Night Raids Beaten Off

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 214, 11 September 1939, Page 8

Night Raids Beaten Off

GAINS HELD

French Forward Posts Joined Up Into Line

"METHODIC ACTIONS" (Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 10. The French forces in the Saar area are reported from Switzerland to have resumed their attack shortly after daybreak, and to have pushed within range of the automatic arms of the main Siegfried Line forts, under three miles separating them from the forts at some points.

It was also reported that the French are moving into action in the Vosges foothills. The French now occupy the towns of L<uterbach, Bisten and Berus, and the villages of Carlsbrunn, St. Nikolaus and Überherrn.

With the German salient between the Rosel and Bist creeks, west and south from Saarbrucken, wiped out, the line at present appears to run parallel with the Saar River nosth-west from the Forbach area, turning west near Merzig and joining the old frontier near Apach.

An official communique issued in Paris says a "series of methodic actions have enabled advances to be made between the Saar and the Vosges mountains."

The Paris newspaper "Le Temps" semi-officially states that a French division dented one point of the Siegfried Line. Germans marching through underground galleries counterattacked the French in the Saar basin after emerging with machine-guns and automatic rifles.

A semi-official review of the situation says the French spent thq night of Saturday-Sunday in the area conquered on Thursday IMt, strengthening their positions and establishing liaison with their starting points.

French advance guards, who are in captured German blockhouses. fought off night raiders, and fresh troops have now joined the isolated forward positions, converting them into a continuous line.

Tk® German radio from Berlin announces that French armoured cars entered German territory for the first time. Many rrencn were killed and an officer captured. The Paris newspaper "Midi" says the French offensives forced the occupants of the "West Wall" to undertake counterottensives, using shock troops stationed behind the lines. The infantry action was preceded by a barrage.

A war communique issued in Paris says the Germans have launched an offensive in the Sierck region, east of the Moselle.