Local Sortie By Germans

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20055, 29 September 1939, Page 7

Local Sortie By Germans

ENVELOPED BY FRENCH COUNTER i . . . .. Successes Of Allies In Aerial Fighting RECONNAISSANCES BY BRITISH PLANES Complete Evacuation Of Saarbrucken Area (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Sept. 29, 12 noon.) LONDON, Sept. 28. The British Air Ministry announces that during yesterday and last night Royal Air Force machines carried out further reconnaissance iligilts into Germany on the AVestern Front. Despite opposition, valuable information was obtained and all the British aircraft returned safely. A Paris communique issued to-day says: “The night generally was quiet. An enemy attack failed west of Saarbrucken. Commercial navigation is again functioning regularly, thanks to the organisation of convoys and naval air patrols. Our air force, co-operating with the British air force, brought down several enemy fighter planes on Wednesday afternoon. There was activity by our reconnaissance planes last night.” The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain reports that German attacks east of AVissembourg were blocked by a French counter-attack last night which enveloped the Germans on three sides and threw them back onto the Lauter Creek. Although the numbers engaged are reported to have been comparatively small, the action represents an important German set-back. The Germans earlier, supported by heavy artillery fire, succeeded in forcing their way through French!advance positions, gaining control of an important railway junction. Had the French not succeeded in repelling them, the Germans would have been able . to control the network of highways, behind Wissembourg. The Luxemburg correspondent of the Paris paper, Le Journal, reports increasing anxiety about the German intentions. The Germans have constructed heavy barbed-wire barriers on the Luxemburg frontier to prevent the mass desertion of Nazi troops. One Of The Quietest Days Yet. The Paris correspondent of the New York Times says that yesterday was one of the quietest days experienced on the AVestern Front. The French communiques were again most terse. The only developments in the past 24 hours seemed to be that the Germans were lengthening the range of their heavy guns, it is presumed for the purpose of harassing the French rear. Otherwise each side is standing to their positions. The intensity of the artillery bombardment seemed to be subnormal. The first lines of infantry mostly rested. The Saarbrucken-Zweibrucken-Hornbach triangle remained the most sensitive point where the Germans were apparently most apprehensive of the French progress. It i& reported that Saarbrucken has been completely evacuated. As far as the Germans are concerned, the lull is possibly ascribablc to political considerations dependent on the outcome of the conversations of the German Foreign Minister, Herr von Itibbentrop at Moscow, but now that AVarsaw has capitulated and the Polish front has been eliminated a more definite idea of German intentions may he expected. Certain French quarters consider that a diplomatic offensive is within the. bounds of probability. In this connection- it is recalled that the Germans are persistently professing that they have no quarrel with France. Belated letters from soldiers'at the front confirm that in the early days of the war the Germans displayed placards expressing a desire to fraternise and also stilting that convoys would not be fired on until they were actually on German soil. The object of all this doubtless is to strive to disrupt the British-French alliance. It is observed in Paris that the best reply to this is the fact that British troops arc completing concentration soon on the front shoulder to shoulder with, the French.