GREATER VIOLENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 137, 11 June 1940, Page 7

GREATER VIOLENCE

GERMAN ATTACK

THE CHAMPAGNE SECTOR

MAGINOT FORTS IN ACTION

LONDON, June 10. This morning's French communique says that from the sea to the Argonne the battle is continuing with increasing violence. This- is the only present official announcement of the fighting. Armoured German units, which were part of a force which pressed on from Forges-les-Eaux, to Rouen and Pont de l'Ardre, were reported last night to have reached Gisors, which is east of Rouen and 35 miles from Paris. The Germans' most violent attack has been in the Champagne sector, but the French lines there are' still holding. The Germans also launched, fierce onslaughts in the region southward of Aumale. At Montdidier, which is the centre of the front, there was a series of extremely severe attacks. Counter-attacks developed in the region of Soissons. South of Amiens the enemy yesterday had advanced 20 miles. Germans crossed the River Aisne 60 miles from Paris at a point 20 miles, south-east of Soissons. In the east, where the Germans attacked in the heavily-wooded and hilly Argonne district south of Sedan, parachute troops were dropped along the whole sector, but these have been completely surrounded. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) LONDON, June 10. It is authoritatively stated in -London that the situation in France is' obviously one of increasing difficulty. British troops are in some of the heaviest fighting and are playing their full part on the left of the French.

The Germans are making three main thrusts, the first above Rouen, / the second south of Soissons, and the third, a new attack, on both sides of Rethel.

The first is the most serious, and HP has made the most progress, having reached the Seine. . ~

A message from Basle states that the French artillery at 2 a.m. and again at 3 a.m. opened very heavy bombard- ♦ ments against the German positions at the Swiss end of the front. Great columns of smoke were seen from the vicinity of Basle, where the windows fc rattled from the gunfire. While no pre- • cisc information is available in London, it is reasonable to assume as the explanation of the French bombardment that it is due to a concentration of German troops.

A later Basle report says that each bombardment lasted 20 minutes. Everyone was awakened and watched the flashes from the Maginot forts.. Fresh. German divisions are reported to be moving into the Black Forest, where the forces are^now estimated to total 20 divisions. ,