PROVINCES LOST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 September 1939, Page 5

PROVINCES LOST

INCLUDING INDUSTRIAL . AREA GERMANS SAID TO HOLD THIRD OF COUNTRY. DESPERATE STAND MADE BY DEFENDERS. LONDON, September 7. Military communiques issued in Berlin today, if correct, indicate that Germany has seized a third of Poland,- including the nation’s richest provinces. A Berlin broadcast claims that Poland has lost her entire coal supply and industrial region. The battlefields are covered with quantities of abandoned material. The Associated Press of Great Britain reports that a Berlin communique states that mountain and motorised troops on a broad front forced the northern exits of the Beskiden mountains and began a swift attack on Nowy Saez, while forces from the south and from the west drove the enemy into Cracow. Further to the north. Checiny, Lupussono and Piotrkow were captured with a drive which is progressing along the eastern embankment of the Warta River toward Lodz. The East Prussian army took- Ciechanow and pressed the enemy southward. German airmen are disturbing the enemy’s traffic lines and communications. Many rail lines have been interrupted. Casualties so far average four dead and 25 wounded per 10,000 troops. The Polish forces are reported from Warsaw to be making a desperate stand west and north of the capital in the face of withering fire which is thinning their ranks... The general staff confirmed the report of the removal of the Government to Lublin, on to which the Germans are reported to be pressing.

Stories are filtering in about Poland's women’s army. A German officer in one of the captured towns is quoted as saying .that they fight like tigers. /

BRAVE RESISTANCE ACKNOWLEDGED BY ENEMY. ATTACK SLOWED DOWN. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) PARIS. September 7. The newspaper “Midi” states that German advances on the northern Polish front have slowed down, and the invaders are experiencing more and more difficulty. The Poles also have counter-attacked at several points. A Berlin communique pays tribute to the courage of the defenders.