INVASION CLOSE?

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 June 1943, Page 5

INVASION CLOSE?

AXIS WARNINGS INCREASE

BLOWS FROM EAST AND WEST

LONDON, June 16. A flood of speculation about the Allies’ plans continues to pour from the Axis, whose radios are telling the people of Italy and Germany that invasion is coming closer each hour and warning them to stand firm. Both Berlin and Rome continue to emphasise the massing of Allied shipping in the western and central Mediterranean.

Quoting reports from La Linea, the Berlin radio says that a huge convoy of 25 vessels in ballast has arrived at Gibraltar, accompanied by the aircraft-carrier Formidable, the battleship King George V, and American naval units. Their arrival brought the total number of merchantmen at Gibraltar to 56.

A German communique claims that the Luftwaffe hit seven medium-sized transports in the waters of Pantelleria.

Simultaneous blows against the Axis from the east and west are forecast by the Leningrad radio, which says: ■ “The Allies are preparing . to overcome the German anti-invasion defences and invade the European Continent. There can be no doubt that the Allied blow from the west will coincide with the Red Army’s crushing blow from the east and will join into a single mighty blow striking the death knell for the Fascists.” The Rome radio has announced that anyone failing to report the presence of foreign troops on Italian soil will suffer extreme penalties. General Luis Aalamillo, head of a Mexican mission, who has just returned to Mexico City from North Africa, said that United Nations’ officers in Africa told him that invasion of the European Continent would take place in a short time, and that everything was prepared. General Aalamillo added that United States Army organisation in North Africa was amazing. A military commentator, Captain von Schramm, in a statement in Berlin, mentioned for the first time from an authoritative source the withdrawal of men from the Russian front to strengthen the Western Front. Captain von Schramm explained that the essential war ’objectives of the Axis in Europe and East Asia had been attained. “Our strategy at present is to await the enemy’s blow,” he added.

“PEACE”PROPAGANDA

(Recd. 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, June 16.

The pro-German Swedish newspaper, “Allehanda” published a special edition to-day stating that Rus-sian-German peace talks were held recently at a boarding house near Stockholm. The negotiations between high German officers and several Russian delegates, including Madame Kollontay, the Soviet Minister to Sweden, lasted several days. The Russians offered the Germans Lithuania, Esthonia, Latvia and Poland. The negotiations broke down when the Germans also demanded the Ukraine, says the paper. The British United Press Stockholm correspondent says that the “Allehanda’s” story of the RussianGerman peace talks is not confirmed from any other source. Madame Kollontay emphatically denied the whole story and said it was just lies from a German quarter.

RUMANIA’S OFFER

!(Recd. 12 Noon) LONDON, June 16. | Quoting semi-diplomatic information Ankara correspondents of the Associated Press and Reuters, report ■that Rumania extended feelers for the purpose of discovering how the Allies would regard her capitulation. Correspondents say the Rumanian offer is under serious consideration in London, Washington and Moscow. The offer was made to the Allies ..through a neutral diplomat. Rumania intimated that as the price of leaving the Germans, she .would demand retention of parts of Bessarabia and Bukoovina, which Russia claims.

ALLIES’ ARMIES

(Recd. 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, June 16. The Allies now have at their disposal armies totalling between 13,000,000 and 14,000,000. The United Nations have all the necessary manpower and materials to invade Europe, declared the Moscow newspaper, “Trud.” The paper added that the British Empire can throw in between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000 men. The Allies are producing monthly 10,000 guns, 6000 tanks, and 10,000 to 11,000 planes. Germany is producing 3,000 tanks, 4,000 guns, and 4,000 planes. England and America now possess at least twice as many fighters as Germany and her allies.