HITLER'S VITAL MISTAKE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 87, 12 April 1940, Page 7

HITLER'S VITAL MISTAKE

Great Gain To Allies

INVASION MOVE

"Accursed Corridor Now Closed Forever"

CHURCHILL'S SURVEY

(British Official Wireless.—Ree. noon.) RUGBY. April 11. '"Since Monday fighting in the seas around Norway has continued night and day. A widely dispersed but none the less general action between large numbers of German ships and aircraft and British naval and air forces is going on now." In such words Mr. Churchill conveyed to the House of Commons the atmosphere of strain and expectancy which must last until the actions are completed and full information is received. In the meantime he fortified the confidence of the House with a candid recital of the details, as far as they are known, of the first operations, and members made no complaint at his refusal to lift the veil "which should properly and discreetly cover future operation or operations in progress at this moment." Mr. A. V. Alexander (Labour), a former Firet Lord of the Admiralty, who spoke later for the Opposition, joined him in a warning against rumour and "dubious news" during the necessary hours and days of silence. The House heard with satisfaction Mr. Churchill's assurance that in the considered view of the Admiralty the Allies had in the strategic and military sense greatly gained from the error of Hitler in spreading the war to Scandinavia. Mr. Churchill compared this with the mistake committed by Napoleon when he invaded SpainEarlier Mr. Churchill had described how the existence of "a geographical and legal covered way" down the Norwegian coast had been a very great impediment to the Allied blockade. Warships moved up and down it as they thought convenient. U-boats used it as they thought fit. Stray German liners and merchant ships trying to get back to Germany from the outer seas sought cover there for its 800-mile length. So he put first among the advantages which Hitler's wild gamble had bestowed on the Allies the fact that "this accursed corridor is now closed forever." German Navy Deeply Mutilated.

In this way, Mr. Chuchill went on, Hitler had doubled the efficiency of the Allied blockade. Further, he had made a whole series of commitments upon the Norwegian coast for which he would have to fight if necessary during the whole summer, for by violating the independence and soil of Norway he had enlisted against him a virile people capable of maintaining in a large, wild and" mountainous country—full of positions where free men could shelter and fight—and with British and French aid, a prolonged resistance. For the future the British could take what they wanted of the Norwegian coast.

Mr. Churchill said the British were occupying the Faroe Islands —a strategic point of high importance—and they would shield them from all the severities of war and establish themselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment came to hand them back to the Crown and people of Denmark, liberated from Nazi thraldom. While Iceland required further consideration, he could say that no German would set foot there with impunity. Hitler had cast the interests of the German Navy upon wild waters, and most grievous losses had already been sustained. Four cruisers-—nearly half of Germany's pre-war strength and much more than her now existing strength—had been sunk, and a number of destroyers and several more U-boats destroyed all S "? . Sun< Js?• Tne German Navy was thus deeply mutilated. In addition, British submarines had taken heavy toll of all German transports and store ships crossing to Scandinavia. All the German ships in the Skager-Rak and the Kattegat would be sunk. Already a dozen ships, some of large tonage, had been sunk or captured there or m the North Sea.