The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-10-17
French Troops Hurled
 Back onWestern Front
(Continued from Page D

that two British pursuit planes were shot down.
 Nazis asserted despite all British denials that since the beginning of the war they had sunk or put out of action more than 100000 tons of British warships by submarine and airplane attacks.
 Claim Two Others Sunk
 Not only do the Germans still claim the sinking of the aircraft car- rier Ark Royal but they express con- viction that the battle cruiser Re- pulse has been sunk. by the same submarine which sank the Royal Oak.
 The German admiralty was be- lieved now to be concentrating its submarine and air forces for light ming blows against the British navy and British navy bases. seek ing not only to harry the British fleet but to cut off British trade with the Scandinavian nations.
 Submarines were based mainly on Wilhelmshaven, Cuxhaven, and Hell goland, on the Atlantic side, and at Kiel on the Baltic, at the other end of the Kiel canal.
 Destroyers and many light, high speed motor torpedo boats were stealing out at night from the same bases, zigzagging through the Ger man mine fields, to work in con- junction with submarines preying in the North Sea and operating against Scandinavian shipping in the Bai- tic.
 Batt1eships Safe Say Naxls
 The crack 26,000 ton batleships Gneisenau and Scharnhors and the 10000 ton pocket battleships were understood to be safe either in the Baltic or behind the main German mine field which extends from the Netherlands frontier to the Danish frontier.
 The British and French claim to have sunk 8 minimum of 10 Ger man submarines. Germany has ad- mitted the loss of none but neutral observers discounted this as due to military considerations. It was re-. called that the Germans admitted teh loss of only about a score of planes in Poland, whereas neutral diplomats asserted that more than 40 were shot down at Warsaw alone Death notices of German aviators killed in Poland continue to appear inconspicuously in newspapers.
 Sea Battle Still Rages
 Copenhagen, Denmark, Oct. 17 - UPJ = German and British naval are fighting long run ming battle of the Norwegian coast and at least one warship, believed to be German, has been sunk, coastal reports said today.
 Reports by fishermen and other people along the Norwegian coast left little doubt that fighting had been going on intermittently since Saturday and was still in progress during the night.
 fishermen arriving at Bergen, Norway. yesterday, reported that they saw two hour battle Satur- day on the southwest coast, in which three warships and several airplanes believed to be British, attacked . single warship and appeared to sink it.
 Heavy firing was reported oil the coast yesterday.
 At dusk last night cannon flashes were seen of Kristiansand, Norway, at the entrance to the Skager Rak and the Baltic.
 Then watchers Oh the coast saw a ship in flames. They said that the ship caught fire at several points.
 The sky was criss-crossed by search light beams, apparently from big warships, they said.
 Norwegian coast guard units put to sea to search for the. burning ship.
 The Norwegian admiralty, . Uni- ted Press Oslo dispatch said, de- clined to discuss the reports but peo- pie along the coast expressed belief that teh firing was a continuation of the engagement which the iisher- men saw Saturday. and that British ships were pursuing German ones.