Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-09-12 | Page 2 | German City Threatened - Pincers Peril Poles

German City Threatened Pincers Peril Poles I TJG AT"' I it V Err A N C E tfi?0,H t to io y 4o spjuuc jjj j jgB ' 1 UTIIUAWIA ' J A VaOOOPOtES ILjLtwMhaik 1 Ai'"MX"t". X'.i' MAP SHOWS PROGRESS ON WESTERN FRONT I Allied forces threatening Nazi Saarbruecken ( M AP-SHOWS-TEATirTRAP-rOR-rOLISH FORCE Germans report circling troops in woods west of Warsaw NAZISTAUNCIT 'FINALATTACK' By Pir.RRE J. HUM WITH THE GERMAN ARMY WEST OF WARSAW. Sept. 12 (INS) The German army today launched a final crushing attack against five or six Polish divisions believed hopelessly trspped in the woods west of Warsaw and north of the city of Lodz in an effort to compel their surrender within 48 hours at the most and clinch Relchsfuehrer Adolf Hitler's grip on western Poland. Pole Trapped Between 50,000 and 73,000 Poles, said by the German high command to be surrounded snd seed with annihilation If ths white flag is not hoisted before another day or two have passed, are all that 11 In the way of complete occupation of Poland's western flank by the German army. In the knowledge that one this Polish fore is wiped out or captured cap-tured th path will be opened for a general onslaught on Warsaw, th new German offensive got under un-der way aa the first pal light of dawikftreaked the sky. The air fore led the attack against th Pole entrenched and lodged In makeshift fortifications within the deeply wooded area. A heavy artillery barrag followed, with counties shells shearing through the gnarled trees, clearing clear-ing the way for th movement of tanks and armored cars. The Germans struck out in various vari-ous directions from Kutno, inflicting inflict-ing heavy losses upon the Polish divisions which attempted to hold their positions within the woods. Military estimates compiled on the basis of dead and wounded strewn on the battlefield placed Polish casualties in this srea since Sunday at a minimum ot 2000 killed and 6000 wounded. This high total was explained by the fact that the Poles repeatedly repeat-edly launched "mad attacks" at close range against vaatly superior German arm. Poor Equipment Due to inferior Polish equipment and by skilfully shielding their, advances under cover of armored cars and artillery, the Germans have held their losses to a few hundred dead, It was said. Th attack launched at dawn today was carried out under personal per-sonal supervision of Hitler. The fuehrer haa been motoring from point to point throughout the battle bat-tle area during the last two days. His uniform has become caked with battle dust and one he had to run the anglet through a patch of woods where 300 Polish cavalrymen were hiding. The fuehrer is breaking the monotony mo-notony of til In the war zone by making occasional flights over the enemy lines in a fighting or bombing bomb-ing plane. Yesterday he visited field headquarters in a farmhouse half destroyed by Polish sheila. White Hitler's troops hammered away at Polish positions in the Warsaw-Lodz sector, half a dozen army columns thrust south and eastward toward Lwow and other key cities on th San and Vistula rlvera.