FURTHER PROGRESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 64, 13 September 1939, Page 9

FURTHER PROGRESS

FRENCH POSITIONS CONSOLIDATED

BOMBARDMENT OF ENEMY REAR

(By Telecraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Received September 13, 1 p.m.)' LONDON, September 12. The French official wireless states that since the failure of the German counter-attack near the Luxembourg frontier the French advance in the Saar has been continued with marked success. A French communique declared that the night was cslm on the entire front. The Paris correspondent of the British United Press states that, the French positions on German soil have been greatly consolidated. The fire of the French artillery is directed mainly at the rear of the Siegfried Line, with the object of preventing the enemy bringing up reinforcements to supplement the permanent garrisons, which at some points are merely a skeleton. \ ' The Havas news agency states that in a survey during the night French troops limited themselves to strengthening their positions in the territory occupied in Germany at the junction of the .Saar and thc&Blies. French air experts assert that the arrival of R.A.F. units assures the Allies of early supremacy of the skies on the Western Front. Britain has the fastest fighters and medium bombers in the world, and France has the deadliest and speediest heavy bombers. It has been established that the French advances on the Western Front have resulted in negligible casualties. Gas has not yet been used by either side, despite rumours that have circulated. GERMANS RUSH UP HEAVY GtJNS. A communique issued by the German High Command states that no bombs have been dropped in German territory on the Western Front. The Germans are rushing heavy artillery to the West Wall. A French report last night on the fighting stated that their infantry, following massed tanks, were reported to have driven two to four miles deeper over a 12^-miles front east of the Saar River and to be holding a salient close to Bleiskastel and Pirmasens, which are directly along the first fortifications of the West Wall and towards Zweibrucken.

It is believed that a major battle is approaching along the 100----mile sector from the Moselle to the Rhine.