SABOTAGE INCREASING

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1943, Page 5

SABOTAGE INCREASING

IN DENMARK AND NORWAY

BRITISH PARACHUTISTS BUSY ?

LONDON, April 1. The Germans now say that they are hunting British parachutists in Denmark as well as Norway. Danish radio listeners were told that these men have committed sabotage in Copenhagen. Five separate acts of sabotage were reported in which German barracks and engineering works were set on fire. The Germans allege that the stage has been reached where the parachutists can force their way into industrial plants and persuade the guards to keep quiet while they plant bombs. Danish citizens are said to be involved. ■ The German Commissioner in Norway (Terboven) is said to be leading the hunt for the British and Norwegian parachutists who are said to be making sabotage raids from a base in the mountains east of Bergen. “Growing activity of British and Norwegian paratroops in south and central Norway is believed to be the reason why General Rediess, the German police chief in Norway, has declared the whole of the Hardanger Plateau a forbidden zone,” states the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” “The plateau is about 75 miles due east of Bergen and covers an area of more than 6000 square miles. Saboteurs and paratroops are reported to have established a headquarters somewhere in this wild and desolate country, from which raids are carried out against surrounding industrial undertakings vital to the German war effort. The most successful of these raids was a recent attack on the Rjukan power plant, on the eastern border of the plateau, where immense damage was done. Saboteurs still at large number more than 200. Aeroplanes, it is reported, frequently fly over the plateau, dropping food, explosives, and reinforcements. “It is also reported that the British have established a meteorological station, from which weather reports are radioed to Scotland for the benefit of the Royal Air Force. The Germans, it is stated, have sent m many troops, and a large-scale search of the whole plateau is proceeding.”

MASSACRES IN LITHUANIA

LONDON, April 1. Guerrilla warfare has started in Lithuania as a result of the massacre by the Germans of a group of Lithuanian farmers. The British United Press correspondent in Stockholm says: “Thousands of young peasants have fled to the forests, where sindents and even professors have joined them from the Vilna and Kaunas Universities, leaving the universities virtually deserted. Von Rintelen, the German Commissioner, has dismissed, the Lithuanian General Council, which was unable to cope with the situation. He summoned to Kaunas General Raszkitis, who helped the Germans when they first entered Lithuania, and also other prominent Lithuanians who were exiled in Berlin. The result of the conrerence is not known, but it is believed that the situation has forced the Germans again to promise Lithuania independence.

“The massacre of the farmers, which touched off the spark of resistance, occurred in the middle of March, when the district leader of the Vilna district summoned the ciders of committees which had failed to fulfil their quota of agricultural deliveries to Germany. The district leader, backed up by a retinue of storm troopers, violently denounced the Lithuanians and then ordered every fifth man to be shot from a row of about 200. The subsequent resistance resulted in a steady decrease in the export of produce to Germany and in the recruitment; of only 800 Lithuanian volunteers for the Baltic region, compared with several thousands from Estonia and Latvia.”

RIOTS IN BULGARIA.

LONDON, April 1

"Street fighting in which 18 persons were killed and 22 wounded, followed a police attempt to break up a political demonstration in Sofia last week,” says the “Daily Express” correspondent in Istanbul. “Street parades have become a favourite method bv which the Bulgarians show sympathy for Russia. They are announced as ‘in support of our Axis Allies,’ but have become pro-Russian demonstrations. One parade 8000 strong last Tuesday shouted pro-Russian slogans outside the Palace, The nervousness of the Bulgarian authorities increased on Wednesday, when a Gorman lorry traversing the centre of Sofia, en route to an airfield with bombs, blew up and wrecked eight houses. No trace was found of the six Germans aboard the lorry. ’

GERMANS SHOT IN BELGIUM

LONDON, March 31

Within 75 minutes, a' German senior officer, a military engineer, and two German soldiers • were killed or seriously injured at Liege. A Belgian in the first attack fired several shots at two Germans sitting in a cafe. One German was killed and one severely wounded. Four unknown assailants struck down the senior German officer while he was boarding a trolley-bus. The attackers escaped, firing shots as they fled. The German army engineer was seriously injured when exchanging shots with an unknown person who attacked him. . The Germans seized 50 Belgians as hostages after these attacks.

LONDON, April 1. The Germans executed ten of the fifty Belgians taken as hostages at Liege, in consequence of four attacks since yesterday against a German officer and soldiers. The Germans at first announced that fifteen would be executed. but live were reprieved after one culprit was arrested. Reports from Belgium to the Belgian News Agency, London, indicate that the incidents in Liege province are increasing. Patriots, last night, raided a police school in Liege, overpowered the guards, and carried off all firearms on the premises. Two members of lhe Gestapo were wounded during a fight with saboteurs. One saboteur was killed. Gestapo agents killed two Belgians near the railway station at Liege, and a German officer wounded a Belgian with revolver shots.