SPEEDING WESTWARD

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 296, 13 November 1942, Page 5

SPEEDING WESTWARD

(Rec. 11.20 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 12. The Gorman High Command has ordered the immediate withdrawal of a quarter of the armed forces from the Eastern Front, says the New York Times Ankara correspondent. It is estimated that 42 divisions, including 13 armoured plus 20 squadrons of the Luftwaffe are now speeding westward to France, Italy, and Africa to meet the powerful British and American thrusts in Libya and the Western Mediterranean. The bulk of the 42 divisions were being sent to immense winter barracks in Hungary and South Austria when the Allied attacks in Africa caused a lightning revision of plans. The Luftwaffe already under immense strain in the Caucasus and fighting in a desperate effort to coyer Rommel’s retreat as well as to reinforce the Afrika Korps with airborne troops, has tapped aerodromes as far north as Norway, Prussia, and Poland in a frantic attempt to batter the British and American transports and communications in the Mediterranean and Libya. The representative of the National Broadcasting Company says that the Luftwaffe has almost disappeared from the Russian Front, this being particularly noticeable at Stalingrad. The Oslo radio, quoting a Vichy report, says that the Germans are using hundreds of planes of all types in the occupation of FYance, and the French railways have been placed at the disposal of the German army. Long trains are traversing the country and motorised units are streaming southward in endless columns.