Hole Blasted In West Wall

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20054, 28 September 1939, Page 5

Hole Blasted In West Wall

NAZI POSITIONS ANNIHILATED German Attack On Extreme East Wing EFFORT TO TURN FRENCH ARMY FLANK (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Heed. Sept. 28, 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 27. The Paris correspondent oJ: the Associated Press oi‘ Great Britain says that. French artillery is reported to have blasted a hole in the Siegfried Line between Mcrzig and Saarbrucken. Despatches from the front say that heavy German counterfire against the French advance positions in the Saar and Palatinate regions is apparently designed to protect the feverish attempts to rebuild the shattered blockhouses behind the German lines. The morning dispatches report that the French annihilated important positions between Mcrzig and Saarbrucken in an area where there are between 30 and 4.0 pill-boxes to the square mile. This confirms the report that the French are subjecting the Siegfried Line to a terrific onslaught. With the whole front from Luxemburg to the Swiss frontier ablaze with gun-fire it is stated that the Germans concentrated the latest attack on the extreme eastern wing ‘ under cover of guns near Wissembourg. This apparently was designed to reach the flank of the French forces in the Vosges forest west of Wissembourg, where the old German forest is reported to have been cut off from the main fortifications protecting the Pirmasens-Landau road. The French are steadily consolidating their positions elsewhere. The official French communique merely stated: “The night was quiet. There was enemy artillery fire in the rear of our lines in the region south of Wissembourg.” A later official announcement stated that German long-range guns pounded the French rear lines methodically to-day. Villages and road communications on a 50-mile front between. Saarbrucken and Wissembourg were swept by Nazi batteries which were 20 miles distant.