ARMIES IN DANGER OF BEING CUT OFF FROM BASE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1939, Page 7

ARMIES IN DANGER OF BEING CUT OFF FROM BASE

Germans Making Three-fold Drive FUGITIVES MACHINE-GUNNED ON ROADS MARSHAL SMIGLY-RYDZ REPORTED TO HAVE RESIGNED (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) . LONDON, September 14. The situation of the Polish army is graver, says a correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune” in a telephone call from the Rumanian-Polish border. The Germans are pressing the Poles from three directions and threatening to cut them off from the base on the right bank of the Vistula around Lublin. There are unconfirmed reports that Marshal Smigly-Rydz has resigned the command of the army, giving over power to General Sikorski, considered one of the ablest of the Polish generals. It is reported from Warsaw that the Polish Government, has moved from Krzemienecz to Zalezezvki because of air attacks. - <■ German planes are said to be still sweeping the main roads in eastern Poland and machine-gunning refugees who are struggling westward in the wake of the retreating Polish army before the oncoming invaders. A German wireless commentator stated: ‘‘‘lt would be a mistake to think that the German army has. an easy task in Poland. Tlu? whr is not a walkover. The Germans are fighting a brave and resolute enemy and the German victories are the. ' result of the leadership, strategy and forces employed by the German army.”

The Berlin correspondent of the “New York Times” says the Germans advancing from the north-east have completed the encirclement of Warsaw.

Five Polish divisions and two cavalry brigades are still holding out around Kutno in the toughest and longest battle throughout the war. At present they are cut off completely and cannot be expected to resist much longer. Thus at the close of the second week of war Germany has completed the first stage of the campaign. It is estimated tha't between 20 and 25 Polish divisions have either been captured or destroyed. An unbroken German line has been established across Poland from Lithuanian to Carpatho-Ukrainia. It is in the marshes beyond Brest Litovsk and Lemberg that Poland has the best chances of making a last stand. The fierceness and determination of the Polish resistance has been proved at Gdynia and Kutno, and the very speed of Germany’s advance, if repeated in the east, might give Poland a chance to isolate the German troops in the swamps, where the Poles have been trained to fight. SITUATION SERIOUS. The Paris correspondent of the “New York Times” states that the Polish front continues to monopolise attention in France. The situation of Marshal Smigly-Rydz’s armies is admittedly serious. There is fierce fighting on all sides of Warsaw, but there does not seem any longer to be any radio from the front. Both sides are making conflicting claims. Out of the confusion, however, some points stand out. The claws 3 of the German pincers, closing tighter after a double enveloping movement, seem to have been halted or at least retarded. The Vistula has been crossed by the' Germans at Annapol, near the confluence of the San, which was also crossed at several points. The Germans have crossed the Bug River south of Ostrow. The Germans who crossed the Carpathians are progressing. The Polish forces appear to have scattered. In addition, a body fighting in the Warsaw region, between the Bug and the Vistula, is inside the pincers. Others are apparently grouped just beyond the claws in the vicinity

of Bialystok to the north-east, and in the vicinity of Lemberg to the southeast.

In the meantime, the forces which fought in Pomorze and Posnania are beginning a campaign concentrated in a triangle formed by the towns of Kutno, Lowicz and Lodz. Manifestly this cannot be described as a cohesive regrouping of forces. Indeed, some French quarters today speak of guerrilla warfare. RAIN IN MANY AREAS. It is stressed in Paris that the Poles report that rain has been falling in many areas during the last 48 hours. Hitherto, the Germans have certainly been favoured by the weather, which has enabled armoured columns and motorised troops to progress swiftly across plains which are quagmires in the rainy season. The official news agency in Warsaw, reviewing Wednesday's fighting, says: “Polish troops, after a fierce attack, recaptured Lodz, from which the Germans. retreated hastily, leaving behind arms and ammunition and other implements of war. Our Poznanian and Pomeranian armies, after delivering ferocious assaults, joined each other in the region of Kutno.” BOMBING OF.WARSAW. A communique broadcast from Warsaw stated that during the night thirteen Polish detachments continued to thrust back the enemy in the immediate vicinity of Warsaw. German aeroplanes continued to bomb suburbs to the north and north-west of Warsaw. Military objectives were not damaged. Anti-aircraft batteries brought down three machines during the night. The Germans bombarded Warsaw with incendiary shells. The Pilsudski Institute of Medical Research was set on fire. The wife of the Japanese Ambassador to Poland has sent an account of the' bombing of Warsaw in the first few days of the war to a Japanese paper. On September 1, she said, she saw 30 German planes flying very high. A moment later dozens of bombs sailed down. The Polish guns replied and two German planes were seen to crash.' The raids were resumed each day and the Japanese Embassy was shaken by a bomb which exploded in the garden of the United States Embassy a short distance away.