INVASION THAT FAILED

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23013, 3 October 1944, Page 5

INVASION THAT FAILED

“Nightmare In Hell” German Effort To Cross Channel By Telegraph—N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright (7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 2. Thousands of Germans were burned to death during an attempt to invade England in 1940, says Mr John Parris, a correspondent of the British United Press. Giving new details of an invasion attempt supplied by Belgians, Mr Parris says British planes dumped oil on the German invasion fleet in the middle of the Channel. The oil was set alight with incendiary bullets. The Germans left Belgium in self-propelled barges, each about 180 feet long, and each carrying about 150 soldiers. The Germans who survived the blazing' oil told Belgians it had been a “nightmare in hell.” A Belgian Red Cross nurse told Mr Parris: “On September 17,"1940, 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 Brussels station. The commandant asked if we could help his wounded. He said the train had been shunted on to the wrong line, and the men were dying for lack of treatment. We began taking 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 the Germans had been told they were going to invade England and nothing could stop them. He added: ‘lt was horrible. The whole Channel was in flames. 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. 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.