Evening star., 1939-09-16
Wide German Attack
Reported Denting
French Gains in West
Planes Take Heavy Toll
On 60-MiIe Front; kozi
Fierce Offensive Roees

BY the Associated PRESS.
BASEL, Switzerland, Sept. 10
German troops were reported today
to be fiercely counterattacking
against newly-won French positions
along a 60-mile front between the
Moselle River and the foothills of
the Vosges.
The reports indicated the assault
was the most extended yet under
taken on the Western front by the
German high command. Previously
the German defenders have con-
fined their counterattacks mostly to
sharp local thrusts.
Results of the German offensive,
which began last night and was con-
tinuing this morning, were not clear
here 1t was reported, however, that
the French had lost ground on their
right flank in the Vosges Forests
northeast of Bitche.
Germans Open Plane Offensive.
During the fighting the Germans
for the first time made use of war
planes based in underground ham
gars behind the Siegfried line.
Fast fighters were said to have
approached the. lines in formation
and roared low over the French
forces between the Saar and Vosges,
where comparatively level ground
afforded the French little protection
from strafing.
Despite heavy fire from French
aircraft batteries, the German
planes were reported to have caused
heavy casualties, particularly among
French troops moving up as re-
Inducements.
German bombers also participated
in air attacks in the Saar sector.
where the French previously had
occupied Nazi advance fortified po-
sitions. However, anti-aircraft fire
was reported to have forced them
to fly at too high an altitude to
drop their bombs with any degree
of accuracy.
British Planes Reported Active.
Swiss reports also said a number
of British Royal Air Force planes
had participated in air battles in
the Palatinate, east of the Saar
Numerical superiority of the Ger
man planes over the combined
French and British air force now
engaged in action was believed by
Swiss observers to account for the
plan of attack mapped out by Gen.
Maurice Gustave Gamelin, COM
mander of the allied troops.
Despite geographical difficulties
facing ground troops in the Saar
and i'll the Vosges foothills, Gen.
Gamelin apparently chose to stab
at points where forests and hills
made German air attack most diff
fcult and protection easiest, they
said.
To meet the German air power,
both the French and British were
not only increasing their
own plane production, but increas-
ing anti-aircraft artillery as well.
Nine Hazards Reported Removed.
French officers were said to be
iubilant over the ease with which
scouting parties and artillery had
removed the hazard of mine fields
on which the Germans had counted
heavily to protect the outlying de-
fenses of the strongly fortified Sieg-
fried Line.
Positions of most of the mine
fields, it was said, were known to the
French before the war began.
Some of the mines were exploded
by heavy shelling. Others were re-
ported to have been set off by
French scouts working by night un-
der cover of artillery barrages.
German patrols captured in night
attacks by the French were said to
have given additional information
on the location of mine fields by
citing areas they had been ordered
to avoid.