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Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 May 1940, Page 6

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DEVASTATING AIR ATTACK ON ENEMY MECHANISED COLUMN BOMBED INTO CONFUSION. EFFECTIVE OPERATION NEAR

MAASTRICHT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) RUGBY, May 15. Details of a devastating daylight attack by British bombers on an enemy mechanised column several miles long may now be given. In the early stages of the German invasion of Belgium large enemy concentrations were reported to be moving forward through the frontier town of Maastricht. A strong force of Blenheim bombers was

at once despatched with orders to find the enemy's leading column and delay its advance. The force located the column on a road leading from Maastricht towards Tongres. The column, a moving mass of small tanks, armoured ears and motor transports loaded with troops, stretched nearly five miles and was progressing steadily at a speed of about twenty to twentyfive miles an hour. Tanks were leading and a long line of vehicles, mostly bunched at the Maastricht end of the road, gradually thinned out towards Tongres, where the vehicles were some twenty yards apart. Breaking up to allow individual approach and diving to within a thousand feet of the ground, the bomber formation went into action. One after another the Blenheims attacked m quick succession and from different directions. High explosive bombs of heavy calibre tore great craters in the road surface, piling vehicles in hopeless confusion, while large numbers of smaller bombs played havoc with the personnel. The initial attack brought the head of the column to a halt and by the time the last Blenheim swooped down through a hail of rifle and machine-gun fire to orop its bombs on the piled up mass ol damaged cars and overturned transports the whole column was stopped and the road effectively blocked.

DEMAND FOR ARMS

GERMANS THREATEN DEATH PENALTY. (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON. May 15. German headquarters has ordered the handing over of all Dutch arms before 8 p.m. tomorrow. Civilians not conforming with the order arc liable to the death penalty. The_German and Dutch commanders signed the capitulation at 11 a.m. today.