THE WESTERN FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20047, 20 September 1939, Page 5

THE WESTERN FRONT

Lightning Thrust Expected MAY USE NEUTRAL ZONES AGAIN Attack Along Blies River Hurled Back ACTIVITY NEAR BELGIAN-DUTCH BORDER (Elec. Tel. Copyright.—United Press -Assn.) (Reed. Sept. 20, 12 noon.) * LONDON, Sept. 19. A Paris message states that the British and French Armies were las,t night prepared for a major battle. The French expect a lightning attack, possibly through neutral countries. The French to-day hurled back a German attack cast of the Blies River. German troops were ineffectively striking under cover of a heavy artillery barrage. It is officially stated in Paris that nothing has happened in the last 48 hours to change the position on the Western Front. The French are consolidating the positions and have built pill-boxes and concrete trenches ,to the limit oi . the advance. The Air Force continues reconnaissance, the pilots showing skill and courage in eluding the German fighters. *A restricted enemy attack occurred during the night in the region east of the Saar front. The attack was repulsed. A German communique reports slight activity on the Western Front.

A Basle message reports that the arrival of guns and equipment from the Polish front is assisting the Germans, whose intense artillery fire has transferred Perl into a no-man’s-land. This bears out the belief that the Germans withdrew from the advance posts to enable heavy artillery to bombard the French attackers. The activity has now increased all alongjhe front, including a new forest-clad sectorsouth of Saarbrueken. The Germans are reported to have dynamited patches of forest 100 yards wide to enable machine-guns to operate without obstruction. 1 The London correspondent of the United Press of. America says that Britain and France are concerned over -reports of German military activity near the Belgian and Netherlands frontiers. It is stated that German civilians have been evacuating the Aachen (Aix la Chapelle) district, which is in A direct line with Liege on Germany’s route in the 1914 invasion of Belgium. It also is stated that a portion of the Germans are being recalled from Poland and concentrated within “striking distance” of tlie Belgian and Netherlands frontiers.