Word: argirocastro
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...bells of Athens, which had long been silent, rang gladly one day last week. Klisura had been captured. This was the first important Greek accomplishment since the taking of Argirocastro on Dec. 9. The Italians had set up a defense sector hinged on Tepeleni and Klisura. Tepeleni blocked the road to the vital port of Valona, Klisura the road to Berat, northeast of Valona. Having broken through at Klisura, having driven the Italians from "naturally formidable" mountain positions, the Greeks pressed...
...mountains around Kelcyre and Tepeleni, where Greek troops had been fighting since the fall of Argirocastro to get control of the Valona road, 500 Italian prisoners were taken. Along the coast an Italian armored column was thrown back with heavy losses. At week's end, despite the fear of all-out German support for Italy, the Government in Athens optimistically predicted "an important development...
Fifteen miles over the hills, the Greeks had taken all the heights surrounding Argirocastro. There the Italians also fired the town and fled up the road toward Tepeleni-harassed by snipers and artillery from the hills above. Before the Italian rear guard of tanks retired, the Greek infantry stormed the town. They dropped from balconies on to the roofs of tanks, threw hand grenades into the openings, jammed the tank-tread mechanisms with their bayonets...
...Athens people danced in the street by moonlight, carrying at the head of their procession the victory flag that had been flown on the Parthenon. First Corizza, then Porto Edda, then Argirocastro -the three advance Italian bases in Albania-now side by side over all three flew the double eagle of Albania and the blue and white banner of Greece. The Greeks rejoiced and the world was stunned...
...Argirocastro. Territorially the war progressed little during the week, and only the Greeks moved forward. They clinched their hold on Pogradec in the northeast, thus consolidating their capture of Corizza last fortnight, and giving them a north anchor for the lateral road paralleling the Greek border clear down to the southern Albanian coast. Up & down this road Greek Generalissimo Papagos could swiftly shift his strength in or out of any of the mountain troughs, slanting northwest-southeast, through which the scattered Italian Eleventh Army last week fought rear-guard actions in its withdrawal up to the line from Valona...