Word: olympus
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There are few more difficult military operations than fighting a rearguard action against an aggressive enemy; under the strain most armies collapse. But the British, Australians and New Zealanders fought for 18 days and 245 miles-from Salonika to Olympus to Larissa to Thermopylae to Thebes to Athens-and not once did they allow the Germans to break through their lines in any force...
...specified. It could scarcely have been the God of the Orthodox Eastern Church, which was next day to celebrate its Easter, symbolic of rebirth, expressing faith in life, not an occasion of death.* It was probably not one of the deities once thought to be resident on Mt. Olympus, on whose summit German troops had planted the swastika just a few hours earlier-for the Gods of Olympus were fundamental to the ancient civilization which had invented democracy, the very thing Adolf Hitler had set out on his wars to extirpate...
...British tried to hold successive lines, each hinged on mountains and dominating passes. The first line ran from Mt. Olympus to Corizza in Albania. Against this line the Germans threw heavy attacks aimed at Larissa and Kalabaka, both crucial railway towns, on lines leading to southern Greece. The Italians put on a drive from Albania. On the right, near Olympus, the British at first held firm; it was on this front, at Sarandaporo Pass, that bloodshed was worst. But in the center the defenses were pushed back, and in Albania the Greeks lost Corizza...
...some Germans turned southward to join others who were al ready assaulting the junction of Albania, Yugoslavia and Greece. Here they looked for an opportunity to drive a wedge be tween the main Greek force in Albania and the main British force, established in a circling line from Mount Olympus to Fiorina and Lake Ochrida...
...Outlook. These efforts showed that the Germans were preparing for an attack on the line from the coast of Albania to Fiorina, to the Aegean near Mount Olympus-the line on which the Greeks and British had prepared to make their major stand. The Greeks surged down from Salonika on the eastern end of the line, and this week the British announced that they had been obliged to retreat-but not without inflicting heavy casualties...