NEWS BY RADIO

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 October 1939, Page 6

NEWS BY RADIO

WAR EVENTS ON LAND & SEA AIR ACTIVITY ON WESTERN FRONT. ALONG SAAR AND MOSELLE. The following Daventry reports have been rebroadcast by the New Zealand National stations: — ' Reports from Luxembourg state that there is great air activity on the Western Front between the Moselle and the Saar. Thousands of British troops on the Western Front had their first experience of air raid warnings. SHIPPING LOSSES AND GAINS. A French report states that in the first two months of the war France had lost six merchant ships, totalling 41,000 tons. In the same period four enemy ships had been captured, one of which had been scuttled. The others are now being used by the French. Since the war, French merchant shipping tonnage . had been reduced by only 22,000 tons. Last week Great Britain lost 21,000 tons of shipping and captured 19,500 tons of enemy shipping. In October losses were 65,000 tons, and in the first month of the war 156,000 tons. Our losses since the war started are just about equal to the losses in a single week in 1917, when the U-boat campaign was at its height. Five men were trapped in the engine room when a British ship of 8000 tons was torpedoed without warning in the Atlantic. Seventy others of the crew were rescued and landed in England. DESTROYERS FIGHT BOMBERS. A British destroyer flotilla near the Dogger Bank came into action against two German bombers. There were no casualties amongst the sailors and no damage to the destroyer's. It is not known whether the enemy suffered any casualties. FREEDOM STATIONS. The British Army song, “We’ll Hang Our Washing on the Siegfried Line,” has now been broadcast in German by the clandestine Austrian station. It was used to counter the German statement that there are no British troops at the front. “Ask the German soldiers now suffering in the mud of Hitler’s trenches,” said the announcer. “They will tell you they often hear “We Will Hang Our Washing on the Siegfried Line.” Despite attempts at “jamming,” the German “freedom station” broadcast on Saturday night. Five minutes after it started, “jamming” began. The frequency was changed, but for the first time the Germans were able to follow them. .In spite of the “jamming” it was possible to get the gist of the broadcast. The announcer spoke of the severe blow which would be dealt to the Nazi regime if the United States arms embargo were repealed, and urged Roman Catholics to rise again Herr Hitler. The British Government has issued a White Paper giving an authoritative account of the treatment by the Nazis of their opponents interned in concentration camps during the past two years.