ATTACK ON GIBRALTAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1942, Page 4

ATTACK ON GIBRALTAR

BY WAY OF SPAIN MAY BE ATTEMPTED BY AXIS. SPECULATION IN GENEVA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) LONDON, December 23. A belief is growing in Geneva that Hitler will march through Spain and strike against Gibraltar, for the purpose of gaining a strangehold on the Western Mediterranean.

The “Daily Mail’s" Geneva correspondent says observers believe that in view of German failures on the Eastern front, the Axis has decided to concentrate all its efforts on southern and western Europe. The Axis has taken its eyes from Stalingrad and focussed them on Gibraltar. Hitler, it is believed, realises that he cannot leave Italy to bear the brunt of an Allied offensive alone, for which reason the Wehrmacht is making great preparations in South France, particularly near the Spanish frontiers. The “Mail” fortifies this belief by recalling that large numbers of Italian troops have been concentrated on the Spanish frontier.

NAZI OCCUPATION

OF BALEARIC ISLANDS.

PREDICTED IN TURKEY. (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) NEW YORK, December 23. An Associated Press Ankara correspondent says: “According to an informed foreign source here, the Germans are placing pressure on Spain to permit the occupation of the Balearic Islands and would even occupy them by force in the event of a refusal. Diplomatic quarters in Ankara, since "the opening of the North African campaign, have believed that Germany would attack Spain with a view to the occupation of the whole country, besides the islands.