POSITION IN NORWAY

Grey River Argus, 24 November 1944, Page 7

POSITION IN NORWAY

GERMAN VANDALISM PEOPLE DRIVEN LIKE SHEEP LONDON, Nov. 23 A Stockholm correspondent of the “Times’' says: According to a Norwegian who arrived at Stockholm’ from Finmark in north Norway, Germans declare that the military situation in Nortrern Norway, has reached a stage where no consideration can be given to th & civilian population. He said: “The Germans are driving the people south-west, burning houses and shooting cattle. Finmark, which normally contained 55,000 people is now lifeless and empty, except for those hidden in the mines of Kirkenes. Norwegians fear that a similar fate awaits the whole area from Tromso to Narvik, where 250,000 people are living. Norway . is facing the greatest catastrophe in its history. The gravest devastation has also stopped the fisheries which are themainstay of the country’s wartime and peace-time supply.” Crown Prince Olav of Norway, in London stated: “The Germans are leaving a desert behind them as they retire from Finmark, the enemy forces are burning all towns and villages and taking the whole population with them. The Russians with the Norwegian forces have passed Varanger fiord and reached the. Tans River, 60 miles north-west of Kirkenes, while the Finnish Army is at present held up at a point about half-way from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Atlantic near Tromso. The German intention probably is to evacuate Finmark and retire to a much shorter line running from the Swedish frontier to Lyngen fiord, covering Tromso. Only at Kirkenes was the population able to escape deportation owing to the euddeness of the Russian attack.” Prince Olav said that co-operation between the Russian Army and the Norwegian authorities was extremely cordial and an example of how armies of different nationalities should collaborate in these circumstances. He pointed out that the complete destruction of Finmark might make it uninhabitable for many years. It was hoped that the Germans had not been able to destroy all the reindeer herds, since that would mean the end of the livelihood of a people whose ancestors had lived there from time immemori 3.1 Prince Olav said that the food situation throughtout Norway was worse than the previous Winter, the potato crop had been much smaller than usual. There was no meat and practically no fish. Workers in heavy industry received a meat lation, but Sev had to eat it at their .place of work to prevent them giving it to th “Th?Germ’ans are fighting a stubborn, painful rearguard action the Finns in the snow and cold of Lan'S destroying and burning as Sev retire into Norway,” says he Stockholm correspondent, of the Associated Press. “There ie no wellHpfined front, but there are isolated nations on the Germans escape routes, along which General Rendulic is try- ± to rescue his army, once morel than 100,000 strong.' .