FIRST CASUALTIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 December 1939, Page 7

FIRST CASUALTIES

4> SUFFERED BY BRITISH FORCES. SOME LOSSES IN PATROT. FIGHTING. • Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) LONDON. December 17. The headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force in France state that British front line troops have suffered their first casualties in actual warfare. Several were wounded, and some are dead through night patrols in no man's land. All were brought back. LOCAL ACTIONS FRENCH & GERMAN REPORTS. (Received This Day. 10.40 a.mJ PARIS. December 17. A war communique reports artillery and infantry actions at various points on tlie front. A Berlin war communique states that there is nothing of importance to report on the Western Front. The Air Force carried out reconnaissance (lights over North Sea areas. Attempts by, British bombers to attack Norderney land Sylt on the nights of December 16 i and 17 failed. A number of bombs fell into the sea. .

Describing shock troop activity on the Western Front yesterday, the German Official Agency states that one unit heavily engaged enemy troops in six dugouts in the Forbach region inflicting considerable losses. “The prisoners taken enabled us to draw certain conclusions. Our losses were small —two missing.”