^ l * T« - SUNOCO. THURSDAy t JUNE 6. 19AO. GOOD EVENING EVERYBODY: I don*t know what history x. Ill cell the battle now raging in France. Today Premier Reynaud, in a radio address to the French nation, referred to it as - nthis battle of June, Nineteer^Forty.n Perhaps the future may style it - "the Battle of the Rivers", because the fighting line,which extends roughly east and west, is mostly along two streams - the Aisne and the Somme. Today the frightful conflict was mostly along the Somme, reminding us of that World War horror - the Battle of the Somme. The German drives are chiefly at the western extension of the line, where it to the English Channel. There the Nazis are trying to break through for a flanking movement around the western wing of the Allied army. The power of the Hitler offensive is tersely described by Premier Reynaud in these words;- nur..u ,, Vkith all means, planes and LEAD - 2 .x.ri in orler to break through•TT "'Paris reports the number of r\D German tanks in the battle £^s two thousand. ^Beriin^^yorbg series of advances.|The Nazis claim that in several places theyT ve cracked what is called - nthe Weygand line0. (They describe the mechanized thrust as crashing through at Peronne. ThatTs the sector nearest to the center of/the fighting front. There, the French positions form a saliomt between the River Somme and the River Aisne. The drivy'there might well be for the purpose xsrgx? of merely straightening out the salient - if it were not coordinated with other/attacks further to the west. At Amiens - the Nazi motorized columns are said to be striking g around the city. And at ^bbeville, near the coast — g the yerman High Qommand claims a sweeping advance along the / shore of the English Channel. In fact, Berlin tonight claims a large advanc^inphg southwesterly direction. f^Paris admits that the Nazi motorized drives have thrust forward, in some places five or six miles across the Somme In one place, perhaps as much as ten miles - near the City of Peronne. But Paris explains these German mechanized advances as LH a D - 3 being part of the A*^Op»^FrencJaL strategy for stopping the jc blitzkrieg. They say they^e learned a thing or two since the mechanized tactics of the lightning war shattered through the Allied armies in Flanders,and have devised a new method to check the tremendous impact of the Nazi tank divisions. The Weyg&n^ Line, they explain, is flexible. In fact, the French army could not have had time to construct any large permanent fortifications - itTs only ten days since the Nazi .mechanized forces swept across northern France. We are told that the new tactics are'to let swift armored units penetrate into the defense front, get ^ the first line. Then the defense A closes behind them and stops the German infantry that tries to pour through the gap. In this way the tank units can be dealt with at leisure, blasted by artillery fire - the French Seventy-Fives. ThatT s how Paris is inclined to interpret the German tan& advances today - letting the motorized units into the deep front, only to destroy them. Paris claims that hundreds of Nazi tanks were put out of action. LEAD - 4 As the fury of battle rages on the ground, itfs the sauie in the sky. The Germans have their usual swarms of fighting planes in action - especially the dive bombers. To check them and fight them out cf the air*. 2 - 1 v\—l the Allies are every plane theyTve got for the job. Britain's R.A.F. is hitting from across the Channel, blasting vital areas behind the German line, Ixjci to break the attack. -------a— Air raiding far and wide, hitting at German communications, Gprman cities. The port of Hamburg was bombed heavily by the R.A.F., and Berlin reports thirteen houses destroyed. Paris says that the issue of the titanic struggle is tn the balance, and that neither victory nor defeat is evident yet. /Preraier^eynaud, in telling of the violent magnitude of the German offensive, made this comment:- "I am very satisfi< with the French answer.TT He said there was what he called - "reason for hope." y.TNDSOR The Duke of Windsor has resigned from his military post - and thereTs no explanation of the reason why. Since the beginning of the war, the former King Edward the Eighth has been serving in France as a liaison officer with the 0 British and French armies - serving the rank .ei Major- General. In France iimkjxaaqr with him has been his Duchess - the former Wallis Warfield of Baltimore. She has been doing various sorts of ?.ar work in Paris. Today’s story emanantes from the British Press Association and relates that the former monarch of the British Empire has given up his military job. He is being succeeded as liaison officer 'by Brigadier-General E. L. Spears. The London Press Association adds there’s no indication of whether or not the Duke of Windsor will be given another war-time appointment in the British Army. AMBA£SAI.Or£ Trie question of American armament for the Allies is a headline tonight - with the revelation that our Ambassadors to London and Paris have been / appeals to Washington. London Ambassador Kennedy and Paris Ambassador Bullitt have been repeatedly urging -^Send more A war equipment to the British and French armies. The disclosure was made today when newspaper men asked White House Secretary Steve Early about a report that Ambassadors Kennedy and Bullitt had telked to Washington yesterday by trans-Atlart ic telephone and had called for a speeding-up of Allied arms-orders in this country. Steve Early rreplied that he didnft know about any specific telephone —— . . calls made yesterday - the messages have been continuous. A "Both Bullitt and Kennedy," said he, "are telephoning and_ communicating by cable, *»i asking that we do everything we can to speed up production^" -This- by war d aere._ elsef-iia^-^Llies ifcaafe-the wai^lanes l5liey hai •Qxa Aitorinftn f7rr I Today, an official of the Allied purchasing Board AMBASSADORS _ 2 declared that thus far Great Britain and France have received twenty-three hundred military airoraft bought in this country. he added that deliveries were slow* but^fciieyriifc increasing.* /*” A The peak^^ said he, will probably be reached by next January. * i -that the orde&a in tftie-eountry- to -a- tot a i i lion iri> inr> t ^Tf^—rrm or, c n There1s releasing to the Allies surplus equipment belonging to our Army and navy. -gomething -tike* Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau said at a press conference that the Allied Purchasing Board had informed him that they to buy some of our surplus army equipment. p«frir*e4—ire -had peforred- tlie^PtrTO^Pliig Bui Bcj«rtMtrb—-ttp-tn-tiie- What sort of surplus? What kind of equipment? Old army material; we are told. Armament dating back to the World War. World W*r artillery, for example. The army has a large stock of guns and ••munitions piled up AMBASSADORS - 3 from the days of the A.E.F. - obsolete now, but still to •plusy^a^tle-^qttipmeisfe useable* This, we are told, is the surp^iie q — W^ffcnrinajc^to available to the Allies. A later report states that a list of such material has been submitted to the Allied representatives. This list is said to classify about f^fty million dollarsT worth. Most of N it^armament which we ourselves bought from the Britth during Hie World War. A survey is said to show a huge lot of British Enfield rifles, two million of them. * Also two thousand pieces of field artillery - ixrgsxxlfe largely French SgYgxfcyxElfTKiqE; /\ Seventy-Fives, so famous in the World War. Attorney General Jackson says that sale could be ^ A made to Great Britain and France without violating international law or our own Neutrality Law. It is pointed out that at various times in the recent past, we»ve sold left-over military material to nations like Brazil, Mexico and Finland. They say that a deal vgv ZG be worked out in a round-about way. The army turn ,w«r over the surplus equipment to American coin^'anies, and in turn croul5® resell to the Allies. A There’s word from Fascist Italy which strikes a s nSj-^^ve American chord — a threat of European intervention in the affairs of the Western Heniisphere* That i*eminds us of talk that some such European power as Nazi Germany may try to monkey around with the Latin Americas. The threat comes from Gayda, the Fascist editor who for years has been regarded as a mouthpiece for Mussolini. Gayda writes that the United States is not neutral in ‘the European war, but is favoring the Allies. Re argues against this. "It is not true," contends Mussolini’s mouthpiece, "that the United States has any duty to save the Old world." It may cause Europe to retaliate, says Gayda. He uses these words: "Retaliation to be used either today or at any other moment in American history." What kind of retaliation does he mean? He argues that if the United States intervenes in a European war — "there's no reason," as he phrases it, "why one day some gre t European power should not intervene in favor of some American nation that happens to be at war with the United States." inference is plain — the notion i.hc t some Latin American country ight be incited to quarrel with the United States, ITALY - 2 with a European power going to the help of the hypothetical Latin American Republic. Maybe that’s a tip, indicating what’s in the^Fascist and Nazi mind3, PQPij Here’s a denial of a rumor that has been spreading far and v.ide - a report concerning President Roosevelt and Pope Pius the Twelfth. The story said that the President offered to the Pontiff a welcome in the United States, if Italy should enter the war. That of course raised the supposition that the Vatican, in the heart of Mussolini’s capital, would not be such a safe place if Italy were at war with the Allies. So it might be that the Papal court might feel it expedient to move to a neutral nation - the United States, for example. Today, White House Secretary Steve Early gave a denial to the newspaper men. They didn't go and ask him about the rumor, he cabled them in - the White House considered the ttdtr denial unimportant. Secretary Early spoxe of the report in A these terms -’’it’s going all over the country and probably is stirring up a lot of religious differences.” Then he added:- ’’There is absolutely no truth in i whatever.” he spwdting fax-lreeidant Rooseveit-iTT-STiying %t!Bt s inf story- that -the- Preeidwnt has a eotuge ilalled jstetea» CLIPl^i - FILM - FRKK One the minor amazing things about this war is the speed with wnich we are getting films right from the scene of action. A clipper came in today, from Europe. In addition to passengers, it carried films showing tne evacuation of the British and French troops from the channel ports, events of only a few days <-go. In just a few minutes I expect to sound-record these pictures for Movietone. The films show the soldiers getting away from Boulogne, being transferred from small boats to larger ones out in the English Channel; also the battle and burning of Dunkirk. Shortly before coming here to the Studio this broadcast I was chatting with an American just in from Europe on that same clipper -- Albert F. Free, President of F. R. Tripier. Direct from London and Paris. He says that from all that he couid tell, both the French and British are determined not go give up under any circumstances* He repeated what we have been hearing that they have made u*. their minds to fight unt_i they win, no matter how long it takes, no matter what the cost. He told me of his experiences in air raids, crossing the English Channel, zigzagging down the French coast, being chased by submarines, the torpedoing of other ships in their convoy, and the bombardment, terrifying fireworKs, and storming of Calais by night. In only twenty-seven hours he had flown home from Europe — Portugal to New York. Said Albert Free:- "Wonderful as it is to be home, it seems appalling when I think how peaceful and perfect everything is here, and how only twenty-seven hours away by plane the people are in the midst of perhaps the most terrifying experience that human beings have gone through in the entire nistory of man. He urged that we send help as quickly as we can, and lose no time in preparing for our own defense. DEFENSE Right now the United States Government is running two giant programs -- Defense, and also Relief. And here’s an idea that eveloped today. It concerns Public Works Projects. The order was given -- concentrate on such projects as are useful fornational defense. W.P.A. Commissioner Harrington has just notified all the W.P.A. Administrators:- "Give priority to public works which the Army and Navy consider - "of first importance!" As for the anti-Fifth Column drive in this country — there won1t be any wholesale round-up or series of mass arrests. This was stated today by Attorney General Jackson. Extra money is Jjeing put up for the EtX.F.B.I. and the Immigration Bureau — this as part of the defense program. Attorney A-% Jackson, explaining to a Congressional Committee why the money was . sald i - need^ said:- "There will be a greater number of prisoners to be handled." This gave rise to suppositions that a Fifth Column round-up was planned, with mass arrests But the Attorney General today said - no, not at all. 'Be-pu*. it in these words*—11 Any -Inference that we contemplate r>r -of-ttie-def-cftse pro gram is wholly-* unwerrantcdT* —^e iwcplaineri-hl-s-yemftrk- ebeut-adriitlena 1—prisoners by—ing -federal-prisoners has bcen-flJl, yean incjcttslng steadily: Mow about the Sixth Column. That takes us to Pottsville, ___ rwvt ^ Pennsylvania. The Pottsvillite* have formed a Sixth Column. Of this A I am informed by a telegram from General Leslie Mncaid, who commanded A.E.F. troops in France. General Kincaid, now President of the American Hotels Corporation, wires me:- nThree hundred of % the leading Pottsvill^ citizens met in the ballroom of the Necho Allen Hotel and formed an organization to scrutinize Un-American personalities and activities around Pottsville.” F.B.I. - 2 Maguire country. Years ago the Molly Maguires, in Coal mine troubles, used to take pot-shots around Pottsville. And now Pottsville, with a Sixth Cdluinn, goes potting for the Fifth Column.