NAVAL LOSSES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1940, Page 5

NAVAL LOSSES

IN RECENT NORWEGIAN OPERATIONS Three Allied Destroyers Sunk WHILE PROTECTING TROOPSHIPS AGAINST ENEMY ATTACKS DEVELOPMENTS IN NORTHERN NORWAY Three Allied destroyers have been lost, the vessels being’ respectively French, British and Polish, Daventry reports. It is announced that the French, as well as the British, lost a destroyer in escorting transports from Namsos last Friday. The French destroyer was the Bikon, of 2,400 tons. A large part of her crew were saved. The Bikon was 12 years old and and carried a complement of 209. The loss of the Polish destroyer Gran during operations off the coast of Norway is also announced. One officer and 65 ratings are missing and presumed to be lost. The offer of the British Government to replace the destroyer with one now building has been gratefully accepted. The Polish destroyer was one of three which evaded the Nazi Fleet in the Baltic and joined the British Fleet and each of these vessels has sunk at least one German submarine. The loss of the British destroyer Afridi was announced by the Admiralty. The Afridi was sunk while escorting troopships from Namsos. She was one of the warships defending the troopships against aircraft and submarine attack. After daylight waves of enemy aircraft kept up an incessant attack, but the barrage of the protecting warships was so effective that the troopships escaped damage. In the course of these operations the Afridi was hit by. bombs and subsequently sank. Two enemy aircraft were shot down. The Afridi was a destroyer of the Tribal class and a sister ship of the Cossack. She was a ship of 1,800 tons and was equipped as a flotilla leader. She had a complement of 200 men. Britain still has more than 170 destroyers in service. The Hardy, which ran aground in the first Narvik encounter, has since been refloated.

On the eve of his speech in the House of Commons, Mr Chamberlain had a long conversation with Professor Koht, Norwegian Foreign Minister and the Norwegian Minister in London. Before seeing Mr Chamberlain, Professor Koht visited Lord Halifax.

In a statement to the Press, Professor Koht said there still remained in the North of Norway an army which had not been used in the war. It was the best trained portion of the Norwegian Army. He paid a tribute to the fighting of the British troops in Norway and refuted any suggestion that Norwegian forces were sacrificed to cover the withdrawal of British troops.

A War Office communique states that there is nothing to report in the Narvik area. The weather in Narvik is said to be very bad. From time to time the Allied fleet is shelling the town.