Evening star., 1941-04-22
Every Horror Of Wal
Felt by Greeks in
Fierce Nazi Raids
British Troops Bottle
Stubbornly, Despite
Lack of Planes
BY GEORGE WELLER,

-NbSldycuJs- s-SIOSeIy pIeSScu ny SC4-
man bomberS and ground straferS,
the British troops, principally Aus
tralianS and New ZealanderS, have
abandoned the Olympus line and are
Withdrawing across the TheSSalian
plain. Taking positions south of
this region they have prepared new
positions at points offering the
strongest possibilities of resistance.
In some cases the choice of posi-
tons is being determined not only
by Serpentine highways, lofty cragS
and escarpments making the in
Vaders' task difficult, but also by
the rapidity with which the Ger
mans are able to take up the slack
OF communications in bombed,
denuded, unpeopled villages which
have tasted every horror war knows.
The villages I visited last week,
when they were fully populated and
living normal lives except for the
recurrent, tolling of the alarm bell
in the village church, are today in
ruins with no sign of life but stray
animals and a lonely federal trooper
on guard. For example, Lamia,
whose citizens last Thursday re-
peatedly told me smilingly: I'VE
have had many alarms but no
bombs" was yesterday Sunday
smashed and burning with debris
Ittering the streets.
War has marched from Salonika
through the Vale Of Tempe and is
now stamping through Thessaly.
Greece'S granary. with the roads
ahead pOckmarked with bomb
craters.
The embryo front now can hardly
be designated battle line because
the period of hand-to-hand fighting
in the Pindus region is ended.
The British are solving the prob
lem involved in bringing together
their major, distributed, forces, for
merly active in North Thessaly,
nearer to roughly cone shaped
area whose bottommost key point is
Athens
The Germans are now working
principally with harassing aviation
which bombs, dive-bombs and ma
chine-gunS troop encampmentS by
day, but has now been forced to
abandon night raids upon road COM
munications because of lack of
moonlight.
But the Germans, although almost
totally unopposed in air activities
as one of the two American CORE
spondents with the forces, your cor
respondent, had the privilege of
being bombed and machine -gunned
almost continuously for u hours
yesterday Sunday at dozen wide
ly scattered points-have been Bit
terly opposed whenever they came
to grips with the imperial infantry
upon the ground. Invariably such
attacks have been preceded by a
tank offenSe in which, as in most
technical departments the British
are outnumbered.
Blasted Tunnel followed Out.
For example, at Ekaterini, north
of Mount Olympus, after the New
Zealanders held repeated attacks
by picked troops, German engineers
followed out railroad tunnel which
had been blown up by retreating
sappers, sent tanks through and at
tackled the New Zealanders. Be-
sides the artillery in the tanks the
Germans used So-called assault
artillery following close upon the
infantry which fires shells at close
range.
The real heroes of the anti-air
ground defense have been the chauf-
feurS of the transport division, who
ride with a Spotter continually
placed atop the trucks watching for
Messerschmitts and Dorniers coming
down from the Thracian and Mace
donian airports.
Yesterday april 20) your cor
respondent saw an example of what
these little celebrated men have to
face. when q Dorniers and Heinkels,
accompanied by four MeSser-
schmitts, went drumming overhead
down a strategic highway. Al
though the bomb craterS they made
In neighboring fields were huge,
they struck the road only three
times, and here the craters which
resulted were quickly filled up by
ready shovelS.
But transport must be abandoned
at such times because. though the
drivers would be willing to stake
their lives upon the chances of not
being bombed by German planes
which dominate the air, they must
take to cover before the hail of
machine-gur bullets which the en-
emy soWs far and wide.
Lone British Ace Chases Nazis.
In the case of the Nazi air armada
aforementioned. single British
Hurricane, bent upon some northern
mission, deviated from its course to
pursue them, but the result of this
Sulcidally gallant effort was hidden
by the mountains brow.
With the Royal Air Force marking
up Is German planes as a penalty
bag for raids over Greece yesterday
(Sunday) it is evident that the ham
mering the imperialS are receiving
while digging in on new lines has its
compenSationS But the trust is
and credit is due the British for ad-
mitting the fact frankly-Hurri-
canes have been all to infrequent.
The writer has talked with troops
who said that they had not seen
a single one of thei' own aircraft in
a week of incessant pummelling by
the Nazi hit-and-rur specialists.
That the difficult stragetical prob
lem involved in all the highways
from the north converging upon
Larisa, which lies completely ex-
posed in the middle of the Thes-
salian plain, has been solved far
better than was expected, is due to
the low ceiling prevailing over the
week end
The impudent Nazi flyers did not
dare venture within hitting range
of the upward pointed muzzleS
guarding each encampment when
the ceiling is low But when the
skies are blue or the clouds high,
the Germans enjoy such a field day
as they did during the final hours
of the passage of the British trans
port across the poppy-marked plain
around LariSa. The perfectly