FIGHTING ON

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 September 1940, Page 6

FIGHTING ON

AFFIRMATION OF POLISH RESOLUTION ON ANNIVERSARY OF NAZI ATTACK. GRATITUDE AND ADMIRATION DUE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 31. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the German invasion of Poland, an event described by General Sikorski in his order of the day to the Polish forces as “a foul, treacherous attack,”

Though outnumbered —the Nazis were 15 to 20 times stronger than the Poles in the armoured motorised divisions—the armies of this gallant people offered the first determined resistance the Nazi hordes had experienced. For that gallant act the gratitude and admiration of the world is owed and paid to Poland.

Though eventually overwhelmed, the Polish army took great toll from the Germans. According to figures issued by the Rod Cross in Switzerland, about 100,000 Nazis were killed, and double that number wounded.

Nor was this gallant nation defeated. A large part of the Polish Navy was able to join with the British fleet, and their work has already earned the highest praise. Many members of the Polish army and air force escaped to carry on the battle in France. When that country collapsed, Polish determination carried their forces to Britain, where the air force fights alongside the R.A.F. and the army is being reconstituted and rearmed, and will carry on the fight till Poland is again redeemed from alien occupiers, and the unquenchable Polish spirit reigns once more in its native land.