Word: albanians
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There were five main spearheads to the Italian attack (see map, p. 26). The most important Italian effort was aimed at Ioannina, in Epirus. Homer located Hell in Epirus, and the Italians saw why last week. It is only about 35 miles as the airplane flies from the Albanian border to Ioannina; but on the ground the miles stand on end. The terrain is violently mountainous. There are no railroads, and most of the roads are little better than shepherd trails. The area is crisscrossed with low valleys, and last week torrential rains made horrible mud ponds of the roads...
...Albanian Invasion Denied...
Ominous to Greek ears was another Italian sound-effect they heard that evening - from Mussolini's news agency, Stefani: news that there had been a "border incident" that day near the Corizza Pass on the Greek-Albanian border, and a bomb incident at Porto Edda (named for Il Duce's daughter). The Italians, of course, blamed Greek "armed bands" and agents. Denial of the affairs by the Greeks went unheard, their offers of discussion were turned down. Within a few hours Mussolini and Hitler had one more conference, at Florence (see p. 28), and Italy...
Greece has a Metaxas Line, strong along the Bulgarian frontier, more sketchy along the Albanian, where it was not needed until Italy blitzkrieged that little kingdom on Good Friday, 1939. Greece has some 435 pieces of field artillery of all types, including mountain guns. With these, and other ill-assorted German and French rifles and machine guns, she set out to try to stem the advance of at least 200,000 well-equipped, motorized Italians, including one division of specialized Alpini, whose first course would be down rugged mountain troughs. Two main immediate pushes seemed to be on the cards...
Afraid to announce that Greece was on the spot, Athens slipped word to Cairo, where Greek diplomatic quarters revealed the Axis price for peace: 1) immediate severance of economic relations with Great Britain; 2) cession to Italy of a strip of territory along the Albanian frontier; 3) cession to Bulgaria of a corridor to the Aegean; 4) permission to Italy to construct a military road from Albania to Salonika; 5) use of Greek air bases by Germany and Italy; 6) abdication of King George II and resignation of Premier John Metaxas...