AIR FORCE OFFENSIVE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 154, 30 May 1940, Page 7

AIR FORCE OFFENSIVE.

GERMAN ARMY STRAFED. CURTAIN OF BOMBS FALLS. LONDON, May 29. Massed intervention by the British anil French Air Forces in an effort to protect the British Expeditionary Force and the French troops in thenperilous situation in Flanders is reported this morning from Baris. The French spokesman said: “The AirForces are going into action with all the means at their command. They are heavily engaged-in the tremendous operation of dropping a curtain of bombs to protect the sorely pressed armies.” The spokesman also announced that the French were carrying out an important movement on the Somme which seemed to be developing favourably despite German resistance. It is learned in London that German troops who passed through the Belgian lines without resistance have attacked the Allies forces in the rear during the night. “As long as ammunition lasts the British Expeditionary Force will continue to fight” was an authoritative statement made in London late last night. With their left ting uncovered, the Allied forces are fighting magnificently and contesting every inch of ground. French military sources state that these forces are manoeuvring to take up new positions in the north in an endeavour to present a front to every direction from which danger threatens. The Germans have continued to increase the weight of forces striking from the River Lys, northwestward toward Zeebrugge, Osteiid aiid Dunkirk. V King Leopold’s'action involved the surrender of 300,000 men and opened the road to Dunkirk from the north, but the Allied Command accepted the situation coolly. The watchword immediately went out: “British and French, go on fighting!” The German News Agency claims that most of the British forces which can be evacuated from Belgium have already embarked. A military commentator in Berlin has broadcast a warning to Germans to prepare to hear losses from the bitter Allied resistance in Flanders and Artois.