NAZIS NERVOUS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1942, Page 3

NAZIS NERVOUS

SECOND FRONT THREATS TAKEN SERIOUSLY CONSIDERABLE MOVEMENT OF TROOPS. AND ACTION BY GESTAPO. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, August 11. German reconnaissance planes over Britain have brought reports of Allied armies preparing for an invasion of the Continent in the near future, says the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.’’ Captain von Schrainmk, German military commentator, in the “Bruesseler Zeitung” states that these reports have for the first time forced the threat of a second front to be taken seriously. Gestapo chiefs in France, Belgium. Norway, Holland, acting in concert, arrested 100 prominent persons as hostages for their countrymen’s good behaviour in the event of an Allied landing. A considerable number of troops and panzer or motorised units have reached the Atlantic coast in the last 10 days, mostly from the Viazma and Kharkov areas. No secret is made of this, for the Germans hope to stave off an invasion by an exaggeration of the defences. There is further nervousness in Berlin about a second front. An order by Hitler to his troops in Belgium has become known to Belgian circles in London. It tells the German troops to advance in columns, with groups of women at the head of the troops to prevent guerillas and paratroops from operating against them. If the Germans have to retreat in Belgium they are ordered to destroy everything, burn towns, and shoot leading citizens and Belgian army officers without a hearing.

A Vichy message says that the German military authorities in Paris announce the shooting of 93 Frenchmen convicted of acts of terrorism against German soldiers in occupied France. The announcement says that this follows fresh disorders at certain points in the occupied zone by terrorists and Communists in Britain’s pay and threatens new measures against the whole population unless they help in discovering the terrorists.