Evening star., 1940-06-17
Berlin
Continued From First Page.

armies had cut off Alsace and Lor-
raine and the Maginot Line and
had smashed southwark into Gen.
trail France TO take historical Orleans
and cross the Loire River.
Thus, for the second time in the
war, the Germans said, they had
split the French Army into two parts
for piecemeal attack.
THE political and military back
bone of France already is broken. -
said authorized sources in summing
up the reports of smashing military
successes and the fall of the French
government with establishment OF
what was regarded here as military
regime under Marshal Petain.
Onrushing German armies drove
down to the Swiss border at Pontar-
lier. Southeast of Besancon, the high
ommand announced.
The Maginot Line, once looked on
as the most solid protecting wall for
France, now is surrounded by Nazi
soldiers. the German high command
declared, except for a small space
along the Swiss border.
The map of conquest drawn by the
Germans showed that a major por-
ton of French resources and de-
fenses now is in German hands.
Through the Maginot break
through, apparently from the Ver-
dun regions, the Germans had sent a
loop of steel almost directly south
to point on the Swiss border,
Pontarlier, southeast of Besancon.
Between there and the Rhine they
had trapped the rich iron, coal and
industrial area of Alsace and Lor-
raine, retaken from Germany in
1918, as we'll as the greatest fortified
area, many miles deep.
Caught also were the huge forts
around Nancy, Metz, Epinal, Bel
fort, Strasbourg-the very heart of
the main French defense system.
1t appeared that the German
command would seek to treat those
areas in the way it dispatched the
French, British and Belgian armies
caught in Flanders.
Million Believed Trapped.
The Germans estimated that
about million French soldiers were
trapped in the triangular northeast
corner of France with no escape
possible except through the heaviest
of the German Westwall fortifca-
tions into Germany. into Switzer-
land, or by a break through south
ward in the hope of joining forces
being pushed steadily backward to-
ward the Atlantic, Spain, the Medi-
terranean and the Alps. Behind
the Alps, the italian Army is wait
ing, they said.
The high command said French
armies driven southwark from Paris
NOTABLY dissolved although it con-
ceded small forces were putting up
orderly resistance.
In lightning stab almost rival
ing the break-through to switzer-
land, motorized units took Orleans
the high command said, 10 miles
south of Paris on the vital natural
defense line of the Loire River and
saved an important bridge intact
for the use of forces coming up.
Along the rest of the Loire River
the German air force was said tc
have smashed other bridges anc
bombed and machine-gunned re-
treating French on the river bank
in sight of the high plateau south
of the Loire where is was expected
they had been preparing new de-
fense line.
With these military successes az
evidence, authorized sources con.
tinued to scout reports that the
French would be able to make 8
separate armiStice.
French Republics Death Hour"
The opinion was expressed in au.
thoritative circles that the death
hour of the French republic soor
would be struck.
AS to Soviet Russia's moves ir
the east in exacting Latvian ano
Estonian approval of demands fol