COMBINED RAID

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24803, 31 December 1941, Page 5

COMBINED RAID

NORWEGIAN ISLANDS A COMPLETE SUCCESS ALL SERVICES ENGAGED RUGBY. Dec. 29. Clockwork co-operation between the navy, army. R.A.F., and the Royal Marines resulted in the complete success of a small raid last Saturday on the Norwegian coast. An officer from combined operations headquarters. describing the raid in detail in London, made use of the large-scale relief model actually used in th£ raid. He emphasised the machine-like adherence to time table, and particularly stressed the contribution of aircraft to the success of the operation. The full communique states; “ The raid was directed mainly against enemy shipping anchored off Vaagso Island, situated in latitude 62deg north, off the Norwegian coast. Although only on a small scale, the raid was a good example of a combined operation in which the navy, army, and the R.A.F. each played an equally important part. "Light forces of the Home Fleet, arrived off Vaagso Island just before daylight. At 8.30 a.m., and under cover of a smokescreen laid by Hampden aircraft of the Bomber Command, military forces, consisting of commandos and some Norwegian troops, landed. “ The coast defence batteries, manned by Germans, opened fire on our ships, but were silenced by bombardment from the warships and bombing by the Hampden aircraft of the Bomber Command. The latter also laid smokescreens to mask our ships, and ma-chine-gunned batteries and the nearby barracks on Ragsundo Island. There were two main military landings, one on the small island of Maaloy, the other on Vaagso. All the enemy were killed or taken prisoner, and military storehouses and ammunition dumps were blown up and a battery of four guns destroyed. Street Fighting

"At South Vaagso the Germans put up a stiff resistance, and in street fighting we suffered some casualties before the town could be brought completely under control. An enemy tank was put out of action, and oil tanks and ammunition stores were destroyed. A wireless station and certain industrial plant owned by a Quisling and known to be operating for the Germans were destroyed. “Eight enemy ships, including five merchant vessels, two armed trawlers, and one armed tug, totalling 15,650 tons, were destroyed. The merchant vessels beached themselves to avoid capture, and were destroyed by the' naval forces, while the armed vessels were sunk.

“Offensive patrols in conjunction with this operation were carried out by the Blenheims of the Bomber Command. They encountered and attacked a convoy of enemy merchant ships. Many bombs fell among the convoy, and one ship was sunk. “ While the operations were taking place at Vaagso. Blenheim aircraft of the Bomber Command were attacking Herdla, the nearest enemy aerodrome 100 miles down the coast. "Direct hits from 250 feet were ob- ( tained on wooden runways, and one ME 109, which was taxiing, was destroyed. Huts and the wireless station nearby were machine-gunned. "From all these Bomber Command operations, eight of our aircraft are missing, but one member of a Hampden crew was rescued. Enemy Planes Destroyed

“The damage to Herdla runway undoubtedly reduced the scale of air attack on our ships, which were protected by the Beauflghters and Blenheim fighters of the Coastal Command. During a series of fights throughout the day they shot down four enemy ME Ill’s and prevented a successful attack being made on our ships. Three of our fighters are missing. “ Our ships suffered only very minor damage, and all returned fit for immediate service. Our casualties were slight. Over 120 Germans were killed and 95 German naval and military prisoners and 9 Quislings have been brought back. The entire combined operations went exactly according to plan, and all the objectives were attained within the time allowed, all forces withdrawing at 2.45 p.m. The communique disposes of the German account in which the Nazis excelled themselves in lying. “The best proof of its success,” said an officer, “is found in the howl of indignation which has issued from the German wireless stations ever since." WARSHIPS’ BROADSIDES ENEMY GUNS SILENCED LONDON, Dec. 29. Describing the landings in Norway, Reuter’s special correspondent with the commandos says: Two minor vessels carrying commandos, and flatbottomed landing craft or barges, stealthily approached the rugged fjord and took up positions in the darkness on either side of the fjord, and, as daylight came, the barges were lowered and cast off. This was the signal for furious broadsides from the warships against the four-gun Nazi coastal battery situated at Maaloy, a small islet off Port Vaagso. The naval guns, with a fire-power of nearly 50 shells a minute, pulverised this limp rock, setting sheds and ammunition dumps on fire. Meanwhile, the commando barges went to the islet and the men in them within half an hour climbed the rocky slopes and stormed the guns, shot many Germe-s, and took some prisoners. Simul neously with this assault the m;- ; v landing occurred at South Vaagso. Heavy fighting took place in the main street of the town. One British officer was killed in trying with a corporal to storm an hotel from which a number of Germans were firing. Another officer was sniped in the back. Many Germans were incinerated in homes in which they had made strong points and from which they refused to emerge. The three chief captives were the Nazi commanding officer of the garrison, the German naval captain of the ports, and its chief Quisling, who was chairman of the local canning factory supplying food for the Nazis in Russia. A. wireless station used for jambing the 8.8. C. Continental programmes was destroyed. Many of the commandos engaged in this raid participated in the Lofoten Islands raid. DETAILS KEPT FROM NORWAY (Rec. 7 p.m.) STOCKHOLM. Dec. 29 No details of the British landings were allowed to leak out in Norway beyond the official communique and admission that damage had been done, that some bloody fighting had occurred. and that several unspecified Norwegian coastal vessels had been sunk.