INCREASED OUTPUT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 10

INCREASED OUTPUT

Canadian Arms And Munitions INTENSIFIED AID FOR BRITAIN (By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copy right.) (Received June 18, 8.30 p.m.) OTTAWA, June 18. It is officially stated that the output of anti-tank and anti-aircraft shells ’has been increased by onethird. Extensions being made will permit further substantial increases. Canada is also producing Bren guns by mass-production methods and increasing her production of antiaircraft barrel forgings. The Prime Minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, in the House of Commons, said Canadians who landed in France last week were withdrawn at the weekend. France’s fate would strengthen, not weaken Canada’s determination to intensify her effort in the direction of increased home defence and to give further assistance to the United Kingdom.

SUPREME COOLNESS OF BRITISH

Regiment That Was Trapped ACCOUNT OF HEROIC LAST STAND (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 17. An account has now been given of the last stand of a British regiment forming part of the division which fell back on St. Valery-en-Cauz and because of fog was not able to be evacuated. The story of how, surrounded by the enemy, they fought all night at barricades in the midst of the blazing town after driving the enemy back at the point of the bayonet is told by one of •the few survivors—a French liaison officer attached to headquarters. He said: “The men had fought their wity back magnificently right to the coast and at last we reached St. Valery. British and French troops were there.- French and British generals gathered at a conference. Next day I was asked topass certain instructions to the French artillery. The town was so packed with cars and people that I had to break through the doors and pass through houses to reach the point. On the way back a German aeroplane circled over the town three times, making an observation. Then it all began. “As I walked ba,ck to the British headquarters heavy shelling started. A shell burst on a house beside me and | I was wounded in (lie leg. This was bandaged and I wont on. “An hour later there was heavy bombing and many parts of the town began to blaze fiercely. Then, to my surprise, I heard heavy machine-gun fire and British troops began to rush up the streets with fixed bayonets. Germans were beginning to come into

the town. The battle became terrific, with fierce machine-gun and shell fire among the blazing buildings. The Germans were on the,west cliff and the west side of the harbour. I joined some Englishmen and fired at the Germans only a few hundred yards away. Then "tilings suddenly quietened down, and I understood that the British had driven the Germans from the west cliff. As night fell the battle began again. Tiie British were magnificent. They manned barricades set up in the streets. First the enemy shelled and then machine-gunned. Next morning we went off to the beach under machinegun fire. The nearest boats were some miles away. The beach was swept by machine-guns. Every few yards was a dead or wounded man. We ran and hid in crannies at the foot of the cliff, “Along this beach I saw another example of supreme coolness by the British. To make more rapid progress a whole platoon walked along the beach in a widely-spaced line side by side, just as if on parade. I reached the boats. One was aground but overloaded. I stripped off my clothes, swam to a small boat, and eventually was taken aboard a small trawler. Men were pouring down to the beach. What happened io them I do not. know.”

U.S. AIR CRASH

NEW YORK, June 17. Ten United States Army flyers were killed when two Douglas bombers crashed in flames in a suburb of New York after colliding in mid-air.