SEESAW BATTLES IN NORWAY... The Norway headlines for the last three days have gone back and forth. It was bad news on Thursday in the Washington Post -- “Nazi Thrust Threatens To Trap Allied Column”. Then, on Friday, the news turned good -- the Post headline read “Nazi Columns Retreat”, and the Chicago Tribune blared in its usual eight-column banner, “Nazis Fall Back 15 Miles.” And on Saturday it was back to bad news again. The New York Herald Tribune’s big headline read, “British Again Forced To Retreat.” Beyond this daily back-and-forth, there’s been no clear picture of what’s going on. As the Herald Tribune editorialized on Friday, “All the significant data on which to base an estimate of the actual situation are totally wanting.”
Part of the problem is the terrain, which doesn’t lend itself to modern communications. Also, it might be easier to know what’s going on if the combatants were fighting on a single line, instead of three separate fronts. One front is in the vicinity of Nazi-occupied southwestern Norway, where German columns are advancing from Kvam (about 100 miles north of Oslo) and Roros (200 miles north of Oslo). British and French troops arriving at the port of Andalsnes, northwest of Kvam, have rushed eastward to try and blunt these twin Nazi thrusts. The second front surrounds the port of Trondheim farther north, where German forces in the Trondheim area are being opposed by one Allied force moving south from the port of Namsos and another Allied army heading north from Andalsnes. And the third front is much farther north, at Narvik, where 2,000 German troops continue to battle British and Norwegian units.
...BUT HITLER MAY BE GETTING THE UPPER HAND. The stories in Saturday’s papers and radio bulletins through this morning are the most alarming yet. Most significant is a new German breakthrough at Roros, which the Nazis had seized for a few hours last Wednesday before being thrown back by an Allied counter-attack. But according to Otto D. Tolischus in Saturday’s New York Times, this same Nazi column once again smashed through Roros on Friday and is only some sixty miles away from the German troops in Trondheim. Bulletins from the last few hours say that same German force has advanced fifty miles in the last day, and is now turned westward toward the Dombas-Trondheim railway to try and cut off the British and Norwegian troops south of Trondheim.
About the best news for the Allies this week-end is a United Press report that French Foreign Legion troops from Africa have inflicted “heavy losses” on German troops north of Trondheim, though the Nazis lines there are holding firm. This is the second time the Allies have hit Steinkjer, after a British push was repulsed there earlier this week. Meanwhile, British antiaircraft batteries shot down six German planes Friday. The Luftwaffe has so far given the Germans a murderous advantage in the land battles, although the British themselves have done some bombing of late, hitting a convoy of Nazi supply ships and an encampment of troops south of Bergen late in the week.
MEANWHILE, ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Saturday’s New York Herald Tribune notes a Nazi blunder --
“On the western front Nazis have this sign on trees: ‘Property of German War Department. Englishmen, Frenchmen, dogs, keep out.’ If an irate Tommy or poilu were to tear down the sign, he would be blown to bits by a mine wired to it. However, the Germans practically nullified their scheme by printing the signs in German.”
THE BRITISH PAPERS ARE UNHAPPY. Larry Rue reports in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that Britain’s press is angry after the Ministry of Information issued a handout Friday admitting that Hitler “has taken the first trick in Norway.” This comes after two weeks of silence following the initial British landings on the Norwegian coast, and the wildly optimistic headlines in their wake --
“Despite the failure of the government to issue a detailed communique since the naval victory at Narvik on April 13, the people have been led to believe that triumphs beyond the highest hopes were achieved in operations in Norway and that the only reason for official reticence was the necessity of keeping secrets from Germany....The newspapers have been featuring stories of great successes and even had allied troops capturing Hamar, not far from Oslo. Now the same papers which printed those reports from Stockholm correspondents are furious because they were not true and are bitterly critical of the conduct of the military operation in Norway....The Daily Herald scolds the government for believing the ‘public wants comfort rather than news.’”
“A SETBACK, NOT A DISASTER.” Writing in Friday's New York Herald Tribune, Major George Fielding Eliot believes that the reports about British troops suffering a “major disaster” earlier this week north of Trondheim, at Steinkjer, are “unjustified.” He explains, as others have this week, that the real battle is yet to come --
“I think it may be well to keep in mind at this time that up to the present the land fighting in Norway between German and Allied forces has been of what might be called a preliminary nature: in general, a race by advance guards and detached motorized elements to seize important key positions for the benefit of larger forces which may be expected to come after them. Owing to the rugged nature of the Norwegian terrain and the resultant dearth of communications, these key points, if they command important rail or road routes, are likely to be of proportionally greater value than in less difficult country....War cannot be made without losing men, and we are by no means as yet at a decisive point in the struggle for possession of Trondheim. One point does stand out, as we have repeatedly said: the Allies must have air support if they are going to succeed. It is hardly to be supposed that this has been overlooked by the Allied high command.”
WILL A TRAP BE SPRUNG ON THE BRITISH? Sigrid Schultz writes from Berlin in Saturday’s Chicago Tribune that the Germans seem to be trying to do just that. Miss Schultz says the war in Norway appears to be heading for a terrific climax in the Trondheim region, with “the Germans, and the British, French, and Norwegians...rushing warplanes and additional troops to that district.” The pivotal fighting could take place in the Gudbrandsdal Valley, south of Trondheim –
“If the Germans repeat the strategy used with such success in Poland they will attempt to lure their enemy into one of the Norwegian valleys, such as the Gudbrandsdal, bottle them up, and then annihilate their opponents with aerial bombs and machine guns. Nazi planes now are destroying every point of importance in the Gudbrandsdal valley.”
CHAMBERLAIN NOT AS POPULAR. It can’t be said yet that Britons are turning against their Prime Minister. But Dr. Gallup reports in Friday’s Washington Post that Neville Chamberlain’s popularity is now at its lowest point since the start of the war, according to a new survey. He still commands a solid majority of public sentiment -- 61% of those expressing an opinion in a recent survey continue to support him. But that’s down from 66% six weeks ago, and 71% last December.
DON’T FORGET DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. If your town follows daylight savings time, don’t forget that it started today at 2 a.m. -- so, set your clocks forward one hour. More than thirty million Americans in fifteen states are now following the practice, which goes from now until Sept. 29.
The Chicago Tribune says that Chicagoans “will receive a total of 154 extra hours of sunlight” while D.S.T. is in effect, but...surely the editors realize that isn’t really true? One can but hope.
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