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ALBANIA RESISTS THE INVASION OF ITS LAND BY THE ITALIAN ARMY TIRANA, Albania, April 7 Outnumbered almost five to one, Albanias fud-hardened mountain tribesmen, aided by their women folk, today threw themselves desperately into the seemingly hopeless struggle to save their nation from Italys invading legions, as Premier Mussolinis war planes and ships bombed the Albanian coastal cities into debris; An -Italian army estimated at 100,000 picked men successfully took over the ports of Durazzo, Valona, Santa Quaranta and San Giovanni di Medua, but not until scores of huge tri-motored Italian planes had bombed the cities almost out of existence. As the invaders landed, they were met by Albanian volunteers, who shouted the battle cries of the nations hero, Skander Berg, as they contested every inch of the Italians bloody progress toward Tirana, the capital. An Italian fleet estimated at 170 vessels shelled the ports as the bombing planes raided Durazzo seven times, Valona four times and Santa Quaranta three times. The Italian invaders were repulsed twice before they succeeded in taking over Durazzo, a city of 8,700, which was a mass of ruins after the bombardment of world war proportions. San Giovanni di Medua, on the northern coast, was almost leveled. From Tirana, where King Zog was directing the resistance of the nations small army and the thousands of volunteers who flocked down from the mountains of the interior, the government radio station kept up a drumfire of appeals to the nation to stand firm against the invaders. Rome messages indicated that King Zog would abdicate his throne rather than accept the responsibility for yielding. No estimates of the casualties in the fight were available, but Albanian officials said: "Of course our men are being killed, but we are a people who know how to fight and die, and we care nothing about what it costs in bloodshed to save our precious land." Reports from Valona indicate that the loss of life has been high in hand-to-hand fighting of the type to which the Albanians have become accustomed in centuries of resistance to Turkish domination and mountain feuding. In the town of Asingjini blood was reported "flowing in streams" as the Albanians hurled defiance at the Italian warning that resistance would be followed by "atrocious military measures." Throughout the day the Tirana radio station encouraged the fighters by telling them that their comrades in other parts of the battle area were still resisting. The station repeated appeals in five languages to all able-bodied men and women to join King Zog in following the example of Skander Berg, who saved the country from the Turks. As a result of the appeals the Albanian army by evening was believed to have grown to more than 30,000. Reservists rushed from distant places by day-long travel to reach the battlef ront.
