NO RAPID SUCCESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 May 1940, Page 5

NO RAPID SUCCESS

EXPECTED AT NARVIK GERMANS WELL DUG IN. CONDITIONS OF TRENCH WARFARE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.43 a.m.) RUGBY, May 6. It is authoritatively stated in London that the Allied forces attacking Narvik, where, it is believed, some 3000 to 4000 Germans are besieged, are gradually closing in, but no rapid success is expected, largely owing to severe snowstorms raging in that area. The Germans, who have been in Narvik for a fortnight, have' been able to dig themselves in, and a state of affairs approaching trench warfare has developed. It is pointed out that encounters must therefore take the form of attacks by British troops on set German positions. The reports that heavy naval bombardments have been directed against the town and shore batteries are regarded as greatly exaggerated. NORWEGIAN PRISONERS SOME RELEASED BY NAZIS. FORCED LABOUR FOR OTHERS. (Received This Day, 10. 15 a.m.) OSLO, May 6. The Germans,- instead of sending 10,000 Norwegian prisoners to Germany, decided to release those unfit and too old for military service, and to employ others in agriculture and industry. BRITISH DESTROYERS LOSSES SINCE THE OUTBREAK OF WAR. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.43 a.m.) RUGBY, May 6. H.M.S. Afridi was a destroyer of the Tribal class, with a displacement of 1870 tons and a normal complement of 190. She is the eleventh British destroyer lost since the outbreak of war, and the fifth since the Norwegian campaign opened. POLISH DESTROYER LOSS OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.52 a.m.) RUGBY, May G. The Polish Naval Staff in London announced tonight: “The Polish destroyer Grom, which together with other units of the Polish Navy, has been, actively co-operating with the British Fleet since the beginning of the war, has been sunk by a bomb. The Grom was engaged in operations off the Norwegian coast. One officer and G 5 ratings are missing and must be presumed lost.

The British Government's offer to replace this destroyer by one now building in a British shipyard has been gratefully accepted.”