POLES HOLDING OUT

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 307, 25 September 1939, Page 9

POLES HOLDING OUT

Vigorous Defence CITIZENS’ ORDEAL IN WARSAW Soviet Campaign Proceeds By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received September 24, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, September 23. Though Polish forces are still fighting at Warsaw and several other points, the German High Command announced today that the campaign in Poland is ended. There are continued German casualties in the Polish clean-up campaign, states the Berlin correspondent of the “New York Times. The German Press bitterly complains of “the unfairness of the Poles’ guerrilla tactics.” Small detachments are ambushing the German rearguard and cutting off patrols from their companies. The Polish countryside, though conquered, is not quiet but was alive throughout the night with small, bitter skirmishes. The Moscow correspondent of the British Associated Press says a Red army communique announces that the troops are cleaning up the entire Polish front. They have occupied Bialystok and Brest Litovsk and have started mopping up the remnants of the Polish army in the Augustov forests north-west of Grodno. Russian troops are similarly engaged in the western Ukraine. The communique adds that six Polish infantry divisions and two independent regiments surrendered in the Lemberg area. Since September 17 the Russians have taken 120,000 officers and soldiers prisoners, and 380 heavy guns and 1-100 anacbine-guns have been captured.

German Casualties. An earlier Moscow communique claimed the occupation of Pinsk as part of ithe final mopping-up operations in the occupied areas. The Moscow Press for the first time yesterday announced that a Dnieper River war patrol entered Polish waters last Monday evening without resistance. The French Ministry of Information states that in three weeks of warfare in Poland, German casualties totalled 150,000 dead and wounded. Arrivals in Berlin describing Warsaw’s ordeal, say that dead are being buried in the city’s squares. The inhabitants are suffering from the food shortage and typhoid fever. The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press' of America yesterday asserted that the real battle for Warsaw had not yet started. The Polish defenders were still counter-attacking and vainly endeavouring to break through the German lines investing the suburb of Praga. Excellent Morale. The Military Governor of Warsaw, Colonel Lipinski, in a broadcast, stated •that up to September 20 Warsaw defenders brought down 87 planes. The Poles advanced several miles to the westward. He described the destruction of German tanks as it result of soldiers leaping on them and throwing in petrol torches. The civilian morale was excellent. Newsboys were selling papers, even during the shelling. The Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain yesterday stated that the German Command permitted about 1000 foreign consuls, attaches and business men to leave Warsaw overnight by specified roads. The Poles have been holding out In the Gdynia area and also •between the Vistula and Bug Rivers. POLISH GOLI) FLOWN TO LONDON (Received September 24, 7.10 p.m.) COPENHAGEN, September 23. Flying so low that its markings were plainly seen, a Polish plane passed today over Goetlienburg. It is stated that it received special permission to fly over neutral countries to England carrying a large quantity of gold owned by iMiportant citizens.