TAKING OF BOULOGNE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1940, Page 5

TAKING OF BOULOGNE

GERAUNS SUFFER VERY HEAVY CASUALTIES

ATTACK ON THE CITADEL. ARTILLERY BREACH THE RAMPART. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, May 25. The Berlin radio stated that the commander of the German forces at Boulogne, interviewed, said: “My troops attacked the town in the afternoon but were forced to desist on the outskirts because of very heavy casualties. They awaited reinforcements and again attacked at night. The following day they attacked the citadel. Artillery pounded a breach in the rampart, after which the troops scaled the walls with ladders.” BRITISH EVACUATION EYEWITNESS’S STIRRING STORY. FINE WORK BY DESTROYERS. (Received This Day, 10.55 a.m.) LONDON, May 28. A naval eyewitness, describing the evacuation of British troops from Boulogne under Hellish fire, said demolition parties of. young seamen, who had never before been under fire, fitted high explosives at the railway station and other points under a hail of high explosives at the railway station and other points under a hail of high explosive shells from field guns. Tanks, motorised units and field guns penetrated the town, bombers filled the sky, and German machine guns covered bridges to the harbour from a range of a few hundeds yards while seamen waited until the last of the troops had retreated. An officer in a dock containing a naval trawler ordered on his own initiative the dock, trawler, powerhouse and pumping station to be blown up. A destroyer completed the destruction by shelling the cranes. Bullets, shells and bombs fell continuously. Complete demolition was then ordered and everything went up, sluices, bridges, stores, a dry dock and powerhouses. The enemy intensified his fire as two destroyers came in crammed with soldiers aboard and went out astern. Then more came in their guns glazing. The Germans installed pompoms in hotels alongside the port. Destroyers silenced them at point-blank range. Destroyers then fired on tanks, sending one cartwheeling' knocking others out with direct hits and sending the remainder scurrying. The destroyers’ guns never ceased until they had steamed astern out of the harbour. Troops marched to the quay in an unending stream. Three more destroyers nosed into the harbour and evacuated the remaining troops with their wounded. It was a miracle that all the destroyers were not sunk.