Evening star., 1939-09-28
Germans Are Forced
Back by French
Counter-Attacks
Three-Sided Assault
NuIIifies Thrust at
Railroad Junction
Bv the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
BASEL, Switzerland, Sept. 28.-
French counter attacks during the
night were reported today to have
driven back German troops which
yesterday advanced east of Wissem-
bourg in thrust aimed at an i'm
portant railroad junction.
The Germans, attacked on three
sides, were said to have suffered
heavy losses as they fell back to the
French frontier village Of Altenstatt
near the Lauter River.
The Nazi advance yesterday, these
reports said, carried to the slopes of
Geisberg Hill, where a French army
was defeated by the Germans in
1870. There the Germans attempted
to dig in. but were caught in attacks
from Fort Wissembourg on the east,
Geisberg Hill on the south and Wis
sembourg itself on the west.
Although the number of troops
actually engaged in the action was
said to be small observers here be-
heved it represented an important
German setback. The junction
which the Germans apparently
sought to secure is the point at
which three rail lines-from Lauter-
bourg, Landau and Hagenau-con-
verge before entering Wissenbourg
Near Center of Front.
The scene of the fighting was the
triangle formed by the junction of
the Rhine and Lauter Rivers, near
the center of the western front.
Between the lines stands a high
monument, topped with a cross,
erected by the Germans during their
occupation of Alsace in 1870 in
memory of their Sd Army Corps.
The Germans apparently en-
ployed in this sector the tactics the
French used in the Blies and Man.
del Greek thrusts-but with less
success. These tactics called for re-
lance on small, compact patrols
the only course open to the Germans,
it was said, in region marked by
numerous French machine-gun en-
placements and pill boxes.
Despite reported French successes
during the night, German pressure
in the Wissembourg area was by no
means ended, dispatches indicated.
Within the last two days the Nazis
were reported to have recaptured
positions along the Fischbach-
Bundenthal road west of Wissem-
bourg relinking the outer Siegfried
line defenses at Fischbach and Lud-
wigswinkel with the upper Mundat
Forest. The latter is east and north
east of Wissembourg.
The Germans also were reported
to have stormed and captured a
high hill straddling the frontier still
nearer Wissembourg on the north
east. The hill commands the French
forest village of Neudoerfel.
Plenty Of Night Action.
The western front from the Mo-
selle River east of the Vosges foot
hills was reported studded with
night patrol actions.
In the Med Greek area, which had
been quiet since the French gained
portions Of a high plateau between
the Med and the Saar River, the
Germans were said to have launched
an attack, but the outcome was in
doubt.
Increasing German aggressiveness
indicated to observers here that the
Nazis had available considerably
more than the 30 original divisions
10000 to 100000 mem which
guarded the western front during
the first two days of the war
Despite casualties of the Polish
campaign, 1t was reported that the
Germans had 20 or Is divisions in
the east which could eventually be
thrown into action against the
French and British.
Hundreds of German tanks. no
longer needed in Poland were re-
ported to have arrived recently by
train at Landau. behind the center
of the western front. Prisoners cap
tured in Poland were said to have
been formed into labor battalions
and put to work on Notifications
near Oldeburg, in the southeast,
and along the Moselle River. In the
northeast.