Evening star., 1939-09-13
Paris
Continued From First Page.)

pounded enemy territory, military
advices said French forces east of
Saarbruecken had made a sub
stantial" advance, cutting important
German communications and shut
ting off reinforcements with an
artillery barrage.
Fleet French tanks and armored
cars earlier were reported to have
reached the outskirts of Saar-
bruecken, railroad junction and in
dustrial heart of the rich Saar basin,
yesterday and to have thrust i'm
mediately into the suburbs.
The advance on Saarbruecken was
said to have hammered a wedge in
the Siegfried line at its strongest
point. Fall of the city would give
the French control of the rich Saar
mining basin, one of the worlds most
productive coal fields.
Saarbruecken lies about midway
on a 100-mile front between the
Moselle and Rhine rivers on
Frances northeastern boundary
northern wing of the Western front
Fierce Resistance.
To the northwest of the city, in
a pocket formed by the Luxembourg
and German borders, the French
were said to be meeting fierce re-
sistance. French and German in
fantrymen clashed in bayonet fight
ing. Comparatively unseasoned Ger
man reservists in that sector were
said to have been replaced by vet
erans.
The French tactics in the drive on
Saarbruecken were said to have been
typical of most operations thus far
in the 11-day-old war. First scout
ing and fighting planes roared over
German positions to keep the air
clear of German counter-attack,
then armored motorized units rolled
upon the German positions, ripping
through barbed wire entanglements.
Behind tanks and armored cars
went fighting engineers with the
double duty of mopping up German
suicide squads" which the army on
wheels had missed, and of fighting
land mines and exploding them be-
fore the main bodies of troops fol-
lowed in to fill out the lines of ad-
vance. German artillery meanwhile
pounded villages held by the French
near Saarbruecken.
Military observers commented that
In the second week. of operations
the campaign nevertheless still re-
manned in the preliminary phase,
with a major offensive believed
foreshadowed by yesterdays first
meeting of the Allied Supreme War
Council not yet in evidence.
Following this mornings war min
istry communique, which announced
great activity" yesterday by the
air forces of both sides, French re-
ports said sky skirmishes were con-
tinuing today. These reports said
three German planes were brought
down, while the French suffered
Every small losses"
The aerial battle began yesterday
when German planes raced over the
border to scout allied troop move
ments. French planes roared up
under the low-hanging clouds and
tangled IN dOg-hghtS.
French reports said the enemy
forces broke apart after several
planes from both sides came spin
ming out of the sky to crash to
earth.
A fresh squadron of French pur-
suit planes flew low over Paris this
morning, racing east apparently to
carry on combat.
Advances Slow.
The war ministry communique for
this morning reported a continual
ton of reaction of the artillery in
the course of the night"
Between the opposing guns lay
stubble fields-the harvest has been
gathered. The land was domed and
pitted with pillboxes and machine
gun nests, vulnerable only to direct
hits from mortars. That was the
scene as described in adviceS
through Basel, Switzerland.
The dispatch from Basel described
the artillery warfare near Luxem-
burg as one of the greatest artillery
duels in history. The Moselle Valley
had been converted into one of the
most heavily fortified regions of the
world with the great Sierck forts,
on the French side, facing the Ger
man Trassen area.
The main Siegfried line positions
lie some miles behind Saar-
bruecken, and apparently the heavy
- German shellfire came from them