1
THE CHINA MÀIL, APRIL 4, 1941.
NORWEGIANS TRAIN FOR A COMEBACK ADVENTURE
(By An American Correspondent)
IN FJORD-LIKE INLETS OF THE PACIFIC NEAR VANCOUVER, HUNDREDS OF NOR- WEGIAN MILITARY FLYERS RECRUITED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD ARE MAKING READY TO TURN THE TABLES ON NAZI INVAD- ERS OF THEIR NATIVE LAND.
Some are veterans of the fight against over- whelming odds carried on by remnants of the little Norwegian Army and Navy after the German sur- prise attack almost a year ago. Many came from tankers and whaling ships to help re-establish their nation's independence. Still others who had been living for years in New York and a score of other cities volunteered and came at their own expense to Canada to train as pilots. Several Danes are among their number.
number and next destination of the ale unit. He said: "How many are
All know that weaknes, m air power
the of the prine,pal
we altogether" cause of their eaunty's fall and,
in the skies will be Seine hundreds, call it what you that strength
More are arriving each day necessary if it is to rise again, So like. each day above the fir forests
to hasten the time when we can ing the inlet shores the No- re'urn to the
yountry we think wegians are practicing acrobaties is the must beautiful in the world and embat maneuvres. in heavi- with assurance that it will be our ly armed Northrom pratio own and not the land of an j- patrol bombers built at Haw- vader
islands, the forests, The thorne, Calif, and flown here is, the skermies and the fjords of the Vancouver remind soon as they roll off the produe- land around tion line.
us very nitich of our southern coast and make us want to be back.
Will Fly Norway's
Colours
"Our destination? We are bound eventually for a place in the real These bombers, urdered and war zone. When we left Norway paid for by the Norwegian gove not one of us dreamed of train- And when our ernment, now in exile in London, ing in Vancouver. are painted with the insignia of time is up here and we go abroad the Royal Norwegian Naval Air perhaps the surprise will be just Force. They will be shipped as great for son.e of our adver- abroad goon for service in cansaries." junction with the British Royal Air Force, but under Norwegli colours and command, and with at the pilots trained in Canada their controls.
Only Skilled Flyers At Base
This correspondent visited the Comdr. Remlapp explained that Norwegian training buse head-only the Norwegian navy pilots quarters, at Jericho Beach, a_few | adjudged to have almost enough - miles from Vancouver on Bur- skilt and experienced for combat rard Inlet. The hangars and conditions in Europe were at the barracks were lent by the Royal Jericho Beach air base. All the Canadian Air Force, which has a clementary training
was taking huge administrative and repair place at another base in Toronto, base there. On the concrete slip-| where Norwegian army pilots also way leading down to the sea, are being turned out. The frozen | Norwegian ground crews were waterways near Toronto made it engaged in beaching and refuel- impossible for seaplane flying to ing two Northrop bombers which be carried on during the winter. häd just returned after Jung Comdr. Remlaup explained. so flights.
rather than delay even for a few Inside one of the hangars un-months their training plan, the usual activities were in progress. Norwegian navy men decided to On a wooden framework about organise an advanced base near six feet from the floor il toy Vancouver. train track was being nailed "down in a continuous circuit twenty feet long. When this was finished a Norwegian officer placed on the track an electric engine like those seen in all the department stores at Christmas time and watched while anothe officer worked an electric switch to cause the engine to make a four. Sometimes it slowed down suddenly, then speeded ahead. true. All of us in the army and
|
i
OF A
TANK CREW
How terrifying the bom- bardment of Bardia by the heavy guns of the Fleet really was is attested by the commander of a Bri- tish infantry tank, who took part in the main as- sault, was captured, and escaped after a series of amazing adventures.
His tank successfully withstood several direct hits hy anti-tank guns alter it had entered the peri- imeter, but ther had the first of it gut rendered ineffective by a hit on the turret, then received a shell directly on the front, which shook the whole vehicle, stunned the driver, and broke the electric wiring. This caused a short cir- cuit, which set fire to the ba teries and filed the tank with fumes.
I
were
Meanwhile the tank was career- ing on, out of control. The com- mander decided that the only course was to abandon the vehicle. He opened the cupola. The inrush of fresh air revived the driver, whom the crew were thus able to extract from his seat. On leaving the tank, the whole crew surrounded and taken prisoner. The commander was taken before two generals, one of whom, from the description. must have been Berganzoli. He first reprimanded the prisoner for not standing to at- tention, then asked him questions about his unit and the strength of the British tanks, to which the subaltern declined to reply.
He said to the General, how- ever: "If you knock out these tanke, more tanks will come. You had better give in." At this the General bristled with fury.
a
An attempt was then made to send the prisoners through to To- bruk in à lorry, but this proved impossible because of the British fire. They were confined in cave on the side of a wadi in the northern sector, where they arriv- ed in time for the bombardment by the 15-inch guns of the Fleet. The subaltern relates that it was the most terrifying experience of Asked whether reports reach his life. He was in fear every Ing the United States during moment that the dug-out would the Nazi invasion of Norway collapse under the impact of the concerning widespread sympathy heavy shells. He survived how- and assistance for the Germans' ever, and on the entry of the Bri- In Norwegian defence circles tish troops into the sector had the were true, Comdr. Remlapp; satisfaction of leading his captors repiled with a vigorous nenative. captive, to the number of more "I was in Oslo for many months than 1,000. before the Germans came and I know that these reports were not
Nazis sent into our country dis- guised as salesmen diplomatic agents and tourists, and not Nor- wegians,
Courage Beyond Praise
problem
As soon as it became apparent navy were hoping for an English The most formidable that the engine could be run with- victory even during the darkest for the attacking force was a deep out jumping. the track on
the hour. The Germans had fifth-wide anti-tank trench, which sur- turns, a model of a Heinkel bomb-column supporters in Norway, yes rounded the whole system of de- er of the German Luftwaffe, many of them-but, they were fences, 'This was carefully re- corree in every detail down to
connoitsed by a tank officer, who .the swastika on the tail surfaces,
accompanied an Australian patrol, was hung from the engine by a
climbed into the trench by night, wire: Twenty feet. away. two
and took exact measurements. A young Norwegian pilots drew a "They simply took us by sur-section of the trench was then re- British bead on the model warplane in nrise and trickery. This is proved constructed within the their machine-fun sights and as by the lack of support which the lines and exhaustive experiments it moved along in mid-air below Quisling government has been made in the best means to clear the wooden framework supporting | able to ver even with the pressure a way for tanks. the toy-tra'n track they attemoted propavanda of Germany behind to keep their sights trained upon it, no matter what-ifs speed was,
Aim Is To Keep
In Trim
MURDER APPEAL
Australian
it, And we Norwegians will never }. At zero hour a battalion of Aus- submit to the German plans or tralian Infantry crossed the trench,” our country, which were revealed cut the wire, and remained cover- when à German officer angrily ing the sector where the attack told a hotel attendant in Oslo was 'Intended, while Comdr. Oscar R. Remlapp, who who refused to cringe before his sappers, working swiftly with was directing the installation of arrogance Are You Norwegiana picks and shovels as well as ex- the new training device as como vet aware that, you have no plosives, broke down the sides of
influence in this country?"
the trench and made a crossing mander of the base; explained
for the tanks. ·· The courage of
·that its purpose was to keep the
these men is beyond praise. It sighting eyes and the trigger fin-
was here that the heaviest casual- gers of his flyers in trim until they
ties were suffered, papige 40 were able to exercise both on full- size: German aircraft. A young officer in his early thirties; Comdr. Remlapp participated in the cam-
· paign against the Nazis as a flyer for the Royal Norwegian Navy, and chose to go to England as an exile at its close rather than live in his owri country under the pup- pet government of Maj. Vidkun Quisling, Norway's Benedict Arnölde
Weglan officer grinned tions: concerning the
FAILS
Among the defenders of Bardia The Court of Criminal Appeal must be numbered certain minor has dismissed the appeal of Clif allies of the Italians. On entering förd Holmes, twenty-four-year the defences and while searching old soldier, convicted at Manches the dug-outs, the British tér Agsizes of the murder of his encountered an army of fleas of wife last October while on leave the most ferocious and the most Holines shot and stabbed his painstaking type. Their on-
was
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