WESTERN FRONT

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20986, 13 December 1939, Page 9

WESTERN FRONT

GENERAL’S WARNING GERMAN PREPARATIONS BIG OFFENSIVE EXPECTED , United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright; PARIS, Dec. 12 Preparations which the Germans made for an offensive on the Western Front in October are referred to m a message from General Gamelin to the forces, and transmitted through Viscount Gort to the British troops. General Gamelin says that, in his order of the day of October 14, he warned the forces to be prepared for an enemy offensive. On October 16 the preliminary action started, but the Allied dispositions prevented their development. In the meantime, they had seen the enemy making further preparations, and he urged the troops to be increasingly read; . A Danger Removed France’s “Achilles Heel,” namely, the danger of invasion through Switzerland, no longer exists, writes the special corespondent of the Times with the I rench Army, Mr R. W. Cooper, after a week’s tour of positions between Strasbourg and the Swiss frontier. Mr Cooper was most impressed by a portion of the section, the so-called Belfort Gap. where the plain widens between the Vosges and Jura Mountain'-, with a bottle-neck entrance i asle. A trc-i..wiidous reception awaits any German attempt to break through here. Numerous guns command the riverside plain, which is filled with wire entanglements and tank traps. A Nor-’i African regiment is building furuiCi. deep casemates in accordance with the ceaseless activities of the armies elsewhere on the front. Concrete casemates and blockhouses on this front are creating support for the existing Maginot works, which, although smaller than those in the north, follow similar lines, with a strategic command of the valleys, together with supporting crossfire devices against tanks. A BIG JOB BRITISH IN FRANCE WORK OF ROYAL ENGINEERS (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 11 The Royal Engineers are doing a bigger job of work than any of the King’s soldiers now on French soil, writes a correspondent from the Western Front. With enthusiastic engineer officers I waded knee-deep in the sodden clay of a potato field in order to see how their material was being used. They showed me strong-points, section-posts, trenches, dugouts, billets, roads, draining systems, lighting arrangements, and transport lines —all of which could not have been brought into being without these engineers, who have been slaving day and night for the past two months without a murmur. Smiling Soldiers Indeed, all were smiling today as they worked boring machines, whose wells will supply the Army with sweet water from the unpolluted depths below mud ani clay, and mixed concrete for the bewildering number of pillboxes they are erecting along the front, support, and reserve lines.

Each pillbox requires skilful factory layout. Gravel and sand must be mixed, trucked to the pillbox,' hoisted up a staging of iron pipes, and emptied into the great wooden framework within which iron rods skeleton the finished form, and large steel plates mark the firing apertures. Upon the excellence of these pillboxes depends far more than the fate of the peasant lands in which they are situated, for if the Germans broke through here the whole campaign might well be theirs, and so all France. Through water-logged fields I accompanied officers to watch machines excavating anti-tank ditches. As the clay was eaten away, gumbooted toilers rushed in with iron joinsts and steel mesh in order to make the ditch permanent. Excavators on caterpillar tracks moved forward, leaving a deep trap etched into the endless potato fields. Honours To Sappers The honours must go to the sappers, who are creating a whole series of works which will allow the infantry to hurl the Germans back if ever they attempt to storm the British Army’s position. In the meantime, they are making life for the troops tolerable and possible by building baths. The whole British sector should fairly bristle with pillboxes before spring. They are being built in great groups. Like true craftsmen, the engineers take a genuine pride in their work, and are almost reluctant to halt for the mid-day meal of stew and tea, which is brought up in vacuum containers from the kitchens in the reserve lines. German Statement A German communique issued in Berlin says there has been light artillery fire in some parts of the front, otherwise it is quiet. SAVING OF £50,000,000 BRITISH ROAD PROGRAMMES United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 11 A saving of nearly £50,000,000 by a review of the commitments in respect of road construction programmes was announced by the Minister of Transport at the annual meeting of the Institute of Transport to-day,