Luxembourg, Aug. 8. officers yesterday ex ined to me how nine Germ bombers paralyzed one of the two largest forts in the Maginot Line with one attack and 18 bombs The German officers traced the course of the Battle of France by the deep scars it left in the country side during a press inspection of the work of German bombers in France.
The fort was called the Hochwald Works. It had a crew of 1,100 men occupying underground passages stretching from Klimbach to Pfaffenbring, six ' kilometres from the Rhine at Weissenburg.
German Air Force officers said we were the first civilians to visit Hochwald since King George dined at officers' mess there 60 metres underground last winter.
I climbed over 18 craters, some big enough to hold a small bun-glow, blasted out by 12,250 kilogram and six 50 kilogram bombs, all dropped within a radius of 300 metres around one of the most important gun turrets in the fort, in the attack June 20. The accuracy of the bombers partly explainable by the fact that all French anti-aircraft guns had been sent north to stem the break through.
The only anti-aircraft defence' there was a 10 centimetre cannon made in the year 1888 which was mounted on top of the fort!
Inside the turret, surprisingly enough, the only physical damage caused by the attack was to two 135 cannons which were jammed into the one metre thick concrete walls and were no longer useable, so that the light shone through.
The German officers said French prisoners told them the physical and psychological effects of the concussion from the huge bombs was so great that after the attack June 20, 200 men stationed near the turrets fled into the deepest underground passages and refused to return—United Press.
Defence Group issued a statement yesterday describing the War Department's protective mobilization plan as containing a breakdown of man power placement under the scheme to obtain an Army of 750,000 men with 450,000 replacements, The statement was attributed to an unnamed, but "very highly placed army officer," who, it was asserted, gave the "War Department's considered views.
"We must maintain in the overseas departments—Puerto Rice.
Panama, Alaska, Hawaii and the Philippines minimum of 100,000 men if we are to assign adequate initial defence," the statement said. The present numbers are about 40 per cent, less than required.
"We need to have instantly available for the defence of points in this hemisphere not less than 212,- 000 men and, in addition, we must have available in the United States a reasonable number of men who can be moved promptly to any threatened position.'
The statement said the mobilization plan could be accomplished by ordering the National Guard into active service and inducting 400,000 men into training by a selective system in October of this year and an additional 400,000 in April, 1941 The required number of reserve officers could be ordered into active duty for training purposes—United Press,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.