GERMANS HARRIED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 115, 13 April 1940, Page 7

GERMANS HARRIED

NORWEGIAN RESISTANCE. BRITISH FORCES LAND. LONDON, April 12. Xiie Norwegian garrisons have rallied with great spirit and from strong posts inland have harried the Germans. The garrison at Narvik is ringed on the inland side by Norwegian troops. Bergen is held by German troops estimated at 2000, and an attempt to sally out was repulsed by the Norwegians. The Germans are advancing from Oslo on the north and the east. On the east a big battle is expected at Kongsvinger. Near Hamar the Germans have been thrown back five miles south of the town. There has been fierce fighting at Elverum, with severe air attacks. Opinions that the German moves in Norway and Denmark are only a feint to cover moves elsewhere have been given point by growing uneasiness seen in other neutral European States, including the Netherlands. NAZI FORCES GROWING. A message from Stockholm says that, according to authoritative Norwegian sources, British forces have landed to the south of Narvik and are endeavouring to join up with the Norwegians. The same sources state I that British and Norwegian forces are in close contact near Bergen. The estimates of the total number of Germans in Norway now range from 20,000 to 40,000. Two hundred troop transport aeroplanes capable of taking 20 men each are reported to be flying regularly from Denmark. The Norwegian Government has gone to Bodo (on the west coast near the Vest Fiord). Earlier it had moved f/;>m' Elverum to the village of Nybergsund, 15 miles from the Swedish border. Six German ’planes heavily bombed and machine-gunned Nybergsund, and several civilians were injured. Members oi the Royal Family and the Government had, however, alrcadv left. KING HAAKON’S ESCAPE. King Haakon, Crown Prince Olav, the Premier and an aide-de-camp were dining when the air-raid alarm was given. The bomber appeared three minutes later and hit and set fire to a school. The Royal party drove into a wood whither the villagers also fled through deep snow. Three times more ’planes bombed and machine-gunned the village and wood. King Haakon and Prince Olav comforted the villagers and later the party left for a village whose name was not disclosed, where they spent the night sleeping on the floor of a cottage. The latest of the flood of false reports from the Oslo radio station is that the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation said that it was its duty to abide by the agreement between the Norwegian and German Governments.