POLES RESISTING AT GDYNIA

Southland Times, Issue 23922, 14 September 1939, Page 5

POLES RESISTING AT GDYNIA

Hope Of Succour By British Warships

GERMAN FORCES ACTIVE IN MODLIN SECTOR

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received September 13, 11.15 p.m.) LONDON, September 13.

A message from Vilna reports that Gdynia, with a cordon round it, is bitterly resisting the Germans and the defenders are hoping that British warships will arrive in a few hours. The Polish Telegraph Agency states that the Germans have failed to penetrate the Polish positions at the Narew and Bug Rivers. There were 17 air raids on Warsaw yesterday. A message from Budapest says that the Lwow radio declares that volunteers afe preparing to defend Warsaw to the last. A Polish communique claims a stalemate, despite savagq attacks by German tanks, aeroplanes and artillery. A Polish communique announces that the German forces are active in the Modlin sector and also along the San River, but are not making progress to-

wards Lwow. The German attack west of Warsaw was launched at dawn and resulted in 7000 Polish casualties. It is announced in Moscow that numerous Polish refugees crossed the Soviet border. The German radio station announced that Herr Hitler paid a second visit to troops near Warsaw. A Berlin message says that the Nazis estimate that about 22 of the 50 Polish divisions have either been “trapped or wiped out.” They claim that 18 divisions have been caught west of the Vistula during the last three days and that they will be unable to cross the river. The Paris correspondent of the North American Newspaper Alliances, however, states that “Pertinax,” the usually well-informed French journalist, points out that only 15 out of a total of 50 Polish divisions have been engaged against the 50 German divisions. It is claimed in Berlin that the Polish lines east of Warsaw have been broken. Slovaks have advanced as much as 12 miles on some fronts into Poland. POLISH ATROCITIES ALLEGED INVESTIGATION SOUGHT BY GERMANS (Received September 13, 8.45 p.m.) BERLIN, September 13. The German Government has cabled the Red Cross Society at Geneva asking that an international commission should be sent to Poland to investigate the alleged atrocities against German minorities during the Polish retreat. SLOVAK BATTALION REFUSES DUTY SOLDIERS DISARMED AND * INTERNED PARIS, September 12. It was reported from Bratislava that a Slovak battalion refused to entrain for Poland. Officers and men said that they would not fight the Poles and the battalion was disarmed and interned in the barracks. The Germans have forbidden flights

by Slovak airmen. While ostensibly this is because the German forces are un- ' familiar with the Slovak aeroplanes ana might shoot them down, it is really because numbers have deserted to Poland.