HINDERING ALLIED OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1939, Page 7

HINDERING ALLIED OFFENSIVE

Anticipations of Action on Big Scale TWO MILLION GERMANS BEHIND SIEGFRIED LINE FIGHTING AT VARIOUS POINTS (By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright.) LONDON, September 15. As in Poland, rain is falling on the Western front. It is calculated to hinder operations because the overcast skies halt air force reconnaissance flights. This is why the artillery is at present the most active arms, states the Paris correspondent of the “New York Times.” Guns of the Sieg-fried Line are hammering towns, highways and military positions behind the French lines around Saarbrucken in anticipation of a big-scale Allied offensive, according to a semi-official dispatch published in “Le Petit Parisien.” British and French troops sloshed through mud, moving into position for a major drive against the Siegfried Line, behind which nearly 2,000,000 Germans are reported to be massing. The Paris correspondent of Ihe Associated Press says that the Germans are reported to be retreating from the advanced positions in front of Saarbrucken with motorised French advance guards close on their heels taking prisoners as they are advancing. Lt is stated in Brussels that the French troops launched an offensive near Perl in the Moselle district on the extreme west of the Franco-German frontier and have occupied the German villages of Apaeh and Maimuhlen. Watchers in Luxemburg saw French tanks move into action in tliis advance. Eight were clearly seen advancing on the German lines, compelling the Germans to withdraw. A message received later today from Basle states that action is reported in a new sector involving the Mundat Forest, north of Wissembourg, where French patrols engaged a large German force in open fighting and under shell fire from both sides. The French were compelled to withdraw.