STRONG DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1940, Page 5

STRONG DEFENCE

BRITISH HOLDING CORRIDOR TO COAST TASK REFUSED BY BELGIAN KING. GERMAN BID FOR “LINE OF HILLS.” By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 10.49 a.m.) PARIS, May 30. A military spokesman said that British troops, fighting along the eastern flank from the general direction of Bruges to Dunkirk, were strongly resisting German attacks. The French were defending the region between St. Omer and Cassel, where the German push was moving northwards towards Dunkirk. The Allies are fighting through an area criss-crossed by canals and streams, many of which are overflowing, as the result of deliberate Allied flooding. The German's principal effort is an attempt to split the Allied armies by capturing the "line of hills” which was famous in the last war. They extend between Cassel and Ypres, dividing the region of Lille from. Dunkirk.

Dunkirk is an entrenched camp, firmly held and supported by naval heavy guns. British troops are bearing the brunt of the defence of a corridor extending inland from Dunkirk. The spokesman added: “It is notable that the British are defending, with weak forces, a position which King Leopold refused to occupy with nearly fifteen divisions.”