Evening star., 1940-06-17
French Abandon
Maginot Line; Foe
Nears Switzerland
Fierce Reur Guard Actor
Fought; Germans Said
To Be at Besuncon

Vou9Hts 0eIHuHS ouIO
To Be at Besoncon
By the Associated Press.
BASEL, June 1.-THE iron jaws
of the German Armies we're clos
ing today around the French prov
inces of Alsace and Lorraine, at
tempting to take in a single bite one
of the greatest fortified systems the
world has ever knoWn-the famed
Maginot Line.
Reports reaching here from the
battle front indicated that the
French, who virtually abandoned
the Maginot defenses yesterday
>under the threat of encirclement,
had snatched their troops out of the
German jaws literally in the nick
of time.
At Fahy, on the French-Swiss
frontier, refugees from BeSancon,
who crossed the border into Switzer-
land, reported German motorized
columns had reached the outskirts
of Besancon, about Is miles from
Switzerland.
Besancon, fortress city well
guarded by French troops, is about
200 miles airline southeast of Paris.
The French forces were reported
engaged in fierce rear-guard action
as they withdrew from the Maginot
Line, pressed by motorized Nazi
columns plunging toward the Swiss
frontier through the Jura Noun
tainS.
Reported at Dole.
Some Of the German units were
reported to have already reached
the famous wine center of Dole, in
the heart of Northern Burgundy,
only so miles by air from the Swiss
border.
The retiring French troops. con-
sisting of fresh reserve divisions.
were reported holding the Germans
there while skeleton force left IN
the Maginot Line put up stiff re-
sistance against attackers.
Nevertheless the German thrust
deep into Eastern France seemed
to indicate that the famed lost
provinces" of Alsace and Lorraine
were destined to be lost again.
The refugees said that up to the
time they left, about dawn this
morning, the Germans had attempt
ed no land attack on Bescanon.
They said they believed the swift
moving Germans already had partly
surrounded the French troops.
German fighters and bombers ap-
peared over armored ground units
early this morning and bombed
and machine-gu gunned French posi-
tions, they said.
The refugees, all women, children
and old men, were placed in buses
by the Swiss authorities and routed
to Porrentruy where schools have
been turned into refugee centers and
local authorities in cooperation with
the Swiss Red Cross are feeding
and tending the people.
Little Use If Cut OF.
Although the Maginot forts we're
constructed with a 360-degree de-
tense potential-that is they were
designed to resist fire from all
sides-they would be of little use If
severed from Frances main fight
ing forces by the German encircling
movement.
1t appeared to military observers
here that Gen. Maxine Weygand,
Allied commander in chief, had
acted not an hour too soon in order
ing the withdrawal of most of the
Maginot defenders.
Nazi mechanical units which shot
down into Burgundy through the
high Langres plateau were spread
ing out like star shells, along the
route and were being followed up by
motorized infantry. The swathe cut
into French territory was being
widened yesterday as the day wore
on.
Bridgehead Expanded.
Along the Rhine Valley, where the
Maginot forts were weakened by the
French withdrawal, the Germans
expanded their bridgehead at Neuf
Breisach into a real front, backed
with pontoon bridges across which
motorized units raced.
Some of these units already have
fought their way along the Vosges
road via Munster Pass. If they can
establish connection with the Ger
man forces driving southwark from
Verdun the greater part of Alsace-
Lorraine and the Maginot forts will
be cut off.
The Nazis have still another ace
in the hole-the lower German
column aimed toward the Swiss
frontier in the Jura.
The troops pulled out of the Magi-
not Line by Gen. Weygand were
reported joining the assembling east
ern army in the Besancon region,
where they are preparing for what
military men called the battle Of
Burgundy.
The German goal in this battle,
they said, would be to join hands
with Italy and, as q neutral source
described 1t, take Mussolini by the
hand and lead him to the Rhone
Valley"
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