FURY OF BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1940, Page 5

FURY OF BATTLE

GREAT WAR STANDARDS ECLIPSED GERMANS CROSS AISNE. MASSED TROOPS MEET WITHERING FIRE. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, June 8. German tanks yesterday penetrated in some strength in the French left wing to the south of the Upper River Bresle (which runs from the coast mid-way between Abbeville and Dieppe to south-west of Paix, but it is reported that they have been isolated and are being rounded up. On the right wing enemy units today crossed the River Aisne to some heights on the southern bank, and French forces in the centre, facing a colossal attack, withdrew to strong points, making a shorter line of defence.

The French military spokesman tonight said that the “battle for France” has reached the culminating point. “Today's battle is the biggest of the war and the biggest of all time,” he said. “The new German attack is the most formidable in military history. Nearly 500,000 more men and 4000 tanks attacked at dawn over the whole of a front 94 miles long. The battle is continuing and we do not know the result, but the situation is satisfactory. There is no retreat, but only a strategic withdrawn along the Aumale-Noyon line.” (Aumale is a few miles west of Paix).

The battle, according to well-inform-ed French military circles, eclipses the biggest encounters of the last war in violence and ferocity. German soldiers arc marching shoulder to shoulder “like the Cimbres and Teutons who were their ancestors.” They seem intoxicated by the danger as they march against a withering fire from the French machine-guns and cannon. FRESH DIVISIONS THROWN IN. The latest French communique to-

night states: “The battle continued all day long over the whole front between the sea and Chemin des Dames. Westward of the River Oise tne enemy diminished his pressure, as also on the lower Bresle and he concentrated his effort on a vast front between Aumale and Noyon. “German infantry divisions which hitherto have remained in the rear have entered the line and, reinforced by powerful artillery, they have added their firing equipment to the armoured divisions previously engaged. More than a score of fresh infantry divisions have entered the struggle alongside the seven armoured divisions engaged yesterday. “Our divisions succeeded in limiting the progress of this disproportionate effort with their own effectives which are making a withdrawal manoeuvre in the prescribed directions,” the communique continued. “All reports say that the Germans have suffered considerable losses.

“Enemy pressure eastward of the River Oise was likewise accentuated, and the Germans have thrown in fresh divisions and armoured units which have enabled them to gain a considerable footing on the heights southward of the Aisne. Out units have been defending their ground foot by foot.” FIERCE RESISTANCE. Referring to the offensive in the centre, the French communique states: “The Germans debouched at dawn from a region southward from Amiens from Roye (a few miles north-west of Noyons) and mass-attacked the French positions on the 60-mile front between Aumale and Noyon. They met fierce resistance and suffered enormous losses in face of point-blank fire from automatic arms and massed intervention by the Allied Air Force, which is literally dominating the battle field and repeatedly operating from a height of G 5 feet. French bombers are cooperating with British and, protected by fighters, are attacking in squadrons of 150 machines.

“Despite a numerical inferiority, the French troops did not hesitate to leave their entrenched strong points to free their positions by short and terrible counter-attacks. By the end of the afternoon, faced by a veritable flow of German forces, the High Command gave the order to fall back. This was carried out in perfect order, and though the Germans secured an advantage they have not broken through.

“The fighting on the Aisne was equally terrible, and the Germans by the end of the afternoon had consolidated their hold on a bridgehead where the French were violently coun-ter-attacking. The Germans are now in country that is cut by numerous rivers and high-banked roads and is ill suited for tanks.