EVACUATION REPORTS

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 7, 4 October 1943, Page 5

EVACUATION REPORTS

German Moves In Norway (Received. October 3, 7.5 p.m.) LONDON, October 2. Allied circles in Stockholm believe that the Germans have taken the first steps toward the evacuation of Norway by sending the pocket battleship Buetzow from Alteu Fiord to the Baltic, says the Stockholm correspondent of the “Daily Mail.” He adds: “The evacuation is" said to have been proceeding piecemeal under the utmost secrecy and against the wishes of the German High Command since the middle of August. “The evacuation is now reported as .being speeded up because of the rapid Russian advance and particularly because of the increasing probability that the Red Army will reach the Gulf of Riga before winter. This would relieve the fortresses of Leningrad and Kronstadt and the Russian Fleet would have anchorages 300 miles farther westward. Herr Hitler would then be forced to strengthen his Baltic Fleet, which is precisely what Admiral Doenitz, Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy, is now doing. The Luetzow which, because of ils speed and limited dimensions is best suited to narrow waters, actually passed into the Baltic a day or two ago.” Reports that the Germans are evacuating Norway should be ignored, says the British United Press (Stockholm correspondent. The continual withdrawal of German reserves from Norway has probably caused the reports of evacuation.