Greco-Italian War EPIC WAR MOVIE PART 2

14 April

"For 48 hours the Serbs have been moving in wave upon wave through rain and snow against Scutari, on the southern shore of a lake of the same name, only to be mowed down by Fascist machine-gunners and scattered by Italian airmen, war front advices said." (https://news.google.com/newspapers?ni... Serb Attacks Beaten Off By Italians, Schenectady Gazette, 15 April 1941)

15 APRIL

"About 25 miles south of Lake Ochrid, Koritza is a road junction whence a road leads eastwards to Florina, hinge of the present British-Greek line confronting the Axis armies. Fast columns of Bersaglieri on motor cycles and in armored cars entered Koritza at 12.30 p.m. today and captured "numerous prisoners and arms of every kind including several batteries of cannon," it was claimed. " (https://news.google.com/newspapers?ni... TAKEN ITALIANS CLAIM Recapture of Important Albanian Town Announced at Rome, The Montreal Gazette, April 15, 1941)

"Their courage, like that of the defenders of the Metaxas line, was to no avail; as so often happens to troops occupying a static position in mobile warfare, the battle was being decided elsewhere … List now detached SS 'Adolf Hitler' from the main axis of advance of XXXXth corps and sent it forward in the direction of Koritsa. Far from counter-attacking, however, the demoralized Greeks gave way and thus allowed the Italians to occupy the town without resistance on 15 April. With 9th armoured division crossing the upper Aliakhmon and reaching Servia on the next day, the British forces on the Olympus found themselves surrounded on both flanks. following a decision made by Wilson three days earlier they now started falling back across Thessaly to Thermopylae, leaving in their wake 20,000 Greek troops who, being less well endowed with motor vehicles, failed to escape in time and were captured by the Germans." (Martin van Crevald, Hitler's Strategy 1940-1941: The Balkan Clue, p. 162, Cambridge University Press, 1973)

20 APRIL

"The 4th Bersaglieri Regiment annihilated a Greek division in six hours. At dusk, the 5th and 8th Alpini Regiments joined the fight and smashed into the EFAS rearguards. The steamrolling of the Eprirus Army continued. Prisoners taken were able to confirm intelligence reports. The Italian spearheads were confronting the vaunted Royal Guard or Evzones. The Evzones fought hard for more than a day before being defeated. The crack Bersaglieri regiment breached the Greek Evzone line with flamethrowers. Many Greeks were burned alive in their bunkers. In the meantime, the Edolo Battalion, 59th Alpini Regiment, 26th Bersaglieri Motorcycle Battalion and 17th Milan Lancers Regiment upon receiving new orders, raced to reach the fleeing Greek divisions before they could repair the bridge and escape the trap." (http://www.comandosupremo.com/ponte-p... Ponte Perati: The ‘Highway of Death’)

“During yesterday (April 20th) our troops were forced to fight hard in beating back the Greek retreating forces, who were offering a tenacious resistance in their fortified positions along the Albanian frontier. Embittered fights took place, in one of which the 4th Bersaglieri Regiment particularly distinguished itself. All the localities along the Albanian frontier have been reoccupied by our troops.” (http://www.alieuomini.it/pagine/detta... Bollettini di Guerra)

21 APRIL

"Italian press dispatches said "a big battle to wipe out the Greek army" was raging at Perati Bridge, which spans the Viosa river at the Greek-Albanian frontier. Italian dive-bombers were said to have destroyed the bridge, trapping the Greeks on the Albanian side ... Stefani, the official news agency, declared jubilantly that the Greek army was losing "fourth-fifths of its permanent forces and all the war material supplied by Britain." (https://news.google.com/newspapers?ni... Allies Fall Back to New Defense Lines, The Evening Independent, 21 April 1941)

24 APRIL

"Il Giornale D'Italia's correspondent said the Greek armies that surrendered did so only after a desperate battle at Perati bridge in which four Greek divisions virtually were destroyed. Two regiments of the Evzones were wiped out almost to a man, the dispatch said, and a single Greek battalion had 500 dead."(https://news.google.com/newspapers?ni... The Milwaukee Sentinel, 24 April 1941)