The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1940. France's Supreme Trial

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23043, 11 June 1940, Page 6

The Press TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1940. France's Supreme Trial

The military situation which has developed in northern France in the last 24 hours has been described by a French official spokesman as “ serious but not yet desperate.” Along a front of 215 miles, stretching from the English Channel to the hills of the Argonne the German High Command has thrown nearly 100 divisions, numbering perhaps 1,500,000 men, into what is probably the greatest and most costly attack in military history; and the French High Command has issued a significant warning that in a matter of hours the attack will extend along the whole of France’s western frontier as far as Switzerland. The emphasis of the German onslaught has varied. The first attack developed its main weight on the flanks—along the Somme between Abbeville and Amiens, and along the Aisne in the neighbourhood of Rethel; this was succeeded by a powerful thrust in the centre directed at the gap between the Somme and the Aisne; and the most recent phase has been a renewal of the flank attacks, as a result of which Paris is now threatened by a pincers movement. On the French left flank German tank detachments, which had previously penetrated to Forges les Eaux, have now reached the outskirts of Rouen and are attempting to cross the Seine. On the French right flank, concerning the fortunes of which there is less news, German forces - have made some progress in a drive to the Marne, which, if successful, will open an easy road to Paris from the north-east. For the moment, however, the greatest danger is from the tank detachments which have made such devastatingly rapid progress in the region west of the Oise. The damage such detachments can do to communications was shown in the disastrous tfew days which followed the German breakthrough on the upper Meuse in the first phase of the Belgian campaign. There is thus a possibility that unless these detachments can be put out of action speedily by air attack the French forces in the western sector of the front will be thrown into confusion. In addition, this western thrust threatens the loss of at least two more' Channel ports. Dieppe and Le Havre, thereby complicating the already difficult problem of maintaining communications between France and Great Britain. The French armies, with necessarily limited British support, now face German forces superior to them in numbers, in equipment, and in air support. There are, however, some considerations which leave room for reasoned hope. One is that the German lines of communication are growing steadily longer and more vulnerable to air actack. As in 1914, moreover, the German High Command’s problefn of communications may be made more difficult by the thoroughness with which its own advanced units, earlier in the campaign, destroyed bridges and railway lines in territory which is now behind the German lines. Another consideration is that German losses of men and material are vastly greater than those of the defenders. Finally, it has to be remembered that Frenchmen are now defending their very national existence and are fighting the kind of defensive action ,in which the French military genius is seen at its best and has no rival.