WARFARE IN NORWAY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 123, 23 April 1940, Page 8

WARFARE IN NORWAY

LARGE BATTLES UNLIKELY. PROGRESS OF ALLIES. The military situation in Norway is now becoming clearer. The Germans, besides seizing the capital, Oslo, have established themselves in Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik, the principal ports on the west coast of Norway. From these the invaders have been cut off at sea by British naval operations, and can reinforce and supply the German froecs in each place only by air. „ The main body of the invaders entered Norway through Oslo Fiord and other southern ports, and this contingent can he and no doubt lias been reinforced and supplied, though at the risk of attack by Allied submarines and in peril of Allied minefields, by sea as well as by air. Sinee the original descent on Norway the Germans in the south appear to have gained control of south-east Norway un to the vicinity of Hamar and a similar area south-west of Oslo. At Stavanger and Bergen the invaders have made little progress, at Narvik they are hemmed in by Allied and Norwegian forces, but at Trondheim they have spread themselves wider and attempted to seize vital rail and road communications to the north, east, and south, and have been reinforced by air and with parachute troops. It seems clear that both sides regard -Trondheim as the vital point, and the Allies and Norwegians • appear to have the Germans in an iron grip. ENEMY PLIGHT 'AT NARVIK.

Though the position at Narvik is still obscure anti the Germans are said to have had mountain guns carried to them by air, it is hard to see how this force, which cannot be very numerous, can escape from the grip of the Allies advancing from the sea and the Norwegians from tlio mountains. There is apparently no feasible communication by land between Narvik and the south, though the railway from Trondheim now extends 200 miles north (beyond Namsos I to Mo. Operations round Narvik, are therefore, likely to remain isolated until the Germans surrender or are annihilated. One of the battlegrounds is likely to bo the wide region round Trondheim, which is connected by railway over country easier than most of Western Norway by two lines with Oslo, and by one line direct with Sweden. If the Allied landing at Molde or

elsewhere in the Romsdal Fiord is confirmed, their communication by road and rail with the main body of the Norwegian defenders in the Elverum area would he n comparatively simple matter, and would also facilitate - an advance on Trondheim both from the north and south. DIFFICULT TERRAIN.

The nature of the country in Norway is such as to make all communications difficult and easily severed. There is not much room for battles on a big scale or for mass operations by tanks, or for mechanised warfare at all. In the main the terrain is far more suitable for the operations of detached forces with rifles, machine-guns and light artillery. The conduct of a campaign over such a mountainous, broken country must ho methodical if it is to succeed. In this respect the advantage should be with the defenders, once they arc reinforced with man-power and munitions by the Allies. The fact that the Allied Landings in Norway were effected without loss is some indication of the value of the command of the sea. The Germans on the other hand have lost several transports and with them probably many troops. The accompanying map enables a clear conception of the present operations to ho obtained. Lillehammer, thirty miles from Hamar, in the Gubrandals Valley, is visible on one of the railway lines which proceed north from Oslo, this particular route extending to Andalsnes, on the west coast, which has been subject to German bombardment. Elverum, which the British are reported to have recaptured, lies a little to the east of Hamar. Dombnss, the scene of the mopping-up of German parachute troops, is a junction easily identified on the railway to Andalsnes.