Evening star., 1940-06-07
Fifth of 'Punzer'
Armada Smashed
Paris Asserts
By the Associated Press.

PARIS, June THE Germans,
with their machine power re-
ported dwindling, sent masses of
men-perhaps half million in
all-into the great Somme- -Aisne
battle today in a supreme effort
to outflank the Weygand Line at
both ends and strike a decisive
blow at the heart of France.
One-fifth of the 2,000-tank
"Panzer" armada used by the
Nazis in the first two days of the
battle have been blasted into in
activity, according to the esti-
mate of a French military
spokesman.
Dive bombers which had led
the German conquest of Flan-
ders, also were said to be drop
ping out of action as Generals
simo Weygand called on his
armies to hold tight to the soil
Of France"
Reynaud Confident.
Premier Reynaud told the Senate
Army Commission there is reason
to have confidence in the develop
ment of operations now under way
A communique issued after the
meeting also said that the Premier
had reviewed the entire military
situation.
Unofficial sources reported tonight
that Gen. Weygand had sown the
entire area between the 'Somme-
Aisne battlefront and the Seine
River, just above Paris, with anti
tank defense nests.
Roads have been barricaded and
strong support posts, armed with
machine guns as well as anti-tank
guns, have been set up in defense
against both the Nazi motorized
columns and possible parachutists,
these sources said.
Thus. mechaniZed units which
have broken through the front lines
under the new Weygand swinging
gate" tactics will run an almost
continuous gantlet of hot defensive
fire.
The area between the battle front
and the Seine is roughly As to 55
miles deep.
Follow Yesterdays Withdrawals.
The German flanking maneu-
vers were aimed at the eastern and
western ends of the active 125-mile
section of the 200-mile front stretch
ing through Northern France from
the Maginot Line to the sea.
1t is this 125-mile stretch of ma
ture- -buttressed defenses, north of
Paris, which has been called the
Weygand line. although the elderly
generalissimo has organized the po-
sitions for the 200 miles of the
northern front.
The f1anking attempts were fol-
low-ups of yesterdays French with
draWals Despite the renewed pres
sure the French spokesman de-
clared that the defenses we're hold
ing.
Yesterdays Withdrawals were in
the Abbeville coastal area, where
the defenders fell back upon the re-
gion of the Bresle River, II miles
from the Somme River mouth at
Abbeville, and in the scissors sec
tor where they withdrew to the
north bank of the Aisne.
German tanks, having crossed or
circled around the Ailette Canal
and river of the same name, were
said to have advanced yesterday
to heights on the north bank of the
Aisne.
Frances Future at Stake.
A Weygand order of the day de-
clared that the future of France
depends on your enacity''-the
tenacity of French forces with a
bolstering of British troops which
are opposing 100000 invaders in the
north, between the Channel and the
plateau near the confluence of the
Aisne and Disc Rivers.
Cannonading from the ground
and the air was credited by the
French military with destruction
of about 400 of the 1000 rolling
fortresses in the first two days of
the Nazi offensive. The push now
is in its third day.
AS if turning to another powerful
blitzkrieg weapon to speed up the
assault, Germany sent about 200
planes over France. They caused
an early morning alarm in the Paris
region, but passed around the
capital.
The aerial armada caused ma
terial damage" in raids over Central
France. the French announced, but
(See PARIS, Page A-3)