GREAT COURAGE SHOWN BY POLES

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 219, 16 September 1939, Page 9

GREAT COURAGE SHOWN BY POLES

BITTER FIGHTING

Determined Resistance On Every War Front

RUIN IN WARSAW

(Received 11.30 a.m.)

LONDON, September 1 5

The Warsaw correspondent of the Brussels newspaper Independence Beige" describes the Polish capital- as "a ruin and a desolation. Many six-storey buildings have collapsed like packs of cards. Funeral processions traverse the streets unceasingly.

The courage of the soldiers is incredible. Many wounded men are fighting desperately while awaiting medical aid, which is disorganised."

A United Press correspondent at Zaleszcyki says that Polish troops, reinforced by heavy artillery, are fighting bitterly in the of Lwow, compelling motorised columns which reached the city s outskirts to fall back. The Poles captured ten tanks and an armoured car. They also brought down several bombers.

Five Polish divisions and two cavalry brigades are still holding out around Kutno, fighting the toughest and longest battle of the war so far. They are cut completely off and cannot be expected to resist much longer. ' Thus, at the close of the second week of the war, Germany has completed the first stage of the campaign.

It is estimated that between 20 and 25 Polish divisions have been either captured or destroyed. An unbroken German line has been established across Poland from Lithuania to the Polish Ukraine. It is in the marshes beyond Brest-Litovsk that Poland has the best chance of making a last stand. The fierceness and determination of the Polish resistance is proved by the stand made at Gdynia and Kutno. The very speed of Germany's advance, if repeated in the east, might give Poland a chance to isolate German troops in the swamps, where the Poles have been trained to fight.

The correspondent of the "Herald-Tribune," reporting by telephone from the Rumanian-Polish border, says the situation of the Polish army has grown graver. The Germans are pressing the Poles in three directions, and threatening to cut them off °m their b ase on the right bank of the Vistula, around Lublin. There are unconfirmed reports that Marshal Smigly-Rydz as resigned command of the Army, giving power to General generis " COnsidered one of the ablest of the Polish

The ilJIriS A y . ,a 3S not suffered from bombardment. an . electrical and water plants are intact. The shops are closed nd the population has been without food for two days. Ninety hostages, in addition to the Mayor, have been taken * The factions which fought in Pomorze and Poznania are beginning a campaign concentrated in the triangle formed by the described *T°' h™" L ° dz " Manif estly this cannot be FWk ! Col \ eßlve re po«P»ng of forces. Indeed, some French quarters to-day speak of guerilla warfare. manJV 8 em . ph ®* iße . d Poles report rain to be falling in many areas in the last 48 hours. Hitherto the Germans have certainly been favoured by the weather, which enabled armoured 3&MS rssLTP £=5 ssr — annihilated a who., G.nian'.nfX