HEAVY TROOP CONCENTRATION IN RHINELAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 October 1939, Page 6

HEAVY TROOP CONCENTRATION IN RHINELAND

French Bombarding Enemy Rear Line SOME PRISONERS STILL UNAWARE OF WAR COMMENT ON AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA (By Telegraph!.—Press Association— Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) LONDON October 16. ’The Associated Press of America Pari « states that artillery along the whole French left l anklaic down a barrage on Germans massing from the Moselle to the Hardt Forest, bombarding communication lines and concentration points. The German strength in the Rhine-H is estimated at nearly 800.000 m Ihe area opposing the Altai sector of the Maginot Line. . , The Germans reciprocally shelled the hrench rear, which is customarily precedent to an infantry drive, besides giving attention to the French advance posts , . . The British War Office announced that the French Ami) s examination of German prisoners shows that their rank and file, some weeks after the outbreak of war, were still being told that there was no war. They were unaware of the war until they were captured? Prisoners from quiet sectors p e]je y pd that they were on manoeuvres, having been informed that the tirh-m thev heard was target practice and blasting. They were convinced that the Fuehrer would get everything without war and that the Polish conquest was a walkover. One man said, when apprised of the Russian-German pact, that it was the Fuehrer’s ruse, in order to trap the Russians, whom he hated beyond anything else. Another refused to believe that Germany, allied with Russia, was fighting Engla,nd and France, but said that if it was true there would be trouble, ■iddum'- “But not at first, because, as we do not think tor ourselves any more, it will take some time to realise that we have been deceived.”