BATTLE SURVEYED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 June 1940, Page 5

BATTLE SURVEYED

POSITION YESTERDAY / MORNING FRESH ENEMY TROOPS THROWN IN. .IMMENSE MECHANISED FORCEBy Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) PARIS, June 9. A French military spokesman said: — “The position in the battle this morning is that the German attack is more violent than any hitherto started in the region south of Amiens, in a southerly direction. The battle at the end of yesterday had progressed as far as the region of Bruteuil, on the River Noye, about twenty miles from Beauvais. Two attacks were launched farther eastward, to the south of Peronne, in the direction of Noyon and Montdidier. The gains acquired following these two attacks were light and did not exceed some kilometres. It is estimated that the Germans flung about forty divisions into this sector, between the River Bresle and Noyon. “At the start of the offensive on the line of the Somme the Germans had first thrown about twenty-seven divisions into the front line, where their losses were so heavy during th’e first days of the battle that yesterday they were forced to withdraw a certain number of these troops and throw a second formation of twenty divisions into the line. The surviving divisions of the first line, together with the fresh divisions of the second line, form a mass of forty divisions in the region between Aumale and Noyon; also a certain number of armourd dvisions. “East of the Oise, ten German divisions, accompanied by armoured units, crossed the Aisne yesterday and advanced across the plateau south of the river. German advanced from ten to fifteen kilometres in this region. “In the morning, the Germans recommenced the offensive at all these points, with the same violence, and also attacked on a 20-mile front on the Upper Aisne, between Chateau Porcien and the village of Lechesne. The Germans launched a fierce bombardment. In the Chateua Porcien sector, the German infantry advanced in mass formation. An armoured column which reached Forges les Eaux suffered considerably from the violent attacks of French planes, which attacked the tanks with cannon. Some groups of this column progressed with difficulty south-westwards to the Lower Seine. The Germans used 3,500 tanks and armoured units as the spearhead of their shock forces to breach the French lines. It is the greatest use of mechanised units since the start of the blitzkreig.”