MAIN FORCES UNLIKELY TO COME TO GRIPS FOR SOME TIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1939, Page 7

MAIN FORCES UNLIKELY TO COME TO GRIPS FOR SOME TIME

Developments Between Fortified Lines Not Disclosed Bearing on the Position in Poland (By Telegraph.—Press Association. —Copyright.) ' NEW YORK, September 5. The Paris correspondent of the Associated Press of America says the left wing pf the French army has increased the pressure on the German northern flank along- a 100-mile front. An army communique states that the French troops are in contact everywhere along the frontier between the Rhine and the Moselle Valley. It'is recalled that the permanent fortification on the border of the Rhine “is here and there.’’ The main attack was southward at the Burgundy Gates, where the artillery barrage is concentrated. • The Paris correspondent of the “New York Times’’ says the long and relatively narrow tract between the Maginot. Line and the Siegfried Line has already become a sort of no man’s land and is being pounded with shells of all calibres from both sides. It is believed that the Germans are meeting with such resistance in Poland that they are compelled henceforth to act methodically. The main armies on both fronts are not 1 ikely to come to grips for some time. It is reported that fighting lias been in progress since dawn on Monday along the French frontier for a distance of 300 miles, and also that the French penetrated the fortified zone at several noints.

According to a Berlin message, German observers on the Western Front report that during Monday French troops entered the fortified zone and sent aloft hundreds of balloons carrying banners with the words, “We won’t shoot if you don’t” which were still up at 9 p.m. The Germans raised makeshift signs, “We won’t fire, either.” It was officially announced in Paris that French forces made contact with German forces and entered German territory. The Paris correspondent of “The Times” says it is pointed out there that, if official information is so far vague, it must be remembered that both sides are based on heavily fortified positions, unlike 1914, when the war began as a manoeuvre movement in camparatively open country. However, the massive French land forces are proceeding with smoothness, matching the general mobilisation. The air forces and navy are simultaneously active, each in its own fashion.