COMPLETE SUCCESS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1941, Page 5

COMPLETE SUCCESS

THE RAID ON NORWAY

EIGHT ENEMY VESSELS DESTROYED ENTIRE GERMAN GARRISON WIPED OUT. ALL BRITISH SHIPS RETURN SAFELY. LONDON, December 29. Britain’s three fighting services co-operated like cloek- , work on Saturday night in a. raid on the coast of enemyoccupied Norway and on shipping.

Eight enemy ships, including two armed trawlers, a battery of four guns, oil tanks and military stations and ammunition dumps, a wireless station used for jamming 8.8. C. broadcasts to Europe, a canning factory supplying food to German troops in Russia and owned by a Quisling, were destroyed. The Quisling owner was captured. Four Heinkel Ills were also shot down and an enemy aerodrome was bombed and machine-gunned. Our ships went in through a narrow channel before daylight, Hampden bombers putting down a smoke-screen-Another smoke screen was put down on an island where there was a coastal, defence battery. A landing was made on the island and the entire garrison of German troops was either killed o? brought away as prisoners. The Germans fought from house to house and cui’ forces suffered casualties which were, however, proportionately small. Ninety-five Germans were brought back as prisoners and 120 were killed. The German commanding officer and a . German naval commander were among those captured. Three Coastal Command planes were lost. An attack was also made on an aerodrome 100 miles down the coast, near Bergen. This attack undoubtedly reduced the scale of the enemy’s action against our ships. In air attacks on enemy convoys, one ship was definitely sunk. Five others were driven ashore and destroyed. These included two armed trawlers, and one armed transport. The grand total of enemy shipping destroyed was 16,000 tons. Our ships suffered only superficial damage which in no way affected their fighting efficiency. DETAILED STORY PRECISE ADHERENCE TO TIMETABLE. EVERY OBJECT ATTAINED. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.14 a.m.) RUGBY,” December 29. An officer from the Combined Operations Headquarters describing the raid on the Norwegian coast in detail, in London, made use of a large-scale relief model actually used in the raid. He emphasised the machine-like adherence to a timetable and particularly stressed the contribution of aircraft to the success of the operation. The full communique states: “The raid was directed mainly against enemy shipping anchored off Vaagso Island, situated in latitude 62 degrees north, off the Norwegian coast. Although only on a small scale, the raid, was a good example of a combined operation in which the Navy, Army and? R.A.F. each played an equally important and inter-determined part. Light 1 forces of the Home Fleet arrived off Vaagso Island just before daylight, at 8.30 a.m., and, under cover of a smokescreen laid by Hampden aircraft of the Bomber Command, military forces consisting of commandos and some Norwegian troops landed ten minutes later in naval assault landing craft. Coast defence batteries manned by Germans opened fire on our ships, but were silenced by bombardment from our warships and bombing by Hampden aircraft of the Bomber Command. The latter also laid smokescreens to mask our ships and machine-gunned batteries and nearby barracks on Ragsundo Island. “There were two main military landings—one on the small island of Maaloy and the other on Vaagso. All the enemy were killed or taken, prisoner and military storehouses and ammunition dumps were blown up and a battery of four guns destroyed. At South Vaagso the Germans put up a stiff resistance, and in street fighting we suffered some casualties before the town could be brought completely under control. An enemy tank was put out of action and oil tanks and ammunition stores were destroyed. A wireless station and certain industrial plant owned by a Quisling, and known to be operating for the Germans, were destroyed. “Eight enemy ships, including five merchant vessels, two armed trawlers and one armed tug, totalling 15,650 tons, were destroyed. The merchant vessels beached themselves to avoid capture and were destroyed by our naval forces. The armed vessels were sunk. ’“Offensive patrols, in conjunction with this operation, were carried out by Blenheims of the Bomber Command. They encountered and attacked a convoy of enemy merchant ships. Many bombs fell among the convoy and one ship was sunk. While operations were taking place at Vaagso, Blenheim aircraft' of the Bomber Command were attacking Herdla, the nearest enemy aerodrome, 100 miles down the coast. Direct hits from 250 feet were obtained on wooden runways and a Messerschmitt 109 M, which was taxiing, was destroyed. Huts and a wireless station nearby were machine-gun-ned. “From all these Bomber Command operations, eight of our aircraft are missing, but one member of a Hampden crew was rescued. Damage to the Herdla runway undoubtedly reduced the scale of air attack on our ships, which were protected by Beaufighters. and Blenheim fighters of the Coastal Command. During a series of fights throughout the day they shot down four enemy planes and prevented a successful attack being made on our ships. Three of our fighters are missing. Our ships suffered only very minor damage and all returned fit for immediate service. Our casualties were slight. Over 120 Germans were killed and 95 German naval and military prisoners and nine Quislings have been brought back. “The entire combined operations were carried out exactly according to plan and all objects were attained

within the time allowed, all our foices withdrawing at 2.45 p.m.” The communique disposes of the German account, in which the Nazis excelled themselves in lying. The best proof of success, said an officer, is to be found in the howl of indignation which has issued from German wireless stations ever since. NO SECURITY FOR ANY GERMAN (GARRISON. SIGNIFICANCE OF OPERATION STRESSED. LONDON, December 29. Several quarters this morning stressed the importance of Saturday s British raid on the Norwegian coast. It was pointed out that it was not so much the scale of the raid that was important as the fact that it was the first action in which the three services co-operated. The “New York Herald Tribune” describes the raid as more significant than that on the Lofoten Islands last March, and remarks: “What German garrison can now feel secure?” The German radio goes to considerable length to explain that such raids are to be expected in the northern winter when fog blankets the coast and affords excellent cover for attacking forces.