EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 118, 17 April 1940, Page 7

EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

BRITAIN’S AID TO NORWAY TRIUMPH OF ORGANISATION (United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received April IT, 10 a.m. * LONDON, April 10. Behind yesterday’s brief British communique announcing the landings’ lies a story of the organisation and co-operation of the three Fighting Services. The nucleus of an expeditionary force was already available, having been prepared for Finland. Transports were ready in East Coast ports and thousands of troops waiting along the coast. Units which for weeks had been in camps, barracks, and billets were moved down to the ports of embarkation at night time. Transports were loaded with additional heavy equipment, including guns, tanks, and ammunition, and finally the escort destroyers and aeroplanes were assembled.

Only a handful of high staff officers knew the exact destination, though every soldier and bluejacket knew they were bound for somewhere in Norway.

It is too soon to estimate the influence of the Allied landing forces on the German movements, says a military expert, but at whatever points have been chosen they will have the immediate effect of distracting German attention, and for that reason alone will relieve the pressure in the Oslo area. It is already known that the Norwegian mobilisation in North Norway has been completed and it will, therefore, be possible shortly for the Norwegian Sixth Division, based at Harstad, north of Narvik, to take over a considerable part of the country’s defences. The Allies will soon have a formidable mobile fighting force, whose movements are likely to absorb the entire attention of the invaders. l-'ALL OF KONGSVINGER. Kongsvi.nger has fallen after heavy bombing. Swedish sources state that the Norwegians have evacuated the town and fortress, and that heavy lighting is continuing in the nearby woods. The Germans have blown rq> the radio station at Nottoden whose broadcasts annoyed them. Ivongsvinger is north-east of Oslo, not far from the Swedish frontier.