique said.
Red Cross figures listed more
than $4,000 Italians taken pris-
oners by the Greeks since the
war began.
Premier Mussolini's high
command gave no hint of the
dawning siege of Tobruk, the
daily Fascist war bulletin de-
claring merely that patrol and
artillery actions were reported
between Bardia and Tobruk.'
Official British reports said
the British had captured Ell
Adem, Is miles south of theic
new objective, and British
mechanical units were said to
have shot past Tobruk to block
the road from the west.
Our planes torpedoed an
enemy destroyer near Salum,
Egypt" the Italian high COM
mand said.
patrols, fighters and assault
planes machine-gunned and
bombed envy mechanical
forces with shrapnel bombs"
The Fascist communique ac-
knowledged an Raj raid on
Tripoli, in western Libya, in
which four were killed and 10
wounded.
On the Greek front, the Ital-
ians asserted, heavy losses"
were inflicted on counter-inva
sion troops from the Aegean
kingdom and three Greek planes
were reported shot down in
flames.
The Greeks fought on toward
the southwestern Albanian port
of Valona, from which q Greek
spokesman said $4,000 Italian
sick and wounded had been
shipped home.
The spokesman declared last
night tina. Fascist casualties in
dead and wounded could be
counted lin the tens of thou
sands" since last Oct. %, when
the Italians started their inva-
sion of Greece which soon turned
into desperate defense of AL
bania.
Speculation in the Balkans
continued to center upon the
fate of Bulgaria, uneasy at the
reported massing of perhaps
600, 900 Nazi troops across her
northern frontier in .Rumania.
Some Balkan observers ven
tured guess that the Nazi move
might be q smoke screen to di-
vert attention from actual prep.
arations elsewhere for q blow at
Britain or Gibraltar.
Germans In Bulgaria, how
ever, talked of q drive to the
south, toward Greece or Turkey,
and some said the Reich had
reached an agreement with Sow
let Russia to keep hands off
while the Nazis pushed across
Bulgaria. Russians denied this,
and 20 did Berlin.