THE GERMAN ARMY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20384, 22 October 1940, Page 2

THE GERMAN ARMY

DISAFFECTION IN NORWAY CONDITIONS UNDER NAZIS NEW ZEALANDER’S LETTER Suggestions of disaffection within the German Army of occupation in Norway are contained in a letter which has been received in Invercargill from a young New Zealand man who was studying at Oslo when the Germans invaded the country. He made his escape to Stockholm, and through friends in Norway has been able to gain information of the conditions under Nazi rule. The passage of mail from Sweden to British countries is extremely difficult, and the letter was received by a circuitous route. The writer stated that he had not received a letter from New Zealand for four months at the time of writing. “Times are hard in Norway, and the people have to subsist on black bread,” he wrote. “There are no eggs, very little butter, sugar or coffee. The estimated German forces in Norway are 360,000, the majority being on the wesJ coast, where the Germans have bought all the fishing boats and are practising embarking and disembarking on these small vessels. There has been a lot of trouble within the German ranks, and apparently a lot of troops are tired of the war and do. not wish to be in the big attack on England, which is looked upon as a rather dangerous affair. A number of soldiers were shot in Bergen for defeatism. The only business in Norway that is booming is airport building.” Foc-d Scarce in Germany If the war continued until next spring, continued the letter, there was a chance of internal dissolution in Germany, as times were very hard there. Food was scarce and of poor quality, and nobody had enough to eat. Because of the hard winter, all the crops had to be resown in the spring, and the only seeds available were oats and barley. "The British air raids on West Germany have done tremendous damage, especially in Hamburg, where the waterfront has been practically ruined,” the New Zealander wrote. “This information, through a neutral soursc, is of special interest in view of the recent cable news about continued attacks by the Royal Air Force on Hamburg.” Comment on the conditions in Sweden are brief and to the point. "In Sweden,” he wrote, “food is still plentiful, but warm water is a dream, a thing of the past, because of the scarcity of fuel.”