INVASION FEARS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1942, Page 4

INVASION FEARS

DEFENCE PREPARATIONS BY GERMANS IN BALKANS AND WESTERN EUROPE. SOME COMMENTS IN TURKEY. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, November 19. The Germans are hastily strengthening their defences' in Greece against a possible Allied invasion attempt, says an Ankara report. Batteries of anti-airci'aft guns have been rushed to the southern Greek ports, and the coastal waters have been mined. Germans in Turkey are spreading reports that enormous German forces are being brought from the Russian front to the Balkans, but Turkish army officers estimate • that th'e Germans have only 20,000 men in Macedonia, the easternmost province of conquered Greece. They ask why the Germans should make mass withdrawals from Russia when the Russians are gathering fresh forces for a new winter offensive. The London “Daily Telegraph” says the Germans are building a great defensive belt along the entire length of the Dutch and Belgian coasts. In Holland the defence belt is 35 miles deep. Within this zone movement has been brought to a standstill. No person is allowed to change his place of residence or to make contact with anyone outside the defence area. All coastal towns in Belgium have been heavily fortified, and Belgians have been compulsorily evacuated from a defence zone twelve miles deep. Reports have reached Turkey of a wave of grumbling and criticism in the German Army. Dr. Ley, Leader of the Labour Front, has countered with a manifesto in “Der Angriff,” which says that thoughts about high strategy have nothing to do with the ordinary soldier. He must have a fanatical belief in the right and might of his cause, and stick to the strictest discipline.