TANK WARFARE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 September 1939, Page 8

TANK WARFARE

NOTHING BUT GIGANTIC MASSACRE I GERMAN OFFICER’S STORY. IMPOSSIBLE TO TAKE PRISONERS. COPENHAGEN, September 13. “German tanks in Poland have been even more successful than it was imagined they could be, but at what a cost. Modern warefare will prove. to be nothing but a gigantic, massacre"—thus a German tanks corps officer recently * returned to Berlin from Poland summed up his impressions in the course of an interview with the “Politikcn’s" Berlin correspondent. He said: “The Germans have lost at least 15.000 men on Polish front. It is impossible to estimate the Polish losses, but they must be between 150,000 and 300,000. We readily admit that it was most deplorable, but we found it impossible to take prisoners. We had to shoot everyone within sight because of the fear that some might get behind our tanks. Moreover, we had nobody to take charge of prisoners. Thus we have scarcely any prisoners, as we have to shoot everyone. The Poles are very courageous fighters. It won’t be an easy task to conquer Poland, because we shall have to kill every soldier before the nation is likely to give in. DEATH & DESOLATION - WAR HORRORS IN POLAND. AN EYEWITNESS'S REPORT. (Received This Day. 11.55 a.m.) LONDON. September 13. A neutral eyewitness who has reached Brussels after a tour of the conquered Polish territory paints a frightful picture of death and desolation. Not a single roof is intact in many towns. The roads are lined with corpses, wrecked tanks and lorries. Village after village is uninhabitable after bombing and shelling, after which they were stormed with hand grenades. Miserable refugees, homeless and foodless, wander the countryside hopelessly, of* ton barefooted and always ill clad.

HITLER’S MOVEMENTS RETURNING TO BERLIN. (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) BERLIN. September 13. General von Bauchitsch has joined the German troops in the front line near Radom, where fierce fighting is reported. It appears that Hitler visited Lordz, not Lodg. A communique says the visit was an agreeable surprise to the troops and population. It is also stated that unfavourable weather conditions are now developing. Hitler is returning to Berlin at the weekend. REFUGEE PROBLEM ONE OF MOST HARROWING IN MODERN TIMES. LIFE OF NATION DISRUPTED. (Received This Day, 11.55 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 13. An American Press correspondent from “somewhere in Southern Poland" reports that Poland is confronted with one of the most harrowing refugee problems in modern times. Words fantastic and unbelievable spring to the mind constantly in witnessing how modern war disrupts a nation’s life. It is impossible to keep track of individuals in this kind of warfare. The final list of those unaccounted for will be staggering. It is the children who most affect the emotions of the observer.