Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-10-17
Germans Reported
Moving More Troops
Against Yugos|avs
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
LONDON. Oct. 16.-The German.
nave mounted a major front with
perhaps 81 divisions against guer.
rlllas who are threatening to over.
run Yugoslavia's main east-wes,
communications line, and have
placed two top generals in command
OF the drive. it was reported today.
Marshal Baron Macmillan vor
WEIGHS arrived in Belgrade to estab-
lish headquarters under the overall
command Of Marshal Erwin Rommel
and there was evidence of a deter
mined drive by the liberation army
OF Drug Tito (Josip Broz) to disrupt
or seize control of the Sava River
Valley and its vital railway.
The valley. along which runs the
Zagreb-Belgrade railway connecting
with Western Europe's rail network
bisects Yugoslavia from east to west
To combat Tito's effort to carve
out an invasion bridgehead fol-
American-British armies, the Ger
mans were reported from Istanbul
to have put IL German divisions
into Yugoslavia, plus nine Bulgarian
divisions.
Exert Great Effort.
The Istanbul dispatch was broad
cast from Cairo and recorded by the
Associated Press. These figures, if
true, would mean that the Germans
were exerting nearly as great an
effort against the Yugoslavs as
against 1t. Gen. Mark w. Clark and
Gen. Sir Bernard L. Montgomery
in Italy. In London, however. it is
estimated the Germans still have
fewer than 20 divisions in all the
Balkans, and about Is in Italy.
The main aim of these forces un-
ooubtedly will be to clear the guer-
rillas from strongholds on the Dali
nation Coast, where an Allied inva-
ton might be landed, and rescue the
Sava River railway line from Tito's
depredations.
Today's Yugoslav communioue
said large-scale operations were sue
cessfuly under way in Siovenia and
Lower Syria, with the heaviest bat
ties being fought for railway bridge
over the Sava River at Sevnica, 40
miles east of Ljubljana. 1t declared
1000 Nazis have been killed or
wounded so far in that sector.
The railway was reported cut at
Ildanlmost, one of the most i'm
portant functions in Yugoslavia,
where the line from Austria meets
the Belgrade-zagreb line. An ar
mored car and freight train were
wrecked on this rail line near
Prodanovci.
Street Fighting Continues.
Street fighting continued in
Zenica, 100 miles due east of cara in
the foothills leading down the Sava
Plain, the communique added.
In the south of Yugoslavia, Gen.
Draja Mihailovich's forces were said
by the Yugoslav press bureau in
Cairo to be in control of the greater
part of Montenegro and Herze-
govina, and one of Titos generals
was reported by the communicate to
have occupied Andrijevica in Mon
UenegTO.
The Yugoslav press bureau said
there were numerous battles be-
tween the Germans and Gen. Mi
hailovich's forces, with losses on both
sides, following new German
terror wave in nearly every district
of Serbia. Montenegro and Vojvo-
dine. The f1ercest battle was waged
at Dragatchevo in Central Serbia.
where the Germans burned several
villages.
In Cairo, King Peter of Yugoslavia
appointed three underground leaders
to his exiled cabinet. They were
Berislav Andjelinovic, Croat Patriot
leader: Two Cicin, another Croat. and
Jure Koce, Slovene Patriot leader.