ENEMY PLANS TO CRUSH 11 FRENCH

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 7

ENEMY PLANS TO CRUSH 11 FRENCH

IF TALKS FAIL Germans And Italians On Strategic Line. MAGINOT TROOPS RESISTING. United Preen Association.—Copyright. (Received 11 a.m.) LONDON, June 19. A Rome broadcast states that Hitler and Mussolini have ordered their armies to occupy positions along a united strategic line from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean for a final attack if France rejects the conditions offered. A German High Command communique says: "The French Army ie continuing to disintegrate. Our motorised forces and troope have taken Sherbourg, reached Rennes (in Brittany), paesed through Lemans, crossed the Loire at many points between Orleans and Nevers, and advanced towards Lyons. Armoured and motor - ised units are approaching from Belfort, I near the Swiss frontier, and are preparing to join troops who have already penetrated deep into the Vosges. "Further north we took Nancy, and crossed the Rhine-Marne canal east of Nancy. The enemy ie still resisting on 'both sides of the Maginot Line. Dive j bombers assisted our operations against fortresses, field positions, railway lines, troop concentrations and convoys. Air Raid- Successes Claimed. "Bombers eank a 10,000-ton ship off Cherbourg. Air formations bombed numerous air bases in England and set fire to great oil storage tanks at the mouth of the Thames. "British 'planes on June 17 bombed non-military objectives in north and weet Germany, killing approximately 18 civilians." The German High Command adds: "Our forces have occupied Luneville, Toul and Strasbourg." The German radio says: "With the occupation of Lβ Creusot the armament works of Schneider-Creusot fell into our hands." The Berlin news agency states that seven civilians were, killed and a number injured in an enemy air raid on Cologne. A bomb splinter, during an R.A.F. raid on .Dusseldorf, killed Weitzel, chief of the Diu=*eldorf police, who was a high group leader of the Storm Troops.