FURIOUS ATTACK

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 140, 14 May 1940, Page 7

FURIOUS ATTACK

“BLITZKRIEG” TACTICS. SUPREME TEST. NAZIS SLOWED DOWN. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received May 14, 12.10 p.m. LONDON, May 13. Hitler’s “blitzkreig” (light-, niug war) rages'from North Holland. to tlie Belgian Ardennes, with less intense manifestations in other sectors. Tlie invaders are concentrating tlie full fury of their attack;.in, the northern districts, the North Brabant province of Holland, and also the Belgian provinces of Limbourg and Liege, where the British and French advance forces have linked up with the Belgian defenders in an effort to stem the onslaught.

Messages from correspondents with the B.E.F. in Belgium express restrained confidence but emphasise the extreme seriousness of the test to which the lightning war is putting the Belgians and also their Allies. It is impossible to assess the position along an almost continuous line of German attack, blit it can be inferred from the various Allied communiques that the bravery and skilfulness' of the Belgian and Dutch withdrawal tactics have taken off the pace from tlie German penetration at several important points. • The German mechanised columns occupation of Langstraat, which is roughly northward of Tilburg and westward of Shertogenbuscli, is probably the most serious development- in Holland. The Dutch admit the occupation of Langstraat, which comprises a series of villages along the Maas River. The German Official News Agency goes much further, claiming that the invaders’ motorised troops have effected a junction with the parachute forces at Rotterdam, “thus outflanking the so-called Dutch fortifications and dominating the region between Moerdijk and The Hague.”