Show BALKANS nazi power the sudden onslaught of the nazi troops on five fronts against and greece came with terrifying swiftness and in the early days of the conflict it was evident that a delaying action was the most that the greeks could offer and that the jugoslava Jugo slavs prepared 1 mentally en tally but unprepared physically to resist could do little but harass the advance of the invader hungarian troops were also ordered to enter yugoslavian Jugo territory separated from hungary after the war of 1914 1918 events moved swiftly in those first few days immediately the city of belgrade perilously close to the border and in the center of a plain was declared an open city and that the jugoslava Jugo slavs would not defend it however the first act of the nazi bombers was to deliver a series of assaults on belgrade cl closely sely followed by similar attacks on sara bevo nis zagreb and other points of military importance to the invading army the attack on belgrade may or may not have put the city entirely hors du combat but the immediate effect was to shut off all communication with the outside world and that caused the reports of the early phases of the new war to be fragmentary and conflicting to the utmost degree one heard that the jugoslava Jugo slavs were invading neighboring countries had taken fiume were bombing sofia and in the same breath the germans claimed the capture of nis the razing of belgrade the cutting of vital railroad lines only the british reports seemed to carry conviction toge together ther with those from athens the former predicted a general withdrawal and the latter told how that withdrawal was being carried out but from the start it had been expected by this country that kalonika Sal would be defended and that the british had to troops in that general neighborhood and were prepared to make a serious defense of the port then the british kalonika Sal might fall and ga verise to the general belief that perhaps the british forces were not so numerous or so strong as at first stated suddenly came the word that the british had only to troops on the scene and that they were in in the second line of defense ready to veer to east or west as the situation demanded this was the answer to the dispatches of the first few days which did not reveal the british in contact with the enemy at any point they were in this report placed in the vicinity of katerine which put them somewhat in the center between betwee ri two main forces of greeks closely following this dispatch came a report from berlin claiming that their troops had entered salon ika and from athens itself came the following terse yet disquieting report the german blitz has split greek forces in two with a wedge driven down west of kalonika Sal trapping uncounted thousands of troops defending the line of the truma river right on the heels of this report unpleasant to americans who were hoping that the nazi attack on northern greece might be halted came the word from london german troops have entered kalonika Sal follow ing virtual evacuation of the port by greek troops british troops have not yet gone into action one of the five fronts on which the germans attacked was around in southwestern a vital railroad link between the greece grecco british and yugoslav Jug forces early in the conflict german panzer divisions captured and drove a wedge through the bardar valley the germans reported taking more than prisoners in this action and radioed photographs showing long lines of truckloads truck loads of serb and clotian prisoners going along mountain roads passing for ward moving nazi divisions on the way while the united states led by president Roosevel ts promises of sympathy and aid to and greece during this invasion was watching with anxiety and hope for some more favorable news the general tone of opinion was that the story of poland and finland was being rewritten before their eyes americans interested in seeing something like this happen again scanned the news dispatches in vain for signs that the nazi putsch was bogging down the shock of the fall of kalonika Sal was matched by the shock to learn that the british forces were relatively small but the fact that they were in a reported second line gave some measure of hope to those anxiously watching the defense that something might happen when the second line was reached and went into action FASCISTS move in africa the war was not only taking a nazi turn in and greece but in northern africa as well with combined fascist nazi troops definitely on the forward move again As in a football game the british had evidently lost the ball and unless the anzack could hold the fascists for downs there might be a drive to a touchdown in libya it was odd that the reports of the advances in libya by the italo german forces should have coincided with dispatches saying that gen sir archibald wavell and large numbers of picked troops had been sent to greece whether this was true or not could not be learned but if so it was an interesting coincidence that the backward movement of the british in libya tallied in time with the rumor that wavell was gone to another field the british in their forward drive had gone past sidi bahrani to derna dema and thence to benegasi Ben gasi the libyan capital photos of british troops taking down street signs putting up their own and other reports tended to the belief that italy was knocked out of the war in africa and that it was all over but the shouting suddenly berlin reported a minor success on the libyan front and then with equal suddenness britain began announcing that there would be withdrawals that Wavel wavelle ls forces would pick their own line of defense and fall back to that came the fall of benegasi Ben gasi and then the fall of derna with the british still back pedalling and fighting a rear guard action all the way in eritrea and ethiopia however the british continued their success making mass attacks on massaua the sole remaining point of military importance |