FRONT OF 100 MILES BETWEEN RIVERS

Southland Times, Issue 23921, 13 September 1939, Page 7

FRONT OF 100 MILES BETWEEN RIVERS

German Counter-Attack Halted HAND-TO-HAND FIGHTING IN OPEN COUNTRY (United Press Association—Telegraph Copyright) (Received September 12, 9.5 p.m.) LONDON, September 12. The latest news from the Western Front suggests that a major battle is approaching along the 100-mile sector from the Moselle to the Rhine. The French attack is at present concentrated against the heights between Zweibrucken and the Rhine. The Germans thrusting forwards along the Moselle valley are reported to have been cut down by withering fire from the Maginot Line.

The German counter-offensive extended throughout Sunday night and was halted early yesterday.

French infantry, following massed tanks, are reported in Faris to have driven two to four miles deeper over a front of 12| miles east of the Saar river. They are holding a salient close to Blieskastel and Pirmasens, which is directly along the first fortifications of the West Wall and towards Zweibrucken.

An earlier report from Paris said that the French smashed German counter-attacks in an over-night battle on the Maginot frontier. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting occurred in the open farm lands along the Sierck-Saar-burg road, in German territory. In these encounters the Germans were thrust back at the bayonet point. The French also held all their gains.

The opinion is expressed in Paris that the action on the Western Front is gaining intensity. The new zone of attack is from the eastern edge of the line from the Bitche plateau to the German Palatinate between the Little Saar river and the Vosges mountains. The German counterattacks are directed at the western end of the line from the Saar Basin.