AMSTERDAM -- The Dutch and Belgian high commands said early today that Germany's lightning invasion of the little lowland neutrals has "failed" and that 1,000,000 defenders are holding the Nazi war machine at bay while allied forces speed to their aid.
British and French warplanes were in the skies, alongside Dutch and Belgian defense craft, to fight the estimated 1,000 German planes which have swarmed over all western Europe in terrorizing bombing attacks.
While the Dutch and Belgian armies -- about 500,000 troops in each -- battled valiantly along a 250-mile front of canals, rivers and floodlands a "formidable" British-French motorized army rushed northward through Belgium to come to grips with the Nazi invaders.
The British and French forces were racing to reach the Albert canal, key defense line joining the Dutch, Belgian and German borders north of Brussels where a major battle may decide the success or failure of Adolf Hitler's latest "blitzkrieg" attempt.
Battle raging in Luxembourg
A fierce battle described by French military dispatches as "the first real battle on the western front" was raging along France's frontier with the tiny Duchy of Luxembourg overrun by the green-grey Nazi columns early today without a chance to resist.
The Dutch and Belgian high commands said that the Germans were being held at the borders, despite Nazi claims that all resistance along the flooded border lands of the two countries was crumbling.
In Holland some of the fiercest fighting was in the streets of picturesque Rotterdam, just southeast of The Hague, where German forces landed from the sea and by parachutes reached the main bridge over the Mass river and fought to reach the center of the city.
Dutch defenders of Rotterdam said they were holding the Germans off.
Coastal attack repulsed
A large fleet of Nazi planes was reported to have landed on the sandy Dutch coast in that region and on Zealand island and unloaded troops for an attack on The Hague. Dutch land and sea forces, aided by the destroyer Jan Van Galen, were said to have thrown back the attack.
The Jan Van Galen was said to have penetrated German mines near the Hook of Holland and shelled the German forces and planes.
Except for occasional radio bulletins it was impossible early today to ascertain what was transpiring in Rotterdam and The Hague.
Reports of many German planes over Rotterdam and The Hague, including German bombers, and near Rotterdam's coast indicated however, that the Germans might be making headway.
200 German planes destroyed
Officials here estimated that 200 German planes had been destroyed during the day over Belgium, Holland and France.
In Belgium, it was reported, the Germans failed to capture a single air field and about 20 German planes were shot down by Belgian, British and French planes and anti-aircraft fire.
Large numbers of Nazi parachute troops were wiped out in both Holland Belgium.
British fighting planes sighted large numbers of German transport planes flying toward The Hague while others were sighted on the beach north of The Hague.
From the air, discarded parachutes were seen along roads all around Rotterdam, indicating that large numbers of such aerially landed German soldiers were in action.
Numerous towns bombed
Germany's bombing planes were described in French dispatches as bombing more than 20 towns -- Nancy was bombed three times, with a high toll of civilian dead. "Thanks to the grand defense of our troops the strategic surprise attack of the enemy has failed," said Lieut.-Gen. Henri Gerard Winkelman, the Netherlands supreme commander, in an order of the day to his troops.
With allied forces and fighting planes already aiding the Dutch-Belgian forces, the high command said that Chancellor Adolf Hitler's hopes for a quick knockout blow aimed at providing bases for "total war" against Great Britain had been thwarted.
Put up "desperate" fight
A Dutch communique told of "desperate" fighting to hold back the green-grey German horde along the Ijsel and Maas rivers and along the northeast coast opposite Emden.
The Germans, who landed parachute troops at several strategic points, battled to occupy Rotterdam, just southeast of The Hague on the Rhine. Defense barricades were thrown up in the heart of the city while gunfire echoed through the streets where the Germans were fighting.
Thus far, authorities said, there have not been the slightest signs of any "fifth column" or "Trojan horse" activities such as occurred in Norway to aid the Nazis in their conquest.
The Germans made several attempts to land parachute troops along the seacoast while other planes dropped thousands of pamphlets calling upon the Dutch people to surrender without resistance.
People in the streets tore up the pamphlets in anger.
With more than 500,000 men battling to stem the Nazi invasion and thousands of others reporting to the fighting lines every hour, the government warned civilians by radio not to participate in the fighting because this might lead to bloody Nazi reprisals.
To the south across the Albert canal, Belgian troops under personal command of King Leopold III were reported battling desperately in the Eupen-Aachen district along the German border just east of Liege.
Checked at all points
As did the Dutch high command, the commander of King Leopold's army said that the German advance had been checked at all points.
Air battles were fought over many cities and towns in Holland, Belgium, France and Switzerland. German planes also bombed a railroad station near Basle, on the German-Swiss border.
At least a dozen French towns, ports or air bases were bombed by the German air force and four incendiary bombs were dropped near the historic English town of Canterbury -- the first bombs to fall on England since the start of the war eight months ago.
(The Germans said that many French planes had been destroyed in the bombing of airports and that three French air bases including Metz just behind the western front had been destroyed. The Germans said German parachute troops had seized all important Dutch and Belgian airports).
Hot fight at Rotterdam
Rotterdam was the scene of some of the bitterest fighting in Holland with cannonading and machine gun fire echoing through the city this afternoon.
No German planes had flown over The Hague, however, since 7:30 a.m.
The Dutch high command communique indicated that fighting was progressing at three main points and many scattered places as result of Hitler's attempt to take the low countries and Luxembourg under Nazi "protection" and foil an alleged allied invasion plot.
Seventy German planes had been shot down by mid-afternoon, the high command claimed.
The three sectors of heavy fighting were:
1 -- Along the Ijsel rivers, where the Germans were reported using small flat-bottom naval boats in their attack. These boats were thrown into service by the Nazis in areas flooded by the Dutch in an attempt to delay the Nazi advance. The Ijsel runs from the German frontier across the middle of Holland to the Zuider Zee.
2 -- Along the Maas river, along the German-Dutch border inside Holland in the southern part of the nation.
3 -- At Delfzyl, across the bay from the German base at Emden in the north tip of Holland. In this sector the Dutch "maintained their positions" against the German attack, the high command said.
It was presumed that the German forces fighting in the streets of Rotterdam had landed from the sea somewhere near the Hook of Holland.
The high command said that German planes sought to land and seize many airports in the low countries in a lightning move at daw but that from a strategic viewpoint -- the German plan -- one of quick, lightning blows -- had been unsuccessful.
