GERMAN BOMBARDMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20922, 29 September 1939, Page 6

GERMAN BOMBARDMENT

VILLAGES SWEPT BY SHELLS ANXIETY IN LUXEMBOURG (United press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) PARIS, Sept. 28 An official statement says German long-range guns pounded the rear ol the French lines methodically. Villages and road communications on the 50-mile front between Saarbrucken and Wissemburg were swept by Nazi batteries 20 miles distant. The Luxembourg correspondent of Le Journal reports that there is increasing anxiety in Luxembourg about German intentions. The Germans have placed heavy barbed wire along the Luxembourg frontier in order to prevent the mass desertion of Nazi troops. According to the Paris correspondent of the New York Times, to-day was one of the quietest days on the Western Front. The French communiques are again most terse. The only development of the past 24 hours seems to be that the Germans are lengthening the range of their heavy guns. The purpose is presumed to be to harass the rear of the French lines. Otherwise each side is standing in its positions. Intensity of ArtUlery The intensity of the artillery seemed subnormal and the first line infantry mostly rested. The Saar-brucken-Zweibrucken-Hornbach triangle remains the most sensitive point, where the Germans apparently are most apprehensive of French progress. It is reported that Saarbrucken is completely evacuated. As far as the Germans are ' concerned the lull can possibly be ascribed to political considerations, dependent upon the outcome of Herr von Ribbentrop’s conversations in Moscow, but now that Warsaw has capitulated the Polish front has been eliminated, and a more definite idea of German intentions may be expected. Certain French quarters consider that a diplomatic offensive is within the bounds of probability. In this connection it is recalled that the Germans are persistently professing that they have no quarrel witn France. Germans Wanted to Fraternise Belated letters from soldiers at the front confirm reports that in the early days of the war the Germans displayed placards expressing a desire to fraternise; also stating that convoys would not be fired on until they were actually on German soil. The object of all this is doubtless an effort to disrupt the Anglo-French alliance, but it is observed in Paris that the best reply to this is the British and French military solidarity.