NARVIK BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 April 1940, Page 5

NARVIK BATTLE

GALLANT WORK BY BRITISH DESTROYERS damaging blow at superior ENEMY FORCES. GERMAN SUPPLY SHIPS SUNK. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.57 a.m.) RUGBY, April 10. Further and heartening news of the British naval attack on Narvik was given by the Prime Minister (Mr Chamberlain) in the House of Commons. "Five British destroyers,“• he said, steamed up the fiord and engaged six German destroyers of the latest and largest types, who were also supported by a shore battery and by guns newly mounted ashore. The Hunter was sunk and the Hardy so severely injured that she had to run ashore and became a wreck. The Hotspur also received serious damage and the destroyer Hostile suffered slight damage. The remaining vessel, H.M.S. Havoc, was untouched.

“After a most determined action against superior forces, with larger, more modern ships, and in face of gunfire from the shore, the Hotspur withdrew, covered by the other two destroyers. The enemy appeared to be in no condition to attempt a pursuit. One 1,600-ton German destroyer was torpedoed and is believed to have been sunk, and three were left heavily hit and burning. It is perhaps not less important that six merchant ships suspected of containing the unloaded stores of the German expedition were sunk on the coast by British destroyers. “On the way out, they met the German ship Ravensfeldt, which was found to be carrying reserve ammunition for the landed German force. This vessel was blown up.” Mr Chamberlain said the House would not expect him at present to deal with the other operations and foreshadowed a fuller statfement by Mr Churchill tomorrow.

IMPORTANCE OF NARVIK stressed by m. REYNAUD. EXTENSION OF THE ALLIED BLOCKADE. (Received This Day. 10.55 a.m.) PARIS, April 10. M. Reynaud, in the Senate, said half the German fleet was exposed to units of the Allied fleets and German ships were now bottled up in Narvik. He emphasised that the cutting off of German supplies of iron ore was of capital advantage to the Allies. Not a ton will leave Narvik for Germany for the duration of the war. The Allied blockade is being applied tomorrow to regions which have submitted lo German control.