Trying Pincer Drive on Warsaw; Aircraft Active London, Sept. 7.
P)ENYING German claims of capturing Cracow, a Polish communique broadcast from Warsaw today claims that Polish troops are stemming the German. advance on the south-western front. The Polish garrison at Westerplatte, it adds, are still holding out, while Poles yesterday bombed a German mechanized column near Czestochowa. The Polish communique says that in a German raid on Cracow yesterday, fifteen enemy planes were brought down.
The official German News Agency in Berlin had reported Cracow occupied ithout fighting" with bridges over the Vistula undamaged.
The German official wireless announced that the Polish garrison in Westerplatte, at the entrance to Danzig harbour, surrendered at 11 am, today—Reuter, Warsaw, Sept. 7.
Polish reinforcements were digging in along the Bug River line of defence ten miles from here today in a desperate attempt to defend the city against German troops which have reached a point approximately 25 miles north of Warsaw.
Polish forces were reported to be making a desperate stand west and north of Warsaw after antiireraft batteries brought down eight enemy planes over the capital.
All Polish officials have evacuated Warsaw and the German attack on the former capital has been intensified from the air and land. The it alarm system has become disorganized and most of the heavy ant aircraft batteries have been removed, leaving only heavy machi e-guns to combat the German raiders.
The sound of artillery and machinegun fire could be heard in Warsaw yesterday but it died out today. Neutral military experts said they did not believe that German forces could immediately break through the extremely powerful outlying: defences surrounding Warsaw. downed eight, the Aircraft Defence std said in a communique today.
German troops were reported to be only 30 miles north of Warsaw but apparently the Poles have not yet blown up the bridges over the Bug River.
'A stream of refugees was arriving German planes in large numbers bombed the city throughout the morn-Ing, concentrating onthe aerodrome" One bomb aimed at a railway bridge [nit the railway administration building which was half destroyed. More than 1,000 workers would have been in the building an hour later.
Polish forces are barricading streets, particularly in the. airport district, apparently believing the Germans may attempt to land troops in transports. The morale of the Polish troops. Is excellent but tenseness is increasing lin Warsaw. The evacuation of the culty by civilians has become general.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.