INCENDIARY BOMBS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1939, Page 5

INCENDIARY BOMBS

WORST RAID OF WAR MANY FIRES STARTED. POLISH AND GERMAN REPORTS. LONDON September 9. The Polish radio says Warsaw suffered the worst air raid of the war and incendiary bombs started many fires. A strong garrison is defending the capital. General Thomme, who is in command of the defence, sent the following message: “We will defend Warsaw to the last man. The German advance must be stopped. Heavy artillery may destroy the radio station, after which my orders will be published by other means.” The High Command in Berlin repeats the claim that motorised troops entered Warsaw from the south-west at 5.15 p.m. on Friday, and hails the drive as one of the great accomplishments of military history and the first example of the operation of the lightning war technique. It was also announced that other troops arrived in Warsaw at 9 p.m., and also that troops arrived at Gora Kolwarja on the Vistula and the outskirts of Lodz. A Warsaw communique states that the Polish air force continues to raid German mechanised columns. “Our troops continue to fight bravely against overwhelming forces,” it is added. “Although being forced slowly back, they are fighting stubbornly at Lodz, Liotrow, Tomaszow, Mazowiecki, Kielce, Tarnow, Rozano, and Pultusk.” REFUGEE TRAIN ATTACKED. The Germans bombed and machinegunned a refuge train, according to “Le Soir’s” Basle correspondent, states a Paris message. The first raid occurred at the Warsaw station and the train was attacked four times more before it crossed the frontier near Riga. The planes swooped down low over the train. It made two halts, the passengers lying down in adjacent woods. Once two Polish planes appeared and engaged in violent combat, shooting down two German machines. The refugees 4 were 36 hours without food. The High Command in Berlin states that the casualties in Poland have averaged nine killed and 40 wounded for every 10,000 troops engaged. The German Propaganda Ministry announces that field operations will be undertaken in Poland outside the 1914 German boundaries. It would be a misapprehension to say that Germany would fix the new boundaries on the basis of those of 1914, the Ministry said. The Berlin newspaper “LokalAnzeiger” implies that Polish civilians who become franc-tireurs (irregular sharpshooters) will be executed. It asserts that it is obvious that the army command will be reluctant to take drastic action against civilians, but the criminal attitude of the Polish Government introduces a new phase. No army permits its soldiers to be insidiously murdered by civilians. The Bromberg murders, the insidious shooting of sentries, and the murder of flyers who have made forced landings are proof of bestiality which cannot be spared, the newspaper says.

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