BLAZE OF FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 April 1940, Page 6

BLAZE OF FIGHTING

EXTENDING IN NORWAY

REINFORCEMENTS ON BOTH SIDES. INDISCRIMINATE ENEMY BOMBING. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received This Dav. 1.0 p.in.) LONDON. April 29. German and Allied troops continue to pour into Norway, and the bitterness of the fighting increases with the strengthening of Norwegian and Allied resistance, which the Germans are answering with intensified bombing and machinegunning, not only of troops, but of villages, ambulances and a hospital ship. Battles appear to be still joined at Kvam in the Gubrandsdals Valley, and north from Roros. where the Germans are repairing blown-up bridges and bringing up armoured cars and field guns. There 'are a few Germans apparently in the neighbourhood of Jerkin, where they met a strong Allied force, but the main German detachments attempting to cross the mountains to the Dombas-Storen railway apparently have been checked. Norwegian sources admit that the Germans have advanced ten miles westward from Noes to Gol. and that detachments from Bergen are advancing eastward.

The French and Norwegians have organised a continuous line through the forest in the Stenkjaer area, with British troops supporting. Patrols are actively engaged with machine-guns and rifles, and German bombers are incessantly attacking the whole front. The. Norwegians repulsed a heavy German attack on Tangen Station, south from Lakensasen. Air battles are more frequent, and the Germans apparently are using air transports, of which scores are daily flying northwards over Roros. AMBULANCE BOMBED MANY CIVILIANS ATTACKED IN VILLAGES. TWO CHILDREN KILLED. (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, April 29. Three German bombers leading a convoy of sixty air transports, savagely attacked a Red Cross unit bringing Norwegian evacuees from the Osterdal region to Sweden. Eighteen men and four women fled to the woods while a bomber swooped down machinegunning. A second bomber dropped a bomb thirty feet from the ambulances. A third riddled the ambulances with bullets. All the ambulances prominently displayed the Red Cross. German planes bombed and mach-ine-gunned Norwegian trading and 1 fishing ships along the coast, setting one on fire and sinking it. They also 1 heavily bombed the hospital ship Brand IV, off Alesund, killing five persons, including a doctor, and,injuring many.

Air raids in the Stenkjaer area included widespread low-flying attacks on villages and field hospitals. Two children were killed in one village, where fifty bombs were dropped. The German bombers are paying particular attention to the Allied troops south from Trondheim, where the Germans claim that their troops are within 25 miles of German forces coming from the south-east. The Gei mans claim that Nazi forces are threatening to isolate Andelsnes by a converging movement from four directions. because the British landing party, estimated at eight thousand is inadequately equipped. The Nazis announced that 1.300 Norwegians surrendered in the Slav anger district, after fighting for’fourteen days.

REPORTS DENIED WAR OFFICE ANNOUNCEMENT. TRAINING OF BRITISH TROOPS. (Received This Day, 1.20 p.m.) _ RUGBY. April 29. .the War Office announces that statements made that the British Commander at Namsos had been superseded by a Frenchman are untrue. Statements that our men were untrained mid without reserves were nonsense. As in a previous exaggerated' statement, the reports had been based on a conversation with a soldier influenced by his personal experience during the beat of battle and without knowledge of the situation as a whole. The statements complained of were contained in American reports.