GRIM PROMISE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 217, 13 September 1944, Page 5

GRIM PROMISE

GERMAN CIVILIANS

Eisenhower Warns Of Coming

Devastating Attacks

British Official Wireless Rec. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 12. "On August 26 I addressed a warning to German civilians in Luxemburg, Alsace Lorraine and Germany, west of the Rhine. The swift advance by the Allied armies and the disintegration of the German armies in the West, have brought you within scope of that warning," said a statement by General Eisenhower and broadcast in German.

"I am repeating it now to inhabitants of the Ruhr and Rhinelancl. The areas in which you live are already, to-day, in the rear of military operations. Very soon they may become a theatre of war. In view of these facts, I am giving you the following warning:— ''(1) Rear communications of the remnants of the German Army_ retreating into Germany will be subjected to bombing as devastating as that which preceded and accompanied the Allied campaign in Normandy. Civilians are hereby warned that everyone who lives or works, in the vicinity of road, railway or canal communications, military depots, camps, installations or fac- - tories working for the Nazi war; machine must, from now on, reckon that they will not be saved from-high-level and low-level air_ attack ■ at any hour of the day or night. r_: "(2) In particular, emergency earmarks and fortifications will be areas of special danger. Civilians are warned that all who work on these military targets do so at their own peril. To prevent useless civilian casualties, all civilians are advised in the coming weeks, to evacuate danger areas and take refuge in the countryside as far as possible from— such areas. "(3) Civilians are further warned - that perpetrators of all atrocities committed against non-Germans in. these areas will be brought to trial for their crimes. Evidence as to these crimes will be accepted by Allied judicial authorities from German and non-German witnesses."