Evening star., 1943-09-26
YugosIay GuerriI|as
Drive Back Nazi
Troops in North
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
LONDON, Sept. 25.-Yugoslav pa
triot armies have hurled back sew
eral more German attacks on the
strategic Adriatic port of Split, still
hold the greater part of Susak in
the north, and have killed hundreds
of the enemy and destroyed an
armored train, tanks and other
equipment, a communique said to-
night.
The enemy suffered heavy
losses" in the effort to regain Split,
according to Yugoslav liberation
army bulletin issued here.
The port could serve as a bridge
head for an Allied invasion of the
Balkans, and amid reports of
spreading unrest in that shakily
held back door" to Germany there
were increasing indications that the
Yugoslav fighting had grown out of
the guerilla stage to a major oper-
alton, possibly directed by the Allied
high command.
Susak Is Seized.
Susak, q port city adjoining
Fiume, was seized 16 days ago by
the patriots, and tonight's bulletin
said street fighting was continuing.
At Gorilla, north of Italian Tri-
este, Slovenian troops were said to
have yielded the airfield there under
heavy German pressure, but before
withdrawing they knocked out one
enemy armored train and several
tanks. The fight still swirls outside
the city
Pouncing on the zagreb-B Belgrade
Railroad other units derailed one
Axis train and blew up more than
a mile of trackage between Brod and
Vinkovci, killing 20 Germans, cap
turing seven and destroying an en-
gine. 25 freight cars and other ve-
hicles.
A German tank column was routed
near Idria by Slovene partisans, the
communique said, and in the pro-
vince of Lika in Dalmatia 200 Ger
mans were killed and booty cap
tured in successful fight along the
Bihac-Knin line.
conference Reported.
An Istanbul dispatch said Greek
guerilla chieftains had conferred re-
Gently with Allied Middle East mill
tary officials at an undisclosed place,
and as a result will meet shortly
with Gen. Draja. Mihailovic or his
representatives somewhere in Yugo-
slavia to plan joint tactics against
Axis occupation troops.
"a BIC report from Cairo said
the Germans had burned down
one village and are busy collect
ing hostages" in Messenia Prov
ince in Southern Greece after
Greek mountaineers there had
attacked German troops. The
broadcast was heard by CHS.
(Another London broadcast
quoted Swiss reports to Stock
holm newspapers as saying that
Italian troops were battering at
German supply lines in Northern
Italy, and that Marshal Albert
Kesselring, surprised by the in
creasing resistance, has de-
manded air reinforcements from
Germany to protect his supply
line"
(The BIC also quoted Ger
man news agency broadcast as
saying that The Italians had
freed several thousand British
prisoners of war who were trying
to fight their way through to
Allied lines..')
Germans Worried.
Germany again acknowledged its
concern tonight over the turbulent
situation in the Balkans. A Berlin
broadcast recorded by the Associated
Press told of a German plan to
recognize Albania's independence
and return the whole national Croat
territory to Croats."
1t said that the Nazi high COM
fnand thus hoped to pacify and
greatly facilitate the defense of
southeastern Europe"
Hans Neubacher, former mayor of
Vienna, was said to be acting as
Adolf Hitler's special envoy to set
up an Albanian national commit
tee" Neubacher was identified as
a former German economic adviser
to the satellite state of Rumania
and the puppet Greek government
established in Athens after that
country's collapse.
The Yugoslav Embassy here re-
ported it had received advices that
the Italian division Venezia is CO.
operating with Yugoslav troops in
fighting against the Germans in
Montenegro.
The towns of Prijepolie, Bielop-
ollie and Berane in the Lum River