EXTREME COLD CONTINUES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 100, 22 January 1940, Page 7

EXTREME COLD CONTINUES

European Waterways Frozen AERIAL ACTIVITY ON WEST FRONT British Troop Movements Unchecked Uy Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. (Received January 21, 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 20. Freezing weather throughout Europe continues. Many cities report a shortage of foodstuffs and coal because of the dislocation of transport. A hundred degrees of frost was recorded in the middle of Finland and 43 degrees in Germany. Icefloes have brought to a standstill navigation on the Rhine and most Netherlands waters.

The severe weather has not checked the movement of reinforcement which continue to arrive at the Western Front from Britain.

A French war communique states: “There was a sharp engagement between reconnaissance units on German territory in the region of the Blies River. An enemy fighter was brought down within our lines on Friday.” A further French communique stated that an enemy raid west of the V osges completed failed. For the first time during the war French fighters brought down a German plane near the British coast. A patrol was cruising at a high altitude between Calais and Belgium when it spotted a German machine heading for England. It crossed the Channel in pursuit, swooped down from a height of 27,000 feet and punctured the German’s oil tank and stopped one engine. Eventually the enemy plane crashed on the seashore after it had turned back toward France.

A German war communique states: “A number of prisoners were captured in a patrol engagement between the Moselle and the Palatinate Forest. The air force reconnoitred over Britain and France. Air battles occurred over the French front and one German plane was lost. Solo enemy planes flew over Netherlands territory to Germany at night.”

Sylt Bombing Mystery.

There is no confirmation, in London of circumstantial reports from Copenhagen of a new attack on the German seaplane base at the island of Sylt, to the north of the Heligoland Bight. The Air Ministry has no information about any air activity that would account for these reports, and it is stated unofficially that no British planes were over that district on Thursday. This is the second time in eight days that eye-witness reports of this kind, entirely lacking in confirmation in London, have been received from Denmark. Icefloes are exploding mines in Danish waters and suggest an explanation of the Sylt bombing mystery, though German circles, despite the British denial, insist that the Royal Air Force was responsible. The British Air Ministry announced ;that several reconnaissance flights were carried out over north-west Germany on the nights of January 18 and 19. The Air Ministry also announced : “An enemy aircraft was attacked by R.A.F. fighters over the sea east of Aberdeen this afternoon apd driven off.”

The Air Ministry statement gives point to a leading article in the “Yorkshire Post,” which recalls that it is a quarter of a century today "since England was first attacked by airships, which came over the eastern counties on a rainy, misty night, and dropped bombs, killing four persons. After reviewing the growth of the air menace after 1915 in the last war and in the intervening years of peace, the “Yorkshire Post” editorial .ends •with the claim, which this afternoon’s incident does nothing to invalidate: “The air menace can be mastered. That is shown by the speed with which recent raiders returned to Germany after approaching our coasts.”