Evening Post. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1940. THE BATTLE FOR PARIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 139, 13 June 1940, Page 8

Evening Post. THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1940. THE BATTLE FOR PARIS

The Battle of France, now in its ninth day, for it started immediately after the end of the Battle of Flanders and the Allied evacuation of Dunkirk on June 4, has narrowed down into a battle for Paris. The German right flank, which at the beginning of this new offensive reached the sea at the mouth of the Somme, has been pushed little further along the Channel coast —in fact only as far apparently as the mouth of the Bresle. From that point it has swung in, on typical Schlieffen lines, south-east to the Seine between Rouen and Vernon, obviously with the design of taking Paris in the rear to the south. Certain elements of German advanced armoured divisions succeeded in crossing the Seine and are moving forward slowly in the teeth of a strong resistance. Northeast of Paris, along the route followed by the invasion of 1914, the enemy has reached within twentyfive miles of Paris and is attacking violently. East of Paris the Germans have crossed the Marne. Outnumbered everywhere, the French are keeping up their resistance, and any withdrawals are made in good order according to plan.

In general, the position is this: The Germans have advanced until their attacking divisions form a rough semi-circle, from west to east to the northward of Paris, with a minimum radius of twenty-five miles. This is the inner circle of the German attack. Beyond that, on «ither side, their flanks bend back markedly to the Channel coast in thel west, north of Dieppe, and to Montmedy at the northern tip of the Mdginot Line, in the east. Could the Allies dispose of anything like the numbers of the Germans, their situation would be by no means unhappy, for the risks the enemy is taking are obvious. And, especially by those who may be inclined to take a gloomy view of the situation, it is to be noted that Mr. Churchill and Sir John Dill, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, have met M. Reynaud and the French military heads, Marshal Petain and General Weygand, in France, and are reported to be in complete agreement. No vital defences have yet been pierced, and the French are fighting even better than they did twenty-six years ago'in the operations which led to the Battle of the Marne. It is not too much to hope for a similar victory soon. The Italians so far show no signs of "blitzkrieg" tactics such as opened the German invasion of the Low Countries and northern France. No fighting is yet reported on France's Alpine frontier in the south-east to the coast of the Riviera. Instead, the Italians are reported to have blown up the railway bridge at Ventimiglia, where road and railway pass the frontier under the cliffs, an extraordinary thing for an army to do which is supposed to be taking the offensive against France to help the major partner in the Axis. Then in the air, where the Italians are presumed to be so strong, it is the Allies who have done the attacking, bombing military objectives at Turin and Genoa in Italy, and several bases in Italy's African possessions, from Tobruk, the naval base in Libya, down to places in Abyssinia and Eritrea. It is notable that the South African Air Force is playing a prominent part in these air operations over Abyssinia. It is not clear what Mussolini intends to do about it.