ENSLAVED EUROPE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25560, 13 June 1944, Page 5

ENSLAVED EUROPE

BEGINNINGS OF REVOLT WIDESPREAD UPRISINGS (Rec. 10 a.m.) LONDON, June 11. French resistance leaders in Algiers broadcast the following statement; “All French men and women, consider yourselves mobilised from to-day to hamper the Germans by every means possible.” The German radio says Marshal von Rundstedt decreed to-day that as all the members of the French resistance movement are to be trained as francstireurs they will not be able to claim treatment as soldiers or prisoners of war. The Madrid correspondent of the British United Press says that travellers from France estimate that 500,000 patriots in Southern. France are fighting against the Germans and the Vicny militia. Thfe Allied invasion has touched off widespread patriot risings throughout France, Holland, and Northern Italy. The underground movement in Germany is also reported to have begun an open revolt led by escaped Allied prisoners of war. The correspondent of the Associated Press in Irun (Spain) says despatches received in Irun report that French partisans occupied strategic centres at Toulouse, Limoges, and Tarbes. Travellers returning to Spain from France say the heart of the resistance movement is in the Auvergne region (Central France). Fighting is reported at Ganet, only 15 minutes' drive from Vichy. The French flag Is waving from city halls and balconies of homes in a number of towns and villages south of Vichy. Reuter’s correspondent on the French border says many good French patriots, who formerly refrained from sabotage, are now seizing every chance to hinder the Nazis. Alan Moorehead, the Dialy Express correspondent, says mobilisation of the French Maquis in South-eastern France was reported within a few hours of the Normandy invasion. According to Algiers radio the people of Holland organised open demonstrations of joy as soon as they learned of the invasion. In Amsterdam German troops fired on demonstrating civilians and Dutch patriots damaged a Nazi precision intrument factory. Algiers radio added that in Turin 85 leather factory workers were arrested by the German police after a demonstation in the factory. Near Como partisans attacked a group of German and Italian Fascist troops, capturing 32 prisoners. The Japanese naval attache in Italy, Tojo Mituncbo, was ambushed and assassinated in Northern Italy by partisans armed with tommy guns.

Reuter’s correspondent reports that Bavarian and Austrian deserters, foreign workers, and escaped prisoners of war are leading the German partisan army fighting against German troops in the Austrian Tyrol.