ACTIVITY ON WESTERN FRONT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20078, 26 October 1939, Page 5

ACTIVITY ON WESTERN FRONT

SPORADICALLY LIVENED UP

VISIT PAID BY GERMAN COMMANDER

RAF. PLANES AGAIN OVER BERLIN

NAZI CASUALTIES IN NORTH SEA

(Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. 'Oct. 2(i, 11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 25

A French, official communique issued this morning states that on the whole the night was Quiet on the Western 1' font. Patrol and artillery activity occurred to the west of the Saar. A Paris communique issued last night states that raids and ambushes occurred on several parts ot. the Iron! which had sporadically livened up.

A Berlin message quotes a German news agency announcement that the German Commandcr-in-Chiet’, General von Brauehtisch, visited the Western Front and watched the fighting. He decorated officers and men. A German communique states that enemy units of j approximately one company had been attacked west of Voelklingen and driven back into French territory. The Air Ministry announces that the Royal Air Force carried out reconnaissances, including night, flights over Berlin, Hamburg, and Magdeburg.

Referring to these flights, London evening newspapers find food for reflection in the fact that, at the very hour when the German Foreign Minister, Ilerr von Ribbentrop, was boasting at Danzig of the Nazi might as exemplified in the overthrow of Poland, Britain’s air power was again being demonstrated to the German people unmistakably but mercifully. Safe Return of Planes It is understood that all the Royal Air Force planes which made the night reconnaissance flights over Berlin, Hamburg, and Magdeburg returned safely. The estimate of the full extent of the enemy losses in the unsuccessful attack on Saturday on a British convoy in the North Sea may have to be revised. The Admiralty and Air Ministry announced: “We brought down at least three enemy aircraft and the fourth was forced to alight on the sea.” Yesterday two German airmen whose machines were shot down were picked up from a collapsible boat and three survivors of another German bomber shot down by a British ship were also landed in England. A Danish ship picked up two German airmen from the North Sea on Saturday after seeing their plane'crash.

Informed quarters believe that these three planes had taken part in the raid on the convoy. It. seems, therefore, that while no damage was done to the convoy or the escort and no casualties were suffered by our planes, seven German aircraft have been accounted for.