The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-19
Norway Prepares For
 Biggest Fight Of Year
Continued From Page D

but no tank traps Or anti-tank guns, little anti-aircraft defense,
 There were occasional barricades and apparently no artillery. The country looked like the area around Plattsburg, N. Y., where national maneuvers are held. Snow was still on the gound, rapidly thawing. At one village were vol- unteers, looking more like Ameri- can pioneer rangers than modern troops. They were men who had come down from the north, Nor WegianS who had come home after own land was in German hands and fighting in Finland, Danes whose handful of Swedes who felt they would have to fight soon or late and might as well start now.
 At Elverum I saw the terrible price that a Norwegian town had paid for sheltering its king and its government for a few hours during the first retreat from Oslo. can not give details for military reason. But the town itself was a dreadful sight. Gaunt chimneys stuck up against the spring sky in the center of the little city. Stores, homes, offices, hotels, banks, had been gut ted by incendiary bombs. Even water-logged or frozen wood had burned.
 New Graves In Churchyard
 The hospital had been shaken but not hit. While I was there one pa tient, in intolerable pain, slashed an artery. Others, badly wounded, lay in anguish,in anguish, looking up dumbly as I went from ward to ward.
 The whole country in which l travelled was now definitely at war. A spy scare kept everyone from giv- ing information to newspaper cor respondents. Permission to photo graph anything of especial interest was refused. No foreigner can travel without permit. Permits were hard to get and had to be presented to every sentry along every road. The motor drive I took was punctuated every few miles by stops at small barriers. At one point a new barrier was being built. I stopped to film this barrier. The drone of an airplane motor was heard. Workers and husky civil ian volunteers took cover under trees. The plane was not visible. Later at Rena, 25 miles north of Elverum there were two air raid alarms During the first one high flying observation planes flew over slowly. No planes were visible dur ing the second alarm period.
 Strange Contrasts
 There were some strange con- trasts. At Hamar, my car developed a leak in its gasoline tank. We drove to a Ford service station to find eight able-bodied men waiting to make repairs. I was escorted to police station where sign read, in substance "This town will not be evacuated. Take it easy" People were lowering shop awnings against the sun. Calm, but sometimes eear- full people stood about. Some were leaving by car, bicycle or cart. Many more, including numerous young men, were arriving from the north.
 I saw one company of Scandina- vian volunteers, men from all north ern countries, of whom half had fought in Finland. These volunteers had numbered four when they started from the south. They now numbered 81, plus eight women of the Finnish auxiliary Lotta service, one in her teens, another white haored. There was one boyish, snap py first lieutenant. This company hoped to get northward to join the British after doing all they could here.