GERMAN ARMED MIGHT READY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20080, 28 October 1939, Page 5

GERMAN ARMED MIGHT READY

TROOPS IN BATTLE POSITIONS SWITZERLAND TO HOLLAND FRONTIER LAST-MINUTE OVERHAUL BY ARMY STAFF CONTACT BROKEN TO VEIL MOVES (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Oct. 28,11.30 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 27. It is reported in Paris that severe weather to-day brought the operations on the Western Front to a standstill. Ihe Rhine rose 221 in. yesterday.

A German communique states there was lively artillery fire between the Moselle and the Warndt Forest. Elsewhere local activity was experienced.

The French commentator, M. Charles Morice, writing' in the Petit Parisian, says that everything, suggests that the present period marks the eve of Herr .Hitler’s big offensive. “There are 75 to 80 German divisions massed in the Rhineland,’’ states M. Morice. “Shock troops arc in position. Tanks and anti-tank weapons are ready behind the front line. The aviation concentrations have been completed. The German General Staff evidently has given a last-minute overhaul to the formidable war machine at the disposal of the Commandcr-in-Chief, General von Brauehitsch. Headquarters are installed in a small town where Mr. Neville Chamberlain met Herr Hitler last year” (presumably Godesburg). Concentrations of Divisions. It is reliably stated in Paris that Germany has concentrated 32 divisions in the region.of Pirmasens; and 18 near the Dutch frontier. Four army corps, each of three divisions, face Switzerland between Basle and Lake Constance. Three others arc installed from Austrian territory between Lake Constance and the junction of the Italo-Swiss frontiers. The Paris correspondent of Reuter’s Agency says that the interruption of telephone communications reported yesterday between Germany and neutral countries was apparently an attempt to hide big troop movements. A Dutch report says that .the Germans are heavily massing materials, troops and planes in the North Sea coastal districts from Emdcn to the mouth of the Elbe.

Switzerland was also cut off by telephone and Zurich reports big concentrations near .the Fra neo-Swiss border. A High authority in London considers the German concentrations near the coast of the North Sea arc not alarming. He adds that such movements arc frequent. Nor should the cutting of telephone contacts cause apprehension.