Evening star., 1940-04-17
Stowe
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chology was pulled last Thursday
afternoon just after the first of TO-
600 German troops debarked in Oslo
harbor, thereby assuring the Na1
grip on the capital.
After watching the first trans
ports tie up at the quays, I rushed
to the telegraph Office. When I re-
turned, half an hour later, the har-
bor's semicircle Of quays was Curl
GUS sight. I heard what sounded
like a students chorus at football
match long before it could press its
way through the throngs of Osloans
near the embarkment. Lounging
on the embankment were perhaps
three platoons of German infantry.
Their kits, blankets, rifles and bay
onest all were piled in neat rows on
the sidewalk below them.
Consciences Suffer.
The soldiers sat with their arms
locked, and swinging from side to
side. shouted out the words of the
German song, Going to Town."
with splendid harmony on the re-
frain. Before them stood a hardy
Teuton getting the maximum
syncopation from his accordion. The
singers all acted like a group Of
carefree young men whose only de-
sire in life is to have fun and
serenade people. Behind their BOOM
Ing choruses was the implication that
there was nothing serious about
these thousands of iron -muscled
troops who were marching down the
gangplanks at the quay's edge.
Almost unbelieving. several thou
sand Osloans paused and listened,
in the course of the next two hours.
But their expressions had changed
from the incomprehensible curiosity
and the seeming indifference of the
last two days. Now, for the first
time, there were many faces with
harassed lines and troubled eyes.
All the songs chosen had lots Of
gayety. They attracted people, but
did not hold so many Something,
some sharp realization, had at last
sunk into the consciences of the
Norwegians at Oslo. After 48 hours
1t was beginning to sink in.
I walked on few PAGES, for an
other body of singing soldiers was
so close that the songs clashed mid
way between the two groups. These
neld-gray men, standing as they
sang, had one tenor whose voice was
a winner. One of their best songs,
and the one that each group sang
repeatedly, was something about a
Rhineland town which has the
finest Maedels (girls) in the world.
We want to love them. We want to
love them"
With those kinds of songs people
are not supposed to remember that
their capital is being conquered for
inestimable months or years. Yet
a great many Osloans did not linger
as long now around the German
troops as they had been lingering
the last two days. They were see
Ing an enormous amount Of machine
guns, too, and several more troop
ships, lined with soldiers, out in the
harbor waiting to tie up. From the
largest of these more singing echoed
shoreward.
Meanwhile, up in the park directly
in front OF Parliament, the people Of
Oslo, from II o'clock in the morning
onward, had been treated to the
most amazing band concert the
Norwegian capital probably ever
heard. A little 12-piece band played
almost increasingly all afternoon
just as if nothing important were
happening anywhere, least of all
down in the harbor. The German
band played countless American
dance tunes, interspersed with Ger
man waltzes and occasional Nazi
marches. They kept up their enter
tainment, never lacking an audi
ence Of 200 or 800. The soldiers only
ended their zestful music at night
fall, when fully 5000 more troops had
already safely augmented the Ger
mans exposed shoestring garrison
Of occupation.
The next morning, Friday the
12th, the music period Of the oc-
cupation had completely ended.
There was no further need for
bluff. Also, much more serious
business was at hand. That morn
ing for the hrst time, I saw no Ger
man soldiers standing guard at
the Parliament and university build
ings. Until now they had stood
like statues, or had tramped osten-
tatiously back and forth. Now all
had gone. I was puzzled to see
that the German guards had been
replaced by Norwegian police at
the Parliament doors.
We still could not understand why
Oslo's big, strapping policemen re-
mained in the capital. Nor why
the city had been occupied without
the electric current being cut OF
or the slightest cessation Of trolley
car service. or any strike in other
services n 4 show of naaSive ~.