FIRST LORD’S ACCOUNT OF EVENTS IN SEA BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1940, Page 6

FIRST LORD’S ACCOUNT OF EVENTS IN SEA BATTLE

No Disclosure of Operations Still in Progress COMMENT ON ENEMY’S STRATEGIC BLUNDER NORWEGIAN CORRIDOR CLOSED FOREVER (Tli’il i<.li Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11..'>0 a.m.) LONDON. April 11. “Since Monday, fighting in tlie seas around Norway has continued night and day. A widely dispersed, bill none the less general action between large numbers ol German ships and aircraft and British naval and air forces is going on now. In such words .Mr Winston Churchill (First Lord oi the Adrniialty) conveyed to the House of ('ominous an atmosphere 01. strain and expectancy which must last until the actions aie completed and full information has been received. Meantime. .Mr Ohurehill fortified the confidence of the House with a candid recital of details, as Jar as they are known, of thi* first operations, and members made no complaint at his refusal to lilt the veil, “which should properly and discreetly cover future operation or operations in progress at this moment.” Air A. V. Alexander, who spoke later for the Opposition. joined him in uttering a warning against rumour and “dubious news” during the necessary hours arid days of silence. The House heard with satisfaction IMr Churchill’s assurance that in the considered view of the Admiralty, the Allies had, in a strategic and military sense, greatly gained from the error of Hitler in spreading the war to Scandinavia. This error Mr Churchill compared with the mistake committed by Napoleon when he invaded Spain. Earlier, Air Churchill had described how the existence of “a geographical and legal covered way' down the Norwegian coast had been the greatest impediment to.the Allied blockade. Warships moved up and down it as they thought convenient. C-boats used it as they thought fit, stray German liners and merchant ships trying to get back to Germany from the outer seas sought cover there for its eight hundred-mi Ie length. So he put. first among the advantages Hitler’s wild gamble had bestowed on the Allies the lad that “this accursed corridor *s now. closed for ever.” . In this way. Hitler had doubled the efficiency of the Allied blockade. Further, he had made a whole series of commitments upon the Norwegian coast for which he would have Io fight if necessary during the whole summer; for by violating the independence and soil of Norway he had enlisted against him a virile people capable - of maintaining in large, wild, mountainous country—full of positions where free men could shelter and. fight—and with British and French aid a prolonged resistance. For the future, the British could take what, they'wanted of the Norwegian coast. .Mr Churchill said the British were occupying the Faroe Islands—a strategic point of high importance—and would shield them from all the severities of war and establish themselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment- came to hand them back to the Cro'wn and people of Denmark liberated from Nazi thraldom. While Iceland required further consideration, he could say that no German would set. foot there with impunity. Hitler had cast the interests of the German Navy upon the wild waters and most grievous losses had already been sustained. Four cruisers—nearly half of Germany’s pre-war strength—had been sunk and a number of destroyers and several more U-boats had been destroyed—all since Sunday. The German Navy thus was deeply mutilated. In addition, British submarines had taken heavy toll from all German transports and store-ships crossing to Scandinavia. All German ships in the Skagerrak and Kattegat would be sunk. Already a dozen ships, some of large tonnage, had been sunk or captured there or in the North Sea.