RAIN OF BOMBS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20033, 4 September 1939, Page 5

RAIN OF BOMBS

OPEN TOWNS MAI\IY CIVILIAN VICTIMS EVACUATION TRAINS HIT APPEAL FROM SLOVAKS A R AIY DISMEMBERM ENT (Rood. Scot. 4. 1U a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 2. The Polish Embassy in London states that Germany stands as a wanton aggressor and reiterates that the Germans are bombing unfortified towns, where there were many civilian victims, while there was not a single ease of the Poles violating die frontier. The Embassy adds that the Germans bombed a train evacuating women and children from Warsaw, many passengers being killed ' and wounded. The Germans also bombed cities at 5.20 a.m. on Friday, including Puck. Radom, Modi in, Pultusk, Mobrvn. Warsaw and Cracow, the raids extending to cities in Central Poland. The Embassy .further states that Poles from 'Danzig have sought refuge in Poland to escape conscription into the Danzig forces. They have appealed for permission to form a Danzig unit of the Polish Army and this lias been granted. A Polish communique states that a large number of women and children were killed and wounded when Germans bombed the refugee train from Poznan. The German planes bombed and then machine-gunned the wreckage of the packed train. It is announced that food supplies of all sorts are sufficient, and it is claimed that the Polish defenders repulsed German attackers from East Prussia and Siiesia. Many German tanks were put. out of action and 10 planes brought down while the Polish lines are inflict. The embassy also states that the Slovak Minister at Warsaw lias sent i letter to the Polish Foreign Minister, Colonel J. Beck, on behalf of the Slovaks who “under German pressure, are gagged and made tools of Sci'inaii intrigues. “1 protest against the brutal disarmament of the Slovak Army and the arbitrary occupation of Slovakia for use a.s a base for military action gainst a friendly nation,” said the

Slovak Minister. “Slovaks at home and abroad associate themselves with the armed resistance against. Germany and ask Poland and her allies to support the struggle of the Slovak people to defend her honour and independence.” A Warsaw report says that the air fights over Warsaw were so thrilling that the people watched them from the streets till the wardens ordered them indoors. Other sources describing the late afternoon air raids on Warsaw record that the damage was not serious. Air raid precautions measures were most effective. It is admitted that there were numerous deaths of women and children in Warsaw. The Warsaw correspondent of the Associated Press of America, says that eye-witnesses state that 21 persons were killed and 30 wounded wheel, a German bomb struck a workers’ quarter. Bombs alread’' dropped on Warsaw total 120. Thirty people were killed and 58 wounded at Lublin. The Exchange Agency’s Zurich correspondent says that gas and. incendiary bombs killed and injured hundreds of people in the Posen district. The Warsaw correspondent of ’he United Press of America says that a Government communique states thaGermany, after contacting Poland hrough the Netherlands Government, proposed not to bomb open towns, to which Poland agreed. However, the Germans bonubed at least 24 towns on Saturday, including t.he holy city of Czestochowa, which was in flames, the textile centre of Lodz, and the bath resort of Busco, killing avid wounding at least 1500 people. News of fresh casualties are arriving hourly. Incendiary bombs destroyed Vclunje Hospital. The Government, cites an neident in which a plane bom'bed and machine-gunned a group of peasants and a tractor in a field. Brief reports reaching London eftrly on Saturday morning confirm the continuance of the air attacks all day and night on Warsaw and other Polish towns. The Polish Embassy in Paris announced that the famous shrine at Czestochowa, the counterpart of the cne at Lourdes, had been set on lire after a German air raid. It contained no military objectives. A later report stated that the Germans had taken Czestochowa. The Polish Trans-continental News Agency announced that German aviators had dropped the first gas bombs on the town of lowonsz.