Evening star., 1940-03-03
BY the Associated Press.

unnamed cruisers, IN addition to q
number Of smaller vessels.
Text of Communique.
The text Of the German high
commands communique on the first
six months of the war follows:
After six months of war on land,
at sea. and in the air, the following
military results are established:
I'm campaign of 18 days the
Polish Army was smashed to pieces,
Polish divisions destroyed and the
territory Of the former Polish state
occupied up to the boundary of
German and Russian areas of in
terest. Thereby the aim of the
enemy to force Germany into a two
front war was thwarted In the Short
est time.
I'm the west the West Wall was
occupied according to plan and
heightened to the coast. The enemy
did not venture to advance at any
point nor even within effective range
of the West Wall. much less to at
tack 1t.
I'm daring scouting and shock
troop undertakings the German
Army repeatedly proved its spirit
of attack and showed a high stand
ard of training and equipment.
Whenever the enemy sought to force
its way into German territory in the
area before the West Wall, army
units drove the enemy back to its
starting point by rapid attack.
Sss, ss,MsS.1ncreasss...--x
"The German NkIy coRntcf6A sea
warfase atMs aand md France
with i1c1exshf kSTgy ~ growing
success after destruction of the Po-
lish sea force, excepting such units
which, Aed befoS& the cslnpAign be-
gan oF~1ater wese interne4 in neu-
trail ports.
In the North Sea next to- the e.
curity of the sea zone and protection
of German commercial trafi1c, stress
was laid on economic war with sur
face and submarine warcraft.
"At the same time mine attacks
were undertaken In the waters Of
the English east and west coast.
The armored ships, Admiral. Graf
Spec and Deutschland. were used in
the Atlantic to conduct cruiser war
fare. The enemy was handed con-
siderable damage as result of adj
vances in the North Atlantic which
also were carried out with heavy
fighting forces.
Destroyed as q result of the Ger
man sea warfare were: The bat
tleship Royal Oak, the airplane car
rier Courageous, the auxiliary cruiser
Rawalpindi, eight destroyers-the
Blanche, Gipsy, Duchess, Grenville,
Exmouth, Viscount, Daring and Jer-
sey-and in addition approximately
20 men-of-war in patrol, minesweep-
er and boat pursuit service-these in
cooperation with the air force, "a
we'll as several U-boats.
Heavily damaged were the bat
tleships Nelson and Barham, the
battle cruiser Repulse, the cruiser
Exeter, heavy cruiser of the Lon
don class, the cruiser Belfast and q
greater number Of destroyers, patrol
boats and U-boats.
Claim 532 Ships Sunk.
I'm the same period So enemy
merchantmen and neutral merchant
ships with cargo useful to the en-
emy of a gross tonnage of 1904, ,913
were destroyed.
Measured by these successes our
own losses were small. They to-
tailed armored ship (the Graf
Spee), 2 destroyers, 6 patrol or mine
sweeping boats and IL U-boats, an
average of two U-boats monthly.
"The German air force partici-
pated in the victorious outcome of
the Polish campaign In an out
standing manner. While destroying
the Polish air force 1t protected
at the same time the German air
zone in the west with other units.
"1ts superiority as regards the pre-
paredness of the crews and the ex-
cellence of materials repeatedly was
apparent. Reconnaissance flights
carried out against England and
France, even under unfavorable
weather conditions, have supple
mented material at hand regard
Ing the enemy's measures.
In scouting against England, Ger
man planes again and again reached
the Orkney and Shetland Islands
despite enemy resistance. Repeatedly
attacks were made on enemy sea
forces, armed merchant ships and
conveys. Sixty-five ships with ap-
proximately gross tonnage Of $4,000
were sunk. Concerned here for the
most part were enemy or neutral
commercial ships travelling to Eng
land with contraband as well as
some lighter ships and British sea
fighting forces.
81 Ships Heavily Damaged.
I'm addition So ships with gross
tonnage of approximately 200, ,000
were heavily damaged and in part
destroyed as a result Of bomb hits
OF this number 40 were British
ships Of her lighter sea fighting
forces, two were British cruisers Of
a gross tonnage of $500, two were
British battleships Of gross tonnage
Of SO, $50 and one was q British air
craft carrier, gross tonnage 71,600.
''Since the beginning Of the whI
the German air defense ground per-
sonnel has been developed -
planned, the airplane reporting servs
Ice well practiced and tested and III