Squeeze Play

Victorious Greek troops squeezed a tighter & tighter grip on the Mount Gramos area last week. Before them, General Markos Vafiades' desperate rebels mounted one counterattack after another in an agonized effort to save the last escape hatches for moving their heavy equipment into Albania. Rebel prisoners said that Markos and his "government " had already crossed the border.

The original plan for Operation Coronet had been to prevent just this by slicing in between Markos and the Albanian border. The taking of Mount Ammouda, in the northern cornerstone of the Gramos redoubt, finally slid the knife in almost far enough to do the job. Reported TIME Correspondent Mary Barber:

"The story of Ammouda was a story of tanks--obsolescent, underpowered, British 18-ton Centaurs, packing puny 50-mm. pieces. In order to get them into position, a tank recovery team went first with a crane mounted on a U.S. Sherman chassis. The Sherman scrabbled up the steeper slopes, then towed up the Centaurs with its power winch. Out of seven Centaurs, two finally made the grade. Two got stuck a few hundred yards from their goal, and one blew its tracks on a mine. Getting the tanks down again for another sortie was almost as hard as getting them up."

One trouble was that the Greek army was still not quite used to sorties. When Operation Coronet began, the officer in charge was Lieut. General Panos Kalogeropoulos, commander of the Second Corps, a tranquil, French-trained officer who loved his garden and allowed his staff to bring their wives and children along on campaign. For six weeks Kalogeropoulos tended his flowers, while his dispirited troops were strictly forbidden to advance beyond their set, limited objectives.

By last week the Greek Supreme National Defense Council finally agreed with American military advisers that a new commander, rather than more American supplies, was needed to speed up the campaign. Their choice: Lieut. General Stelios Kitrilakis, deputy chief of staff at Athens GHQ and main author of the plan for Operation Coronet. As Kitrilakis took over, the stalemate broke. Greek assault troops broke through the old rebel defense line and kept on going.

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