DRIVE TO AMSTERDAM

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 141, 15 May 1940, Page 8

DRIVE TO AMSTERDAM

VIGOROUS NAZI TACTICS. EFFORT TO REACH BRUSSELS. LONDON, May 13. The Germans claim the occupation of half of Holland. Regarding this, the Times’s Amsterdam correspondent _ observes that the Province of North Brabant has always been considered indefensible, and also the two northern most provinces of Groningen and Friesland, the speed}- occupation of which Berlin is boasting. The Dutch forces, after delaying the Germans crossing the Yssel, withdrew to their j main defences. The Germans are now nearing the inundations protecting Amsterdam and it is expected they will attempt, to cross the zone which is not flooded south-eastward of Amsterdam. Therefore, they are fiercely bombarding the communications between that city and strongly-fortified Amersfoort. The Dutch admit a withdrawal with slight losses at Yssel Lake. The violence of the German drive to Brussels has been ferociously maintained. A French War Ministry spokesman explained that the Belgian, French, and Dutch troops were falling back strategically before the German advance. The steamer van Rensselaer was mined and sunk when leaving T.jmuiden. The captain died of heart failure and five are missing, but 150 were saved. GERMAN VERSION. A German communique claims that, in addition to the advances in Holland, the invaders have forced a second passage of the Albert Canal to the north-west of Hasselt and have also advanced westward of Liege and northward of the Meuse. They claim to have captured the citadel of Liege, the outer forts of which are still resisting. It adds that the German forces encountered French troops westward of the Ourthe River in Southern Belgium, where “our troops are advancing rapidly, the vanguard already nearing its objectives.’’ German military quarters in Berlin have declared that their armoured units clashed with Allied armoured units south-westward of Saint Trond and claimed that the Germans, aided by ’planes, repulsed the Allied force. The Germans claim that 320 Allied ’planes had been destroyed to May 13, 5S of which were brought down in air encounters. The scale on which the rival squadrons are contesting their supremacy is matched by their tremendous use of tanks. French -sources to-night reported that the battle in Belgium is involving between 1500 and 2000 tanks. AIR RAIDS IN FRANCE. To-day there were almost constant air raids in North-Eastern France. The first warning sounded soon after dawn and the first raid lasted four hours. The others followed throughout the day. In the relentless struggle between bombers and Allied fighters and anti-aircraft guns the It.A.F. ’planes escaped without casualty, though some made forced landings. The material damage is apparently small. Anti-air-craft guris brought down a Heinkel from 4000 ft, also three fighters and possibly thirteen bombers in the first raid alone. British ’planes continue unabatedlv to strafe the German troops moving up to Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg, once saving the French land forces in the nick of time. One squadron attacked a bridge which the Germans had just built in the Ardennes and smashed it to matchwood. One pilot returning to his base encountered seven Mcssersehmitts and shot down three of them. For the first time since the outbreak of the war guns in the Maginot Line fired on and damaged a German goods train en route to Basle, as a result of which the traffic on the Rhine line has been suspended. FLEET CONCENTRATIONS. ALLIES AT ALEXANDRIA. ALEXANDRIA, May 13. The Allied naval concentration here is the greatest- since the outbreak of the war. Egypt has begun the evacuation of civilians, who have been told to immediately leave Matruh and Es Solium, both of which are aerodromes ' and seaplane bases, also Sidi Barrani. From Berlin it is reported that the 1 Russians have massed twenty divisions at Batum and twenty on the Bes--1 9arabia.n frontier.