Adding further to the success which the Allied Navies obtained against the German attempt to establish adequate communication with the slender forces they have succeeded landing in Norway, is the destruction of seven Gernian destroyers in the Narvile and Rombaks Fiords. These vessels appear to have escorted troopships to Narvik, and to' have been caught by the British fleet which Kept them bottled up. With the arrival of minesweepers on the scene, a British force, with the support of H.M.S. Warspite, headed up the ford and attacked the German des troyers sinking seven and sustaining but little damage themselves, three British destroyers being damaged, but not seriously. This additional victory, and the laying of the enormous 420-mile-long mine field designed completely to cut Germany off from the Norwegian coast constitute two further severe blows to the German aspirations on the Scandinavian Peninsula, and reveal in its entirety the blunder which the German high command made when it launched upon its rash ad~ venture. It, in fact, overreached itself and is now paying the penalty, for it is to be' believed that the Allied fleets will seek out whatever other German vessels may be iding in the various fords in which they are reported to have taken refuge, and deal with them in exactly the same way as they dealt with the seven destroyers at Narvik. Thus to date Germany has lost no fewer than 25 vessels consisting of four cruisers, eight destroyers, one submarine and twelve trans~ ports, taking only those figures which have been' officially confirmed, though to those have to be added at least two transports which have been interned in Sweden. The losses inflicted upon the German navy con siderably reduce the possibility of that arm being able to take the seas and drive off the Allied vessels which have thus broken communications between the various German forces in Norway and their home bases, and though an occasional German vessel may be able to steal its way through the obstacles: which the Allied navy and the mine fields present, the likelihood of the Reich being able to maintain adequate supply services by sea has been reduced to the minimum.
Something has been made of the German claim that they will still be able to maintain and reinforce their troops in Norway by means of aeroplanes. That may be pos~ sible, but reflection will show that only very slender supplies can be expected by this: means. Obviously tanks, and heavy artil~ Iery cannot be maintained by such means, though men, machine guns, and ammunition, may thus be transported, and while the troops so landed there may be able to live off the land, it is obvious that the care of the wounded, and additional victualling will also present diffteulties which will grow in proportion to the men who may be landed by such methods. There are reports which indicate that the German command fully realizes its situation, and that demands are now being made upon the Swedish Government to permit the passage of heavy weapons and supplies through Swedish territory but not troops. That so far as the Germans are concerned would be an easy matter because of their control of Denmark, and the comparatively narrow waters through which conveys would have to pass. But without the passage of large bodies of men to reinforce those already in Norway it is not likely to bbe effective so long as the Norwegians can recount for more Germans than can arrive by aeroplane. It is said that Sweden will reject any such demands as involving a departure from the neutrality which she has avowed her intention of maintaining and protecting. If that leads to an invasion of Sweden the world at large will not be sur= prised. Such a step has been contemplated for a long time past, and the utter failure of the Norwegian venture, and the necessity of bolstering up the forces which were sent out on this mad errand may even now force the Reich to attack Sweden, a move which will require considerable forces in view of the strength of the Swedish army, and the excellence of its equipment. If Germany does decide to attack Sweden it will have brought about a war on two fronts of which Herr Hitler has been so consistently afraid, and which the Allies will be prepared to wage with him most heartily. Falling an attack direct on Sweden it is reported that the Reich have contemplated making use of Russian railways through Leningrad and on to Murmansk, Probably it does not contemplate endeavouring to send further assistance to its troops in Norway by sea, but rather to cross the narrow neck of Finland in the region of Petsamo and thus enter Norway. Reports have it that the Soviet has declined to accede. to any such requests on the ground that it does not desire to become involved in this northern war, and, if this proves to be the case, Germany will be thrown back on an attack on Sweden with the increased risks of defeat which such a step would entail. Meanwhile it is highly significant that the Germans have again resorted to the bombardment of open towns and machine-gunning civilians wherever they are to be found in any numbers. That is to be taken as a sign of the desperation of the situation which Germany finds herself in connection with this Norwegian adventure, for it is following the old and long proved futile tactics of endeavouring to strike terror into the hearts of the masses in the hope that the decisions of the Norwegian Government will thereby be more inclined towards surrender. That it will not succeed Spain and Finland have completely proved, and it amounts but another example of that wanton disregard of the rights of civilians and a useless brutality with which the Germans have marked their conduct ever since they decided to resort to war as the ultimate weapon of their policy of aggrandisement. Heartening fas these successes must be, and proving as they do the complete control of the North Sea by the Allied navies,—for how else could they possibly carry out what they have already done?—they must be regarded as minor events in the long and gigantic strug gle which still lies ahead. They clearly prove that the much maligned democracies fare not quite so decadent and effete as Herr Hitler would have his people and the world at large believe. There is even more to it than that; the whole of the events of last week has demonstrated beyond a peradven~ ture of a doubt that Herr Hitler has exhausted the number of small neutral nations which will submit without resistance to his iniquit~ ous demands. The remainder are prepared to fight him should the situation necessitate it.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.