KEPT SECRET.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 90, 16 April 1940, Page 8

KEPT SECRET.

BRITISH POSITIONS. Germans Control South-East Area Of Norway. STUBBORN OPPOSITION. United Prois Association.—Copyright. (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 15. By the occupation of Halden, Sarpsborg- and Fredrikstad, the Germans now control the whole of the south-eastern corner of Norway, otherwise Lower Ostfold. While the whereabouts, of the British forces in Norway remains a secret, there are necessarily vital gaps in any attempt to picture the strategy of the Norwegian defenders.

On the contrary, the invaders are obviously engaged in operations aiming at the creation of a ring round Oslo. The occupation of Tongsberg and Larvik, on the western side of Oslo Fiord, must be considered a primary precaution against attacks from the ,sea, which the German command of Lower Ostfold also renders difficult. The Germane, meanwhile, are vigorously attacking on a wide front in the hinterland northward and north-east-ward of Oslo, aiming at the capture of Kongsvinger, thus further diminishing the railway communication between Norway and Sweden. Norwegian resistance is stubbornly centred in this section, but the Germans are reported to have crossed the ice surface of the Glommer River and. are now engaged in severe fighting near Santer, four miles westward from Kongsvinger. Hundreds of Norwegians are raported to have been killed in this area. _ The defenders are maintaining positions still further west in the Skarnes region, where increasing concentrations of Germans are reported.