NUMEROUS AIR RAIDS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 143, 17 May 1940, Page 5

NUMEROUS AIR RAIDS

GERMANS OVER FRANCE. AMBULANCES BOMBED. Received May 17, 10.15 a.m. LONDON, May 16. The Nancy correspondent of the 'Associated Press of Great Britain says German bombs killed and wounded an unknown number last night. Nino air raid alarms kept the city ' awake throughout the night. Alarms were also sounded in the vicinity nf Paris, Lille, aiid Le Havre. German bombers to-day dived on and destroyed five American ambulances.

A German High Command communique states that the enemy have been joined in the battles for the Antwerp and Namur fortresses. “We have sunk two destroyers and four merchantmen off the Belgian and Dutch coasts. “Allied bombers penetrated Western Germany last night and dropped numerous bombs at random. They killed a number of civilians. The bombers did not attack military objectives. ALLIED TACTICS.

No important change in the military situation on land has been officially reported since the French communique this morning (states the British Official Wireless). A note of heroic drama was struck in a broadcast from Brussels, where . the Belgian Government remains, of the message from the King of the Belgians to the troops holding out in the forts of Liege, which are isolated, calling upon them to resist to the last for the Fatherland. The fortress of Namur is also holding out in the area where, -in the words of the French communique on Thursday, morning, “the battle has taken on the characteristics of open warfare.” The official statement has been enlarged upon by informed French commentators, who indicated that a variety of actions by the German mechanised units were in progress and were being countered by Allied tactics’ and by forces spread in great depth. In the opinion of this commentator the Allied tactics had been modified from tlio.se appropriate to positions of defensive warfare to those of a wat of movement, and were well-calculated to succeed in arresting the activities of mechanised columns unsupported b> infantry. These provided at the same time the necessary dispositions to eliminate any damage to the rear positions of the Allies. HEAVY NAZI CASUALTIES. It is significant that, according to a, statement broadcast by the radio from Paris this afternoon, a German mechanised force which had succeeded in penetrating the French lines along the Meuse had been annihilated. Persistent attacks by mechanised units in accordance with the German tactics appear to have been launched in the sector between Namur and Mezieres, and also to the north of Namur, but it is suggested in reports from agency correspondents at the front that the determined resistance coupled with counter-attacks has made such methods extremely costly. All reports speak of heavy enemy casualties, and it would seem the German Command is displaying its characteristic indifference to the cost of its operations in the lives of German soldiers. The two generals commanding the Sedan sector have reported to headquarters tliat they were “masters of the situation” and would regain completely the control of their front within a week. SHARP ENCOUNTERS.

A French official evening communique states: “The battle as a whole continues witli some intensity. Very sharp encounters have taken place at certain points. Our bombers, pro tected by fighters, successfully, carried out vigorously-led attacks on the enemy’s column of armoured cars which had been located by our reconnaissance aeroplanes.”