RAID AT DAWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 March 1940, Page 5

RAID AT DAWN

ENEMY ENTER BRITISH POST PLATOON SERGEANT-MAJOR KILLED. SOME GERMAN CASUALTIES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.10 a.m.) LONDON. March G. A War Office communique states that a raid on a British post in the Maginot Line occurred under cover of a mortar and machine-gun fire barrage at dawn on Tuesday and the enemy succeeded in entering the post, which was held by part of an infu’try platoon, and killed a Platoon Sergeant-Major. The Germans left one man dead in the post and suffered further casualties during their withdrawal, as the result of artillery and machine-gun fire.

SIXTEEN PRISONERS

CLAIMED BY GERMANS. PLANNED MINIATURE ATTACK. (Received This Dav. 10.10 a.m.) PARIS. March 6. The affair in which some British soldiers were taken prisoner (the Berlin News Agency claims that sixteen were captured) amounted to a miniature attack and not merely a raid and was carefully planned. The Germans had brought up trench mortars on . the previous night and calculated ranges in advance, and were able to launch a heavy fire on a Brittish outpost when the assault began. Simultaneously, the German artillery dropped a box barrage around the outpost, both to prevent the British troops escaping and their neighbouring comrades from coming to their aid. The British and French artillery answered. placing a “stopping barrage" ahead of the outpost, but the raiders succeeded in penetrating the Allied curtain of lire.