INVASION ATTEMPT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 244, 12 September 1940, Page 7

INVASION ATTEMPT

GERMAN FAILURE SENSATIONAL STORY. (United Press Association —Copyright.) Received September 12, 9.15 a.m. NEW YORK, Sept. 11. Tlie Sun says letters to French residents from independent sources in Paris and occupied France reveal tliat a Nazi attempt to laud troops in England in August failed disastrously.

An invading fleet started from St. Malo (Normandy) in the expectation of landing on the West Coast, but the attempt proved suicidal. Two letters referred to the incident, both surmising that the news had already been published outside FranceBoth letters gave no details and did not give tfie date, but one dated August 28 referred casually to a “suicidal attempt at debarkation.” A letter from Paris from a French official acting as a liaison officer to the German army stated: _ “Paris is full of German .officers 'having a wonderful time and hoping to be allowed to stay. They are especially hoping and praying not to be chosen to participate in another disastrous attempt to disembark troops in England.”

So far messages confirming the above story have not been received. 'Messages received on August 28 stated that an announcement that 27 aerodromes of use to the enemy had been visited by bombers on August 26 lent significance to the statement in authoritative quarters that tho R.A.l'. possessed ail intormation on the present disposition of Germany’s air forces and that the new bases to which she had moved forward would receive tho methodical attention or bombers. , . . In Berlin, authoritative circles hinted that a grand mass attack against Britain was imminent. According to a copy of Dr. Goebbel’s journal Signal, which had been received in Ankara (Turkey), German airmen who had taken part in raids over Britain had been returned to training schools for improvement in their bombing technique, which apparently was below expectations.