GERMAN TROOP MOVEMENTS

Southland Times, Issue 24368, 24 February 1941, Page 5

GERMAN TROOP MOVEMENTS

PONTOON BRIDGES OVER DANUBE (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received February 23, 8.30 p.m.) LONDON, February 22. Whether the German march into Bulgaria has actually and openly begun or the process of infiltration has been intensified as a preparatory move is not yet definitely able to be stated, the Daily Express says. Messages picked up by its radio station at 2 a.in. indicated that large German forces have been crossing the Danube into Bulgaria in the last 36 hours. The movements are continuing. The Daily Mail says that Hitler’s march into Bulgaria has begun in fact, if not officially. German troops, according to a report via Belgrade, have been crossing the Danube since noon on Friday by pontoon bridges over the river at 17 points. They are now reported to- be concentrating on the Bulgarian side of the river. German troops are reported to have passed through Sofia during the night to take up positions in the Struma valley on the vital road to Salonika. The Daily Mail’s special correspondent says that this may account for the fact that the Bulgarian authorities refused permission to the British Minister (Mr G. W. Rendel) to travel by that road when he wanted to visit the Greek frontier. German motorised equipment has filled all the garages in Bucharest and overflowed on to the streets and squares, where uniformed men are busy adjusting motors, loading lorries and filling petrol tanks. Mechanics have established workshops in the streets, giving equipment a final overhaul. Streams of loaded lorries have moved off towards the Danube. A message from Istanbul states that the Turkish Government has flatly rejected a request by the German Ambassador in Ankara, Baron Franz von Papen, that Turkey should mediate in the ItaloGreek war. Information reaching London indicates that the German offensive plans in Rumania and Bulgaria are continuing. They can have no meaning but a hostile one for the neighbouring countries, whose anxieties are well understood in London. The reaffirmation of the mutual loyalty between Turkey and Greece is interpreted in London as a measure of their determination to spare no effort to prevent the spread of hostilities in the Balkans. OBJECT LESSON TO THE WORLD Britain, for her part, is no less anxious that there should be no further disturbance of Balkan peace. She is determined, in complete loyalty to her engagements, to give the fullest assistance in resisting aggression in the region in which Rumania has already provided an object lesson to the world of the folly of trusting in German assurances. The Belgrade correspondent of the American Associated Press reports that columns of German motorized units are moving southward across Rumania towards the Danube frontier with Bulgaria. The general staff of Germany’s Balkan army has simultaneously moved from Bucharest to Craiova. The Madrid correspondent of the United Press states that German troops marched into Spain on Saturday. They are reported to consist of five small detachments from the German army of occupation in France.