ALL RESERVES IN BATTLE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 9

ALL RESERVES IN BATTLE

French Resistance ARMY BROKEN INTO FOUR PARTS Germans Claim Rout LONDON, June 17. The French this evening were still fighting though the military spokesman at Bordeaux stated that the army reserves have been completely exhausted. The High Command announced that the battle was continuing along the whole front, particularly along the middle of the River Loire. A definition of the present general position of France was given over the radio tonight by a French military spokesman, who said that there is no longer ' a continuous French front. He said that the navy was intact and that the air force remained powerful. The losses which they had suffered had been compensated for by the activity of their armament factories. The position of the land army, however, had become untenable. For several days there had been no continuous front, and though the troops had jnirsued the battle with admirable courage and had often carried out successfully vigorous counter-attacks it had to be said that they had now been divided into four separate and distinct groups and ran the risk of falling victims to German manoeuvre. After stating the positions of three of the armies, the spokesman said that the only army which was intact was the fourth, which was stationed in the Alps, where the Italians were not attacking. . Strong Defence in west.

The French, he said, had lost great quantities of artillery and other equipment, but were still lighting strongly in the region west of Evreux and Chartres, and another group was lighting in the province of Loire, near the Swiss border.

The French spokesman was quoted by the Columbia Broadcasting Company as having stated that the I 1 reach decision to sue for peace was particularly due to the situation of the land army, which was thought to be extremely grave but not desperate. Today’s first French communique, issued in Bordeaux, stated: “Fighting continued in the region of Laigle and Chateaudun besides on the line of the Loire and south of Avalion. The enemy has crossed the Saone at certain points and is advancing in the direction of the River Doubs. The situation is unchanged in Upper Alsace, where the enemy has not succeeded in crossing the Rhone-Rhine canal.” There was early uncertainty in London as to whether fighting had ceased after Marshal Petain’s broadcast this morning, and it was believed that the French day communique referred to fighting which was progressing several hours before Marshal Petain spoke. There were no details of what the British Expeditionary Force was doing in Normandy. Apparently no great attack had been made in the Chartres region, as the Germans had concentrated their attacks in the east. Near Swiss Border.

The Berne correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain says that the Maginot Line began shelling the German positions at 3 p.m. and that the guns of the Siegfried Line replied. A message from Geneva slates that a German motorized column occupied Gex, 12 miles north-west of Geneva, and is now nearing Ferney, just across the Swiss frontier.

Tiie French night communique, which was broadcast, stated: “The battle continued today along the whole front, particularly in the middle of the Loire. There was violent lighting at Orleans and iu the region of La Charite. Enemy detachments which succeeded in crossing the river have been contained on a lateral canal running parallel with the river. East, of the Loire the enemy made further progress beyond Autun. In Burgundy the enemy entered Dijon and also reached Doubs aud pushed motorized units into the department of Jura. “At all points of contact our troops are still fighting with the same bravery for the honour of the flag.” Germans’ Claims.

A German communique this morning stated: “Motorized units readied the Swiss frontier at Pontarlier; thus the ring round the enemy’s forces in Al-sace-Lorraine Ims been closed. The French armies, having broken down, are pouring back in great disintegration. We succeeded, through a bold attack by motorized units, in taking Orleans and an undamaged bridge across the Loire. Our air force bombed and machine-gunned heavy columns which were stationary at bridges across the Loire. We captured two aerodromes on which 39 planes were ready to take off. Our troops took advantage of the breach in the Maginot Line s-uth of Saarbrucken to advance steadily toward the Rhine-Marne Canal.” Later a special German communique staled that the Metz fortress (near tlie rear of the Saar section of the Maginot Line) surrendered this afternoon.