FEWER NAZI GAINS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 116, 15 April 1940, Page 7

FEWER NAZI GAINS

EARLIER MESSAGES. SEVERE AIR ATTACKS. STOCKHOLM, April 13. The Norwegian army’s first communique, dated noon on Friday, says that the Germans occupy Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim, hut the rest of southern Norway is in Norwegian hands, also the whole of northern Norway except Narvik. The naval expert of the Stockholm Tidningen says that the Germans at Narvik are in an unenviable position, since all their ships are reported to have been sunk, am] the land forces are strung out over roads piled witli snow and are vulnerable to any attack from the Norwegians. While the Norwegians arc holding the Germans north of Oslo, reports reaching Sweden indicate that fresh German detachments surprised Norwegians at Halden, near Fredcriksliold, from where a stream of refugees is heading for Sweden, hut they are unable to reach the frontier because bridges have been blown- up. Sixtyfive civilians were injured when German ’planes machine-gunned Frederikstad on Friday and fires arc still raging. Five rum has been practically destroyed. Fifty were killed and ICO wounded in an air raid on Friday. Eidsvold has also been practically destroyed by bombs. A New York message says that the New York Times correspondent on the Norwegian-Swodisli frontier says it is reported that a number of Germans were captured at Elvegaarden, eight miles north of Narvik, which is being starved. Norwegians and Germans are fighting sporadically for control of the Narvik railway, which is occupied by Germans to within four miles of Sweden. The border is not very far from Narvik. The Stockholm radio says the Norwegian leader. General Eriesen, stated that no German .troops have penetrated the eastern and northern hanks of the Vormuen and Glommen Rivers, to which the Germans have brought up 15 field guns and considerable mechanised units, but movements of troops are most difficult owing to the destruction of all bridges. The Norwegians have blocked all Hie roads and railways from Oslo to Sweden. A party of | Norwegian volunteers returning from Finland stopped a train en route to Sweden and arrested Iff Germans who were on it. NORWEGIAN TRAITORS. The position in south-western and western Norway seems to be virtually unchanged. The German troops have not moved from Sjordalshals, to which they marched from Trondheim. The arrest of Colonel Sundlo, the local Norwegian commander at Narvik, has revealed the extent to which the perfidy of this pro-Nazi Norwegian was responsible for the fall of Narvik. Colonel iSundlo and the port commander detained two Norwegian warships after the alarm of the Germans’ approach had been received. Instead of going to sea to intercept the Germans the Norwegian warships were ordered to remain at their moorings, and 350 Norwegian sailors went to their death before they could fire a shot. The Norwegian authorities have dismissed the commander of the fortress at Kongsvinger, General Hochnielsen, for delaying munitions for the troops and sympathising with the puppet government.