EXTREMELY STUBBORN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 196, 28 May 1940, Page 5

EXTREMELY STUBBORN

ALLIES IN FLANDERS GERMANS CEASELESS ATTACKS

(United Press Association • —Copyright > (Received This Day, 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, May 27. A military spokesman said that the,battle in Flanders is becoming more and more a big defensive struggle of extreme stubbornness. The German General Staff is adopting the tactics used at Verdun in the last war. Men and materials are hurled forward in ever-increasing masses, the infantry making ceaseless attacks from the widest fronts, with tremendous tank, artillery and aenai support. In the Argonne, the French recaptured ground lost on Saturday.

On both sides ’planes are attacking in the back area. The Allies are .concentrating /on roads, troop columns, and bridges. The Germans are fiercely bombing the ports. The main German attack was on a sector held by the Belgians on the River Lys, directed toward Menin and Courtrai. Despite colossal loss of life the Germans made only feeble territorial gains. The fighting lasted all yesterday and night. It was the first night fighting on, a big scale since the outbreak of the war.

The French stopped all German attacks in the Valenciennes secvtor. The French withdrawal from Valenciennes was due to the troops being too far forward in relation to the general Allied line in the north.