STORY OF LANDING

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 10 September 1941, Page 5

STORY OF LANDING

SPITZBERGEN EXPEDITION PREPARATIONS TO MEET ENEMY CANADIANS FIRST ASHORE London. Sept. 9. •j A Canadian eye-witness of the land j I ini- m Spitzbergen said that the Allied j formation, commanded by a SaskaU j j die wail officer, struck swiftly and se- j cretly. The Canadians made the first j 1 landing from warships and troopships ! and garrisoned the settlements. Some «f them are now back in England.! bringing with them large numbers of | i Norwegian miners ancl their families. j Throughout the whole hazardous i voyage from Britain there was not a! i single Nazi raid on the expedition, I which comprised a formidable flotilla jof warships with Fleet Air Arm] j Planes. Detachments of British and i ! Norwegian troops supported the j ! Canadians, who manned the island’s ! guns and defence positions. Before leaving Britain the troops ! | were told that they were going on 1 , army exercises somewhere in Britain,! ■ and only a few senior officers knew j • more than this. First of all they 1 1 went to a special coastal training ! . area, where the units were instructed ] in invasion tactics and beach assaults. I The flotilla eventually sailed, but it | was not till the troops were inside the ! 1 ships that they were told where they ! 1 were going, and then they cheered lustily. ■ One day out from Spitzbergen the [ officers were handed their operational ' orders. It is not known whether Germans were on the island, so plans • were prepared for opposed and un- ! opposed landings. The imposing flotilla reached Spitzbergen at (j a.m., after destroyers and . aircraft had reconnoitred ahead. The ! troops crowded the rails as the ships ' moved down a long fiord. A lieutenant and some signalmen, ! armed to the teeth, made the first land- ■ ing from small boats, with Bren guns in the bows, to take over a wireless .- tation, and the next party ashore took j over another wireless station. Nor. ! v/egians rushed from their shacks to I greet them. IN RUSSIAN TOWN After these initial moves the com- j , mander and interpreters went ashore ; ' i icr an official landing at a Russian ! town. A score of stolid Russians, in- j . eluding the town’s officials, surrounded j ] them, and there was no sign of animos- | j ity as the troops entered the centre j jof the community, where they were ! | ceremoniously greeted by a Russian j j A British officer passed round Rus- ■ I sian cigarettes, and negotiations were) rapidly carried out under large pictures I lof Stalin and other Soviet leaders, j ; Within an hour the Russians and Can-! j adians were fraternising. The destroyers, trawlers and Russian ; lighters and motor-boats plied between | the ships and the dock bringing ammu- j nition. explosives and supplies ashore. \ ' In the meantime a destroyer took a Norwegian detachment and a Canadian landing party took a Norwegian settlement down the fiord, where the Norwegian mayor, representing the Norwegian Government in London, read a i proclamation informing the people of j ! the landings. I The Norwegians seemed glad to leave : { Spitzbergen. They held farewell par- ! lies and also, on the last night, a dance, when British, Canadian and Norwegian troops danced with Norwegian girls. Next morning hundreds of evacuees boarded a destroyer, which took them to a troopship to sail for Britain. The journey was uneventful. It is learned that th- military force evacuated almost the whole of the mining population, numbering between 1 00 to 1,000. This was done to prevent reprisals such as the Germans ] adopted after the Lofoten raid. Only j a few wandering Eskimos and Lapps j are left behind. NAZIS SEIZED COAL ; The belligerent nations left Spitz- ' bergen alone during the first year of the war, first, because it is so far ' north, and secondly, because the fact that the Russians possessed a mining concession on the largest island made the Germans hesitate. Thus the Norwegian civil administration in Spitzbergen remained practically indepen- ' dent. For the greater part of the year Spitzbergen is blockaded by ice. The ' miners who have now arrived in Eng- , land repor. that the current export , season started a month later than j. usual. A large stock of coal had been j ] accumulated, because only a few small cargoes went out in June and July. The Germans, while preparing the campaign against Russia, seized all supplies of fuel in Norway, including ! Spitzbergen’s coal, which was needed , for the -war transports along the Nor- ‘ wegian coast. When Germany attacked Russia, , Spitzbergen entered the zone of opera. tions, and changes wen made in the 1 original export scheme. Only two ships j were sent at a time from northern ( Norway to Spitzbergen, indicating that ; the Germans feared Allied action and l proving that it was their intention to s use this Norwegian coal for their own J purposes only.—U.P.A. Spitzbergen, or Svalbard, is 800 J miles inside the Arctic Circle, 500 c miles from Norway, 700 miles from i the Soviet Arctic poi t of Murmansk, r and 1400 miles from Scotland. v It is an archipelago, and is rich not e only in coal but also in copper and c asbestos. It came under Norwegian t sovereignty in 1920. g