Evening star., 1940-04-21
London
Continued From First Page.)

ern front since the Norwegian cam
paign began. A Paris dispatch cred
tied the French with shooting down
three German planes and the Bel
gians with telling one
a. Allied forces in Norway "occu-
pied certain positions of vantage"
on April 10. and operations there
are proceeding according to plan"
Reuters, British news agency, re-
ported an official Swedish an
nouncement from Stockholm that
Swedish anti-aircraft guns had
fired on three German planes fly
ing over Southwestern Sweden and
that one was believed to have come
down in the sea of Goteborg.
Big Air Battle OFF Coast.
Rejoicing over these reported
successes was tempered by the dis
closure that two British cargo ships,
the Mersey, 1037-ton coastal steam
er, and the Hawnby, 5,404-ton
freighter, had been sunk by mines
off the southeast coast, with 13
dead or missing.
The sinkings, which Britons said
climaxed new Nazl aerial mine
laying operations in an effort to
block off the flow of allied troops
to Norway, were followed by pro-
longed and spectacular air battle
between British planes and shore
batteries and German air raiders.
The German planes appeared
within few hours of the two ships
sinking. AS on previous raid last
Wednesday night, British planes
sped out to sea to engage the Ger
mans. Firing, reported to be the
heaviest of the war off the south
east coast, continued until shortly
after II pm.
The sputtering flares. the sweep
ing beams of searchlights and the
flash of the guns drew scores of
coastal residents to the sea front
after the raiders swept out of the
northeast to be attacked by the
British fighters and anti-aircraft
guns.
Then the hour-long fight ended
as abruptly as it started and the
Germans headed toward the north
west.
The Hawnby and the Mersey were
the first British ships destroyed by
mines In the southeast coastal area
this month.
The Air Ministry announced that
there was 'air activity" in the
neighborhood of the Thames Estuary
| also late tonight. No attacks on
shipping or air raid warnings oc-
CURED there, however, it was said
Troops Pushing South.
The vanguard of the allied expe-
dition in Norway, consisting of two
British divisions and one French,
was reported pushing southwark
through the snowclad mountain
terrain toward the German out
posts, while the main allied body
continues to assemble unhampered
at bases along the coast.
| The Admiralty and War Office, in
q joint communique, branded as
quite untrue" German claim that
a transport had been sunk. CThe
Germans claimed to have sunk one
transport after having scored direct
hits with heavy bombs on three
transports and an allied cruiserO
The army gave the royal navy
full credit for the success of the
transport operation. Warship guns
kept covered landings while Royal
Air Force planes overhead scanned
sky and sea for Nazi bombers or
warships.
Force Believed Partly Mechanical.
The allied force was believed to
be at least partly mechanical and
equipped with heavy artillery. To
reach what is reported as a rapidly
forming German line running east
from the seaport of Trondheim, this
force must penetrate q craggy and
difficult terrain.
The French troops which have
landed in Norway and are taking
part. in the operations, according to
q communique from the French high
command, probably include some Of
Frances crack mountain fighters.
Neutral military observers have
expressed the opinion that troops
such as the famed Chasseurs d'Al-
pines and Norwegian guerrilla
fighters would be suited especially
to screening the advance of mech
anized forces through q country
that has few good roads.
Many British troops also are ex.
perienced in mountain fighting, OF
India's northwest frontier, but there
has been no indication whether any
of these are included In the British
expeditionary force.
Steps In Campaign.
While the war office continued t,
withhold details of the campaign
neutral attaches said there couls
not be much doubt about its broae
outlines. Reduced to its essentials
they said 1t would be:
occupy the coast ports, bomb tn
German bases and break the Ger