HOLDING FIRM

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 134, 7 June 1940, Page 8

HOLDING FIRM

MAIN PART OF ALLIED LINE

TANKS VULNERABLE

OPEN TO AIR ATTACK

LONDON, June 7.

The battle of the Somme and the Aisne is now approaching its third day. It is being contested with as much violence as ever on a front of about 120 miles from the Channel to a point a few miles north of the Aisne. From the official description of the day's fighting it emerges that although the Germans have been able to make some headway at the Channel end of the line and in the centre, the* main part of the Allied line is holding firm.

The battle today has been fought in blazing sunshine, and many of our

men took off their tunics and manned their guns with their shirt sleeves rolled up.

The use of tanks is one of the most interesting features of the German tactics, but there is nothing so far to suggest that the tanks are having the success they had in the original breakthrough on the Meuse. The French defence system on the Somme and the Aisne is chiefly a series of strong points extending to a great depth, and though some tanks have managed to avoid some of these strong points and get some distance behind the Allied lines they, have often found themselves isolated and immobilised. Once they are in this position, without infantry support they 'are much easier to deal with, and it is at this stage that the French Air Force has been taking a heavy toll. It is also found that small shells from French air guns are capable of penetrating the roof armour of the tanks. Although some of these tanks are strongly armoured against land weapons, their protection, from above -consists only of armoured plating capable of keeping out falling shrapnel. Moreover, they have no anti-aircraft guns and cannot reply to an attack from directly above. This is an important discovery, and already it would appear to be having an encouraging effect on the French attack.