Evening star., 1940-06-05
French Abandoned
Guns and Munitions
When Fleeing Trap
Tour Shows Destruction
Inflicted by Tanks
And Bombing Planes
BY LOUIS P. LOCHNER,

Telephone to Berlin), June Sup
plies left behind by the British Ex-
peditionary Force in its withdrawal
from Flanders, German officer
told me today. could equip 40 Ger
man divisions-forces equal to all
those Of Czecho- -Slovakia before its
dismemberment.
The abandoned supplies indicated
the British had kept excellent look
out for the bodily wants of their
soldiers.
Travelling some 200 miles along
Germany's front in France and then
toward the channel ports and final
ly into the Great Flanders trap gave
me vast picture of the retreat of
the B. E. F., Frances Army OF the
North and Belgium's defenders.
In following the French retreat
along Germany's present south
front, was impressed by the fact
that the French had abandoned
cannons and munitions, as COM
pared with the British leaving of
provisions
Tanks Blown to Bits.
AS speedy car hurried me along
highway after highway in Northern
France, I saw cannon after cannon
left by the wayside.
The German advance seemingly
had been so rapid that Nazi labor
battalions and highway constructors
could not follow quickly enough to
clear up as they had done in Hol-
land and Eastern Belgium and bring
abandoned booty to collection CEN
ters.
We had hardly crossed into France
last Saturday, on trip which kept
us incommunicado until yesterday,
when at Beaumont we saw evidence
of the fury of Germany's Stukas-
the dive bombers.
Some of Frances heaviest tanks
of the 30-ton type had come down
a street running east and west.
Several bombs dropped on build
1ngs at this intersection, blowing
them to smithereens. The explosion
apparently lifted the tanks out of
their relative positions with the
power of tornado, for several of
them were telescoped into one
another, while half a dozen others
were hurled against buildings.
Officers Machine Gunned.
Messerschmitt pursuit planes ap-
parently followed the Stukas and
machine-gunned officers and men
rs they crawled out of the tanks.
Whoever remained in tanks and
was ready to continue on the way
was surprised by the quickly ap-
preaching German tanks before he
X could gather his wits.
ID These tanks finished what the
Stukas and Messerschmitts- dive
bombers and fighting planes-left
undone. 1t was a ghastly sight, but
nothing compared with what we en-
countered Sunday on a road near
Enclos outside Lille.
Here probably the greatest tank
battle of the war-and all time
had taken place.
English Bibles, French prayer
books, rosaries, detective novels,
bloody helmets and grimy uniforms
were scattered in grotesque confu-
sion.
We stepped cautiously among
hand grenades which nobody had
had time to remove.
Some Localities Escape.
We saw letters from wives and
sweethearts strewn around, some
written in French, some in English
We passed through such French
places of World War memory as
Cambria. Arras, Bethune, St. Omer,
Lille, st. Pol and Armentieres.
Everywhere the picture was the
same: The blitzkrieg had moved
like windstorm, striking this or
that locality, as an American tor
nado does, while the next place is
untouched.
Streets actually involved in the
fighting were marked by two things
abandoned tanks or cannons and
furiously bombed individual build
ings.
In Flanders, the difference be-
tween 1910 and the 1914-18 period
was even more marked In the last
war, according to all accounts, most
cities and villages in combat areas
were virtually razed.
Now, however, even Ypres, al
though shelled, emerged with the
Menin Gate only partly damaged
and with the famed cemetery un-
scathed. The bridge before the
Menin Gate, however, had been
blasted.
Client Damaged Little.
Although big battle ragged for
days around Ghent and the civilized
world feared that it's art treasures
might be demolished, the city itself
was damaged but little.
Bruges, where King Leopold III
OF Belgium held forth until his
surrender, escaped disaster by ca
pitulation. In Ostend the harbor
and wharves were shelled, but the
residential section was spared in the
main. Hundreds of cannon stood
abandoned and munitions stacked
In boxes nearby.
Rubber tires appeared to be
especially welcome finds for the
Germans Often we would en-
counter German cars with worn-out
tires pausing on the roadside be-
fore an abandoned enemy car te
substitute its almost new tires fol
the threadbare German ones.
British motor cycles also seemed
70 be favorites and were pressed into
service almost Immediately. German
officers accompanying us also as.
serted that huge stocks of new cars
were found in salesrooms and fac.
tories of Belgium and Northern
France.