OUTWORKS OF THE WEST WALL PENETRATED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1939, Page 5

OUTWORKS OF THE WEST WALL PENETRATED

Maginot Line Well Covered GERMANS MASSING MORE DIVISIONS TRANSFERS FROM POLAND EXPECTED (By Telegraph.—Press Association. —Copyright.) NEW YORK, September 18. The “New York Times” Paris correspondent says that on the part of the Western Front where it is considered the Germans cannot afford to lose much ground—that is to say, the central sector facing Saarluten and Zweibrucken—the artillery of both sides continues to be active. The remainder o: the i.ront has been quiet for 24 hours. “Quiet” frequently is the prelude to a “big noise.” The French have progressed an average distance ot .1miles from the Maginot Line on a front 15 miles wide, the consequence of which is twofold: First, that section of the Maginot Line is now out of range of all except the heavies guns; secondly, the first-line troops are actually within the West Wall outworks. . That the British idea of dropping leaflets m German territory has value is seen in the fact that a number of the prisoners taken by the French in the last week had copies in their pockets, the correspondent adds. The Polish position is unlikely to prevent the Germans from transferring more troops to the Western Front. lhe estimated total of German troops in the field at the outbreak of the war was 135 divisions, 70 of which, on the basis of FieldMarshal Goering’s statements, were in Poland. More divisions have been mobilised in Germany since then.