1940-05-25 — Page 9

BRITISH TROOPS' DOGGED FIGHTS IN NORWAY

SOLDIERS GIVE FIRST FULL STORY OF RETREAT

From GEORGE L. STEER

A North British Coast Town, May 10.

I HAVE HAD the opportunity to talk with officers and men of the Aandalsnes force after their return from the expedition to Norway, and I am able to piece together the history of their short war.

The story begins at Aandalsnes, a little town with a jetty for tourist steamers, at the head of the steep and nar- row Romsdalsfjord, and terminus of a railway and road to Dombaas.

Dombaas, a railway junction south of Trondheim, was a place of vital strategic importance if we were to prevent the German relief of that city.

Royal Marines had been in occupation of Aandalsnes when on the night of April 18 Brig. Morgan arrived with a Territorial Brigade.

cause was the fear that the Aandalsnes baso would be totally destroyed by aviation.

It was decided to entrain at Dombaas at night. The manoeuvre, like all reconnais- sances of defensive positions up the valley and much of, the intelligence work,

was

The disembarkation was executed without loss, and a detachment was posted forward to arrive at four a.m. the next day at Dom-done in person by Major-Gen. Paget, for baas, thus shielding the rear of the Nor- whose energy and subtlety in action his weglan army under Gen. Ruge.

troops have nothing, but the highest praise.

These Allled forces were at this moment fighting a desperate action, short of am- munition, south of Lillehammer, about 140 miles from Aandalsnes; Gen, Ruge was enormously relieved to hear that the British, for whom he had been waiting several days, had arrived. He asked for immediate ald.

AWAITING HELP

The Norwegians, despite bitter disappoint- ment, gave their co-operation to the with- drawal in what is described as a truly gal- lant and noble way.

The withdrawal was a nightmare. A few miles west of Dombaas the train was de- railed either by sabotage or as a result of bombing and the engine drivers were killed.

The men had to detrain and to march 17 miles in the only dark hours of northern nights, from 11 to three a.m., when they

Although the brigade had been sent simply to hold Aandalsnes before stronger units ar rived, that ald was sent, and this was the most admirable decision of the campaign,reached the tunnel. for it saved the Norwegian Crown and Gov-. ernment,

But the brigade could not move south down the Gudbrands valley at once. Ger- man parachutists, about 150 in all, had been dropped a few miles south of Dombaas at Dovre, where they mado merry with the road and rail In the narrow valley for 24 hours before they were mopped up by Nor- wegian patrols.

A hundred were captured or killed, and 50 escaped over the hills. Some were found dead with parachutes unopened and point blank bullet wounds in their bodies, auggest- ing indiscipline in the air.

On April 20, using Norwegian transport, Brig. Morgan's force reached Lillehammer, down a valley which became more and more snow laden as one moved south. At Dombaas there were only patches of white, with warm days in which sheepskin jackets were thrown aside, and icy nights when they were searched for again,

Down south, where the valley with its

road, rail and frozen streams was at its fightable widest half a mile across, the sides of the hill were packed with snow often man-high, and there were frequent woods.

ALMOST AT LAST GASP

The Norwegians at Lillehammer were found almost at their last gasp, lacking artillery and medium machine-guns entirely and with anti-tank weapons issued to his unit for the first time, Brig. Morgan was obliged to assist their withdrawal. The front, however, was untenable.

Our troops ware pushed back, mainly by aviation for by this time the Germans had not yet brought up an important mass of artillery. On April 21, 22 and 23 the Terri- torial brigade and its Norwegian ally fought three fierce actions against rather superlor enemy forces.

They had fallen back to Kvam, a littlo village at a right-angle turn of the valley halfway on the road to Dombaas, where the front was taken over by the Regular brigade newly arrived from Aandalsnes.

It was a restricted battlefield and one bat-

·talion at a time undertook the defence of "the valley, fighting on a two-company front, The Norwegian regulars, who had been fighting in Gudbrandsdal, were now ⋅ with- drawn, but Norwegian ski patrols were active on either flank in the hills and woods. We had received anti-aircraft at this time, consisting of a R.A. Bofors unit, which deployed one gun to every three miles of communication. But the Germans had brought up 5.0in. guns, which outranged our infantry weapons completely ́and were able to hammer our anti-tanks at point blank. —REGULARS-FOUGHT-ON-

Still, the regular brigade fought doggedly. on, Dombaas was flattoned out behind them; Aandalines was battered and burned. by a steady stream of German aircraft.

Battalion by battalion they fell steadily back towards' Dómbaas. Here, receiving Norwegian guns+78mm-they inflicted heavy defeat upon the advancing German battalions, whose mechanisation, and motor- isallon were plodding' the road at their usually justified but incautious distance from" the front line..

A

Tha column was broken up, and what- In believed to have boon ́a. German brigada staff 'was shot down to a man by British Infantry Cat 500 to 800 yards, Tanga, The shomy `retired in haste, but our force had aiready" been badly mauled.

• The following "week-end-evacuation

ordered from London. «NA

was

The condition of, the troops as a result of

·asrial" "bombing "and" outflanking operations was. the primary cause. Tho Bacondary

SHELTERED IN TUNNEL

Here they sheltered for a day. The Ger- man aircraft bombed one end of the tunnel, filling it with smoke, which drove some of the soldiers out; miraculously they were unnoticed by the German aviation. night another train came up from Aandalsnes and took them down to the fjord.

Next

The Royal Engineers held up the enemy; when their dynamite ran out they used depth charges to excellent effort on the bridges of

Certain units are said to Norway.

have marched for five days, during which their officers were unable to snatch a moment's sleep.

On the afternoon of April 29 the Germans had bombed Veblungsnes, a village across the fjord from Aandalsnes, with about 100 incendiary projectiles. The place was a furnace, lighting up the whole waste of

Worthy successor to "The Thin Man" Is

Man" "Another Thin which starts a run at the Queen's and Alhambra Theatres to-day. Above are William Powell and Myrna Loy In a scene from the show.

So the brigades embarked without loss and went out of the fjord in the darkness escorted by the Royal Navy, the detonations of whose depth charges were heard on either side as they settled accounts with two enemy submarines.

KING SAILED NORTH

The Norwegian King, Cabinet and Gen. Ruge had been taken aboard Q British cruiser and were heading for the north. That was the end of our fortnight's expedi- tion to Central Norway.

All officers and men of this expedition to whom I have spoken were disappointed in the fighting skill and spirit of the German infantry; they found that they did not like real contact.

Gorman: Service rifle. "Tommy gun" or machine pistol; medium machine-gun, "mor- tars (reported to be din.), armoured cars, tanks (medium with gun and light with machine-gun), 5.0in. guns, bombing and fighting aircraft.

In the narrow Gudbrandsdal these wea- pons fought it out. It was the German ar- tillery which drove our line back, destroying anti-tank guns and opening the road for the German mechanised column. The aircraft were used to depress the troops and to tear at the lines of communication.

But the element of advance against the Regular Brigade was artillery. Bringing up their 6.0in. guns to just beyond 2,000 yards range, the Germans could plaster our anti- tank guns in full view, and out of danger, as well as Bren gun posts.

This enabled progress of the mechanised columns; then the mortors came into play. GERMAN TANK LOSSES

Nevertheless, Germany lost a fair number of tanks. At Kvam, where the establish- ment of artillery in the nook of the valley was difficult, seven tanks were destroyed in a day.

And as they moved up the valley the cumulative effect of R.E. demolitions began to work-tanks dropped behind, and only machine-gun motor cycles and light trans- port could push on.

Meanwhile German aircraft. Heinkel 111 bombers and Messerschmitt single and two- engined fighters, maintained a steady cam-

and paign on communications

individual cars, anti-aircraft guns (of which they hit only a couple), bases and troops. -

The biggest aerial unit seen in operation was 12 'planes, but commonly they come in anything from one to five. Their technique was continuity, and they liked, in the ab- sence of anti-aircraft fire, to fly low and reconnoltre two or three times before attack. They were over Aandalsnes all day from 10 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m., slipping in quietly along the fold of the mountain, although British sloops took a steady toll of two to three planes daily.

Their parachutists, who carried machine- pistols, only caused minor disturbance.

The scarcely impeded work of the Ger- man aviation

and over communications troops definitely had a moral effect.

I have spoken with a young despatch rider who worked on the Lillehammer road-a Welshman. He said that the German bomb- ers flew at 15 yards. above him to machine- gun him, and that eventually he was blown off his motor-bicycle by a bomb dropped

In their view they were worse than the troops of 1914-1910. The only arm that really impressed them was the German | beside him. "You were risking your lifa aviation.

The Germans owed their victory to the overwhelming disparity of arms and the in- ability of the British to reply.

|

every run.".

A company commander told me that his men said, "If we only had a few 'planes of our own we could beat them any day." His battalion had, in fact, brought down three low-flying Nazi aircraft with Bren guns, and a neighbouring anti-aircraft battery had shot down three more in a day.

The weapons on either side were these: British: Service rifle, Bren gun, French anti-tank gun, anti-tank rifle, mortar.

'Anti-aircraft were introduced a little later and at Dombaas the Norwegian 75mm. guns Casualties, due to bombing were small, were extremely effective. At the time eva- but the shock effect was much greater, And cuation was ordered some 25 pounders had ❘ so it was this unanswerable weapon in Ger- arrived in a British store ship at Aandalsnes. man hands which obliged evacuation. But they lay at the bottom of the ship ́under On the few occasions when the Germans That night the brigades stood on the transport vehicles.

actually went into the infantry attack they rickety jetty of Aandalsnes, brightly illumin-

The limited jetty space prevented anything | sprayed bullets from machine-pistols slung ated by flames, wondering whether they | more than a small proportion of the latter round their right shoulders, instead of would be bombed inland. But the Germans from being disembarked before daylight throwing hand grenades in the last 20 yards

came and with daylight the bombers.

-but their attack lacked "bite."'--'

water.

never came.

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