A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 185, 2 May 1940, Page 10

A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Decisive davs in the lighting in central Norway are a hatuL Allied forces, battling against difficult.es occastoned d .a! o them of the use of the best Norwegian ports and th fact: thatDl Germans are more favourably placed to make use of air po'«e . have bent their principal endeavours toward prexe J™ ct ° jn of German forces advancing speedily from the. south with t o Trondheim or moving south from that important poi . The Germans now claim that they have established the co nexion and Herr Hitler has issued a triumphal s atemei t Events mav vet prove his elation premature, for though the Geimans c airn to have captured several strategic points, and though a ’Wt of anxiety is sounded in some British comment, it seems ceitain that the full storv has yet to be told. , For instance, the Germans claim to have captured bombas whereas a War Office communique is definite that, thong i troops have withdrawn toward the town, they ho d strong post ions covering it and, in the words of the communique have been figh i with indomitable courage against intensive attacks. TheJiossiffi ty that the Germans have reached two points on the Doalbas ; St line is admitted, but other German troops advancing hither'have been held up. and it remains to be seen how strong the Geiman detachments in the real danger zone are. there is also a lepoit from a Swedish source that the Germans have been pushed back from Roros, in the Oster Valley, which would place a question-mat k against their claim to control the Oslo-Trondheim railway. Nevertheless, it seems clear that the success or faihitc ol the Allied effort to keep Trondheim isolated hangs in the balance, lor the Germans are near their objective. If the enemy succeed it will mean an uphill battle for the Allies in central Not way. From Narvik it is reported that the Allied plan for the encirclement of this important town is completed and Swedish sources say its fate is sealed. North of Trondheim Allied forces appear to have consolidated their position. They have inflicted heavy loss on the Germans in latest operations. Latest development in the Mediterranean is the Allied decision to divert shipping from this route. This is described as essentially a precaution, necessitated by the'strongly anti-Alhcd tone of thItalian Press, which is said to be not so bellicose but still definitely pro-German. More light may be thrown on the situation after Signor Mussolini's Council of Ministers meets today. . Yugoslavia still reports intensive Italian military activity and German' troop concentrations on her frontiers, while a sign that Germany has not succeeded in reconciling Russia and Italy is ptoliablv to be detected in a Moscow manifesto accusing Italy of planning to enter the war to improve her position in the Balkans and Spain.