SUPREME EFFORT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 142, 16 May 1940, Page 10

SUPREME EFFORT

EXPECTED FROM ENEMY. BATTLE NOW JOINED. (British Official Wireless.) 11UGBY, May 14. The Ministry of Information states: "To-day's operations in Flanders have gone much according to expectations. The operations now in progress reveal that the enemy is about to put forth a supreme effort to break through the Allied positions and achieve a quick decision. The battle is now being joined and it is impossible at present to give a precise description of the situation as it exists to-night. The Allied troops are in good heart and it may be well to recall the words which the ■ British Commander-in-Chief used in the order of the day on Tuesday morning : 'We are now on the eve of one of the great moments in the history o our Empire. The struggle will be hard and long, but we can be confident or i final victory'." Press Association messages lrom London state that it is not confirmed whether General Winkelman (the Dutch commander-in-chief) authorised the broadcast ordering the surrender of Utrecht and Rotterdam. This broadcast contained a proclamation stating that the Germans had bombed Rotterdam that afternoon and threatened to destroy Utrecht. "I think 1 was justified in ordering the troops to cease fighting in order to save civilians and prevent further bloodshed," he said. "The Germans succeeded in breaking our resistance with the great superiority of modern means of war. There is nothing for which we could reproach ourselves." He added that fighting continues in Zeeland. A Paris message says that lung Leopold's three children have crossed France to Italy, where they are being placed in the care of the Princess of Piedmont. A German High Command special communique states: "After the capitulation of Rotterdam and in view of the impending threat to the Dutch capital the Dutch Commander-in-Chief ordered the troops to cease fighting Fighting, however, continues in Zeeland."