A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 195, 14 May 1940, Page 8

A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Official communiques nqw serve to give a rather clearer picture of events in Belgium, Holland and the Western Front. The Dutch statement of the position says that the German troops crossed the Maas and Yssel Rivers at several points and that f rontiei troops have withdrawn to new positions without impoitant loss.. Germans who have crossed the Yssel have still to reach the main Dutch defences in this region. Those who have crossed the Alaas are probably attacking in the more vulnerable part of the countiy, but there are indications that Allied forces are now here otjictcabouts. In the northern part of Holland the Germans claim to have made greater advances, though the Dutch say they are being delayed. Parachute landings in Holland continue, though appaiently with not the same intensity as at first, and the Dutch now feel able to claim that the situation in the interior is full}' under control. Belgian troops are apparently having to withstand fierce assaults, but the French and British forces are now lending assistance. From where they crossed the Albert Canal the Germans are said to have advanced about 20 miles, after which the Belgians claimed that the position had stabilized. Later reports suggest that the enemy might have made some more progress. Though in this sector the Germans have penetrated farther west than Liege, which lies to the south, the forts of this city continue to defy heavy attacks. Southward still, along the frontiers of Luxemburg and I* rance, no great gains seem to have been made by the attackers. The Germans say that the capture of one of the Belgian fortified positions was made possible by the use of a new “nerve gas.’ Great aerial activity continues, with Allied aircraft striking hard and often. It is said that much damage has been done to the communications of the advancing Germans, and that the two bridges at Maastricht, the Germans’ main point of entry into Belgium, have now been destroyed, together with other communications, both there and within the German frontier along the routes by which the enemy is advancing. Allied fighter planes continue to claim many victims among the raiding German aircraft. Suggestions of future German movements arc contained in a Stockholm message, which says it is persistently reported that there are he'avy movements of German transports in the Kiel Canal; and there is a statement that Swiss military observers report large German troop movements north of the Swiss frontier. . Anti-British outbursts.in the Italian Press have been intensified as a result of a report complaining of the effect of the British contraband control. Squads of young Fascists arc plastering the streets of Italian cities with ariti-British posters, which are said to be very numerous in Rome.