STIFF TASKS AHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 113, 14 May 1940, Page 7

STIFF TASKS AHEAD

BIG,BATTLE COMING

SERIOUS SITUATION

, ALBERT CANAL ZONE

LONDON, May 13

Information reaching London confirms that the most serious situation at present is in the district south of the Albert Canal, which the Germans succeeded in crossing at Maastricht on Saturday. The Germans are throwing most of their effort into this one gap which they forced in the Belgian defences, and although it is too early to get an accurate estimate of the strength of the offensive, it is clear that there are stiff tasks ahead.

So far most of the ground fighting has been between advanced guards and light mechanised units. The main battle' between the two heavy forces on the two sides has not yet been joined.

The latest communique about the fighting in the Low Countries comes from the Belgian High Command. It says that Belgian troops were engaged

in hard fighting all day. Everywhere they offered fierce resistance to the enemy. A village held by the Germans was recaptured.

In Holland, according to the Netherlands High Command, German troops have made slight advances in the north. There are still Germans on the southern bank of the Maas at Rotterdam, but they are without artillery. The Dutch air force has been active against enemy objectives. A French communique states that in Holland the Germans have made some advances, especially in the lower regions of the Meuse. French counter-attacks, led mainly by tanks, inflicted heavy losses on the Germans at a point 22 miles west of the Belgian border and 35 miles from Brussels.

In the Belgian Ardennes the Germans have achieved some progress m a particularly strong effort.

French light mechanised units, having completed delaying action, have fallen back on the Meuse, which the Germans have reached at one point.

Where the French, Belgian, and Luxemburg borders meet the Germans have exerted strong pressure at a point just inside France, but their attacks were repulsed.

East of the Moselle and in the regions of the Saar still further south German attacks were also repulsed.

On the Rhine there is nothing to report.

The French communique also says that the .Allied and German aircraft have continued their action in support of their land forces, and that in these engagements 15 German planes were shot down. German air action behind the Allied lines caused little damage of any military importance.