Evening star., 1940-05-31
Germans Supplies
Rushed 10 Front
On Clear Highways
Plight Of Civilians
Declared to Have
Influenced Leopold
BY ths Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
BERN, Switzerland, May 81
Clogging of vital Allied roads with
millions Of refugees and the ef11-
cheney of GermanyS military ma
chine in keeping its own supply
routes unobstructed defeated the
Allies in the north, eyewitnesses re-
turning from the war zone declared
today.
One said the Notwithstanding
presence of masses of refugees in
areas where the Belgian Army was
being "cut to bits" by the Nazi aerial
and land assault accounted in part
for surrender of King Leopold III.
Seven eyewitnesses, who came
here through Germany after being
caught in the midst of fighting in
four different zones Of Western and
Southern Belgium and Northern
France, agreed on contrasting these
pictures:
l. Chaos of the streams of ref
ugees and non-combatants, flowing
with all their movable possessions
into roads essential to Allied COM
munications.
2. Incredible" orderliness in the
rush of German supplies over high
ways leading to the front.
German Courtesy Praised.
The eyewitnesses, who declined
to be named, included four diplo-
mats, two businessmen and "just a
tourist" -Four were more or less
pro-Ally, the others equally pro-
German. AL praised the courtesy
and treatment accorded them by
the Germans once it was decided
they should pass through the mill
tary zone.
One gave this description of the
scene along the Calais -Abbeville
coast road in Northern France last
Wednesday:
I'VE swarmed along the coast
road with tens of thousands of other
refugees heading south. Swearing
and sweating French troops in mo-
torized units tried to go through
northward, but the refugees were
panic stricken and there was little
the troops could do.
II saw one group Of refugees stand
like sheep-dazed and bewildered-
and halt a whole column of tanks at
least 10 minutes before they LITERAL
ly we're led of the road.
German planes bombed and ma
chine-gunned these roads, for they
saw moving, organized columns Of
troops"
Order on German Roads.
A diplomat who travelled through
German occupied regions from
Amiens to Luxembourg asserted
that after the chaos we left Gin
France), the order on the German
side seemed incredible. Supplies
not only were moving up-they were
rushing up at breakneck speed over
unobstructed highways.
"Ambula rolled toward
Amiens, empty trucks and full am
balances headed back. The middle
lane, by strict order which was fol-
lowed to the letter, was left open
for motor cycle couriers.
yet that same road the day be-
fore was like the madhouse we left.
"The Germans seemed to have
plenty Of gasoline, their morale was
high and the organization almost
fantastic"
This witness (pro-Ally) added
that I'VE neither saw nor heard
single Allied bomber over the main
highways just behind the front
either day or night"
Refugees Hamper Belgians.
One who left the Belgian northern
war zone the day King Leopold
capitulated declared that Nobody
who was there could wonder why"
"The Belgian Army was cut to
bits" this witness said. "Whole
regiments simply vanished under
German fire the day before the
surrender.
Even that was not enough to
bring surrender, but the troops
morale was shattered by the pres
ence of masses of refugees literally
on the army's skirts.
German bombers striking at Bel
gian supply lines struck refugees too
Belgian refugees.
Many Belgian soldiers seemed
stark mad-torn between the de-
sire to continue the fight and the
inability to avoid bringing German
fire on refugees who shared their
camps"
Dead Along Roadsides.
Another witness who travelled the
road between Arras and Cambria
In Northeastern France Wednesday
said:
Refugees and soldiers lay side
by side along the road in death.
"Our column of refugees (they
then were in German occupied ter
ritory captured the night before)
flowed up to a place where we saw
q well-dressed businessman standing
in front of his car in a ditch, look
ing under the raised hood. I ran
out to see if I could help him. Like
others on the ground around him,
he was stiff in death"