Evening star., 1940-05-19
By MAJ. GEORGE
FIELDING ELIOT.

D oAoANoD
FIELDING ELIOT.
The military situation on the
western front grew graver almost
hourly during the last "a hours.
The situation appears today as
follows:
The Germans have now 1,nsid-
erably widened the salient t,Hy have
driven into the French defenses
north and east of Sedan. Release
of Belgian communications lines
due to the fall of Brussels and the
capture of the Namur forts has
enabled fresh masses of German
infantry and artillery to be poured
into the breach, and a fresh break
through by armored troops ap-
pears to have occurred at Maubeuge.
which has driven forward to the
vicinity of Guise. Here also in
fantry divisions appear to be COM
ing through and there is a posi-
bility that the two salients have
already been joined in great
bulge inclosing the area Sedan
Rethel Marie Guise Maubeuge
Both from Rethel and from Guise
armored troops are endeavoring to
fight their way westward. appar-
emily with the intention of pouring
down the valley of the Somme to
the channel coast.
Were this movement to he sue
cessful, it would pinch of the whole
of the French and Belgian coast
line from the Scheldt to the Somme;
it would drive wedge between the
main French armies and the forces
in Belgium and extreme north of
France, encircling these (the 7th
French Army, the Belgian Army
and the British expeditionary force.
These total about 30 of the 10 in
fantry divisions now available to
the allies on this front. Such a
German success would, therefore, be
an unqualified disaster to allied
arms, quite aside from the fact that
it would give the Germans most
excellent positions for air attacks
on Great Britain, and for air and
submarine attacks to cut off the
flow of British supplies and REIN
forcements across the channel to
France.
German Forces Released.
Meanwhile, the fall of Antwerp
and the loss of Iceland have re-
leased New German forces to sweep
down on the right wing Of the Ger
man advance. Antwerp is defended
by ring of 10 forts, most of them
old and considered as shell traps"
even in 1914. when they were -e-
garded as unfit to resist even 6-inch
German artillery. Little has been
done to modernize most of them
since. though some improvements in
the way of pill boxes and tank bar
riers have been added to the fortress.
1t is apparent that little attempt
was made to hold it, and indeed with
the breaking of the Dyle River line
it was doomed to certain isolation.
1t appears likely, nevertheless,
that the British and Belgian troops
can fall back to prepared positions
along the French-Belgian frontier
without being cut off by the north
ern German thrust. Whether they
can escape the thrust at their rear
created by the widening German
salient from Maubeuge and Guise is
less certain. So far there is nothing
to indicate that the Germans have
reached st. Quentin, on the upper
Somme, though the town Is now be-
ing mentioned in dispatches as a
possible German objective.
The brunt of the fighting is falling
upon the French 1st and I'd Armies
commanded by Gems. Giraud and
Hunziger. French reserves, includ-
ing some armored divisions, are re-
ported gathering in the vicinity OF
LaoE, and it is probably the entry
of some or all of these into the fight
ing which results in reports of a
mighty tank battle. 1t may be con-
jectured that the French will en-
deavor, as they did in 1914 at the
Marne, to create a fresh reserve
army by Withdrawals from their Sd
and 4th Armies farther west, and
perhaps from other sources (the
italian frontier?) in order to hurl a
new and greater counterattack
upon the German salient at or near
Guise. Reserve artillery units are
being employed at point-blank
ranges to check the German armored
troops-a desperate measure which
results from the lack of sufficient
numbers of anti-tank guns in the
makeup of the French divisions. A
French division has normally only ~
anti-tank guns, whereas German
division has u.
British May Send More.
It Is probale that the bulk of the
forces now withdrawing from the
Dyle line toward the France-Belgian
frontier are Belgians; more of the
British expeditionary force is
probably already in position on the
| right of the French 7th army,
though two or three divisions are
| with the Belgians. There are avail
able = few nous-too-well trained