Expert's Advise Accepted

Northern Advocate, 9 May 1940, Page 5

Expert's Advise Accepted

“We have been sasked why we did not enter Bergen and Trondheim in the first few hours,” said Mr Winston Churchill. “If troops were not to be landed, the only object in entering the fiords would have been the destruction of the destroyers, which the. Fleet Air Arm largely accomplished. “Indisputably it was our duty to help the Norwegians, and for that the capture of Trondheim offered the best way. “My thought has always been fixed on Narvik, where, it seemed, lay the path leading to some decisive achievement, but when the German outrage occurred, Trondheim undoubtedly was the place for aiding the Norwegians. The joint staffs prepared a plan for two diversionary landings, at Namsos and Andalsnes, and fox' a direct landing at Trondheim Fiord.” Mr Churchill added that the Navy was perfectly ready to carry in troops

to Trondheim, and there was no doubt of their ability to do so, but the plan was abandoned, because the diversionary landing progressed well. It seemed easier to capture Trondheim by this method than to incur the cost of a direct attack. The Admiralty did not withdraw it? offer or consider the operation navally impracticable, but the military authorities entertained grave doubts of the possibility of landing in the face of the enemy air superiority. Therefore, the chiefs of staffs advised that it was easier to convert the diversionary landing into a main attack. No one had the right to suggest that the Navy withdrew from the undertaking or that politicians over-ruled the Admiralty. “I take the fullest responsibility, together with the other Ministers, for accepting the unanimous view of the expert advisers,” he declared.