DENMARK RESISTS THE INVADERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 206, 1 September 1943, Page 4

DENMARK RESISTS THE INVADERS

has been described by Nazi, propagandists as Hitler’s model protectorate. The description was as false as Nazi faith. The Danes had no chance of resisting the intrusion of the German armies into Denmark, but they did what they could and when the occupation was an accomplished fact they gradually developed their technique of refusing aid to the invaders. At first the policy of non-co-operation resulted in the decline of food production. The Germans aided in this by removing to Germany all cattle that could not be supported throughout the winter from home-produced foodstuffs. The Danish agricultural economy in peace time depended in very large measure upoiwimported fodders, but when the Germans over-ran the country the British blockade'was applied and the herds were necessarily reduced. The Germans took what they could, but the Danes made certain that this export of cattle was as small as they could trivc.Gtadually the pressure of the invaders increased. Some young men. were forced to join the Youth Movement which Germany organised, but the Danes persisted in their endeavours to frustrate the purpose of the German occupation. Neither the Government nor the people co-operated willingly with the occupying authorities, and as conditions became more desperate so sabotage activities have increased to such proportions that they amount to active participation on the part of the saboteurs in the Allied war effort. This naturally made the Germans apprehensive of an Allied landing on the Danish beaches. The coastline is suitable for the landing of troops from barges. Once a landing was effected a force could be thrown across the peninsula, thereby providing the Allied force with a narrow land front to defend until, they had established their air bases in Denmark. When such a move had been accomplished the cutting of the sea-lanes to Norway would be a comparatively easy task. Such probable developments could not, be overlooked by the now defensively-minded Germans, and consequently they could not be expected to act otherwise than they have