BRITISH TROOPS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 162, 8 June 1940, Page 7

BRITISH TROOPS

TO AID FRANCE.' FIERCE STRIFE RAGES. (British Official AVireless.) Received June 8, 10.55 a.m. RUGBY, June 7. The military spokesman stated that British troops, as far as possible, will be sent to aid France in the battle for Paris on a front which must be regarded as Britain’s first line of home defence.' - ' According to reports from authoritative military circles in Paris, what General Weygand has called . “the battle for France’’ goes on fiercely. The general attack by the enemy is in progress, but the Allied strong points are resisting well. On t the heights north of. file Aisne an attempt by the. energy to' cross the river was repulsed. There has been heavy enemy, shelling of the Allied positions. The French Air Force has been active and has brought down 21 enemy aircraft.

The impression prevails in wellinformed quarters in London that thq French have demonstrated their great adaptability in meeting the renewal of .the German attack by armoured , divisions, and that the Germans will not find it so easy to repeat the success achieved on the ■Meuse by a surprise. It is not merely that ,tlic reports show the German tanks which penetrate the line are being effectively dealt with as they advance, but , reliable accounts' also testify that the infantry movements with which the enemy follow up the armoured units are being successfully contained. GREAT ONSLAUGHT. The spokesman said there was a great onslaught north of ' the Aisne similar in its extreme violence to the Meuse . battle. However, there was a notable difference - between the two operations. The French troops on the Aisne had immediately adapted themselves to the new anti-tank tactics. The struggle was ah' over-all battle of tanks, which were being sent forward in enormous numbers, with strong artillery and infantry support, but the German dive-bomber activity was only small, sharply contrasting with the operations in' North-Eastern France, when they played an extremely important role. The German air force had not been inactive, but had concentrated on areas behind the battle zone and hadcarried out bombardments directed against communications. The French Air Force had put out of action the largest proportion of the four hundred tanks which were destroyed yesterday. It had been energetically supported by the It.A.F. and had also attacked the immediate and more distant hack areas of the German attacking force.