Full Dress Warfare

Northern Advocate, 10 August 1938, Page 5

Full Dress Warfare

(Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, August 9. In spite of the fact that the Japanese Government is qlearly making efforts for a peaceful' settlement of the frontier dispute with Russia, the army leaders are not hopeful of an early cessation of hostilities, says the Tokio correspondent of “The Times.” They pointed out that since July 29 there has been no contact between the commanders on the spot, any person approaching the Soviet line being fired upon. They declare the situation now resembles a full-dress war on a fourmile front, except that since July 31 the Japanese forces have be6n fighting purely on the defensive. The Russian forces operating in the area are now believed to number at least a division, including artillery, tanks and aeroplanes, compared with their original strength of four battalions. The Japanese claim to have destroyed 70 tanks since the conflict began. They have brought down certainly five, and posibly seven, Soviet aeroplanes by gunfire. Japanese Grimly Waiting.

Fourteen Russian bombing aeroplanes have attacked the Japanese lines at Changkufeng and Shatsaoping three times since dawn to-day. The Japanese are manning their trenches in both areas, and grimly awaiting a new Russian onslaught. Only a few hundred yards separate the forces, and No Man’s Land is strewn with bodies, rifles, machineguns and derelict tanks. Fresh Russian troops are replacing the main body in the front line at Changkufeng. Marshal Bluecher has arrived at Novokievsk in order personally to direct operations.