UNFOUNDED CLAIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 May 1940, Page 5

UNFOUNDED CLAIMS

MADE BY THE ENEMY BRITISH STILL COVERING DOMBAS. GERMAN ATTACKS REPELLED IN NORTH. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, May 1. German claims to have established contact between the forces from Trondheim and both the Gudbrans and Oster Valleys and to have occupied Dombas are contradicted by other reports of the situation in Central Norway. These support a British War Office statement that the British forces in the Gudbrans Valley withdrew to a point covering Dombas.i A Paris message says that the British have taken up new positions at Brennhaugh, 12 miles southward of Dombas. German claims to the possession of the line between Dombas and Storen are again denied. Fighting is proceeding at Opdal and Jerkin. In the Oster Valley, a Swedish report declares, the Germans have withdrawn from Roros. The Norwegian headquarters assert that the Germans, without waiting for reinforcements from the south, violently attacked the French and Norwegian lines on both sides of Lake Snaasen (north of Trondheim), but the Allies repelled the onslaughts, which were supported by planes and heavy artillery. . The Norwegians are reported to hold good positions to the east of Lake Snaasen, and are also well dug in at Tangen. The Germans are not able to make any progress on the Stenkjaar front, and it is reported that the Allies are holding a line just above Stenkjaar to the Swedish frontier. Any German attempt to outflank the Allies on the Stenkjaar front would meet with resistance. The Norwegian military attache in Stockholm declared that the Allies’ lines to the north of Trondheim have been greatly strengthened, and another source points out that the Hegre fortress, the guns of which dominate railways to the east and north from Trondheim, is receiving steady supplies of munitions and food.