ATTEMPT AT INVASION

Southland Times, Issue 25484, 3 October 1944, Page 5

ATTEMPT AT INVASION

GERMAN DEFEAT -IN 1940

R.A.F. DUMPS OIL ON FLEET

(Rec... 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 2. Thousands of Germans were burned to death during an attempt to invade England in 1940, says John Parris, a correspondent of the British United Press. Giving new details of the invasion attempt, supplied by Belgians, Parris says that British planes dumped oil on the German invasion fleet in the middle of the Channel and the oil was set alight with incendiary bullets. The Germans left Belgium in selfpropelled barges, each about 180 feet long, and each carrying about 150 soldiers. Germans who survived the blazing oil told Belgians that it had been “a nightmare in hell.” A Belgian Red Cross nurse told Parris: "On September 17, 1940, we heard rumours that the bodies of thousands of German soldiers were being washed up along the Belgian beaches. At 7 o’clock that night a German Red Cross train of 40 coaches pulled into the Brussels station and the commandant asked if we could help his wounded. He said that the train had been shunted on to the wrong line and the men were dying for lack of treatment. , “CHANNEL IN FLAMES” “We began taking the wounded from the train. The moans and screams were terrible. I helped to carry out a young German who was horribly burned about the head and shoulders. He said that the Germans had been told that they were going to invade England and nothing could stop them. He added: ‘lt was horrible. Tfie whole Channel was in flames and the British bombed and machine-gunned us. Hell could not have been worse.’ Then he died. “We looked after more than 500 soldiers as best we could but many of them died on the Brussels railway station.” Other nurses said that between 40,000 and 50,000 German soldiers were burned to death or maimed for life. Red Cross trains passed through Brussels for three days.