BACK FROM NORWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 April 1940, Page 5

BACK FROM NORWAY

MEN OF DESTROYER HARDY Heroes of First Narvik Battle WELCOMED WARMLY IN LONDON SOME ADDITIONAL DETAILS OF FAMOUS ONSLAUGHT A tremendous ovation was accorded 130 officers and men of the destroyer Hardy, which was run aground during the first Narvik engagement, when they arrived in London. The men were addressed by Mr Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty. The attack was made on April 10 in a blinding snowstorm. Four German destroyers and a number of German merchant ships were sunk. As the Hardy capsized many of the men jumped into the icy sea and swam to the shore, 200 yards away. They were provided with clothing and comforts at three cottages nearby and then walked 15 miles to a village, carrying the wounded on improvised stretchers. One armed party of 20 men captured 120 German seamen off one of the German destroyers and handed them over to the Norwegian police at Narvik. The Fleet Air Arm acted in full co-operation and the day before the destroyers attacked Narvik, bombed the German destroyers, two of which were hit. On the day of the attack, the Fleet Air Arm operated with the British naval force and again scored hits on the German destroyers and also attacked and destroyed German aircraft on a frozen lake near Narvik. The submarine which torpedoed the German troopship Rio de Janiero was a Polish craft.

The first awards for bravery in the Norwegian campaign are announced. Three Distinguished Flying Crosses have been awarded to airmen who attacked enemy warships at Bergen, in which direct hits were scored on a cruiser.