Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-05-07

Oslo. Soldiers hidden in the holds
of previously arrived ships seizee
Narvik, Bergen, Stavanger, Trond.
helm and other coastal points.
The British, caught mapping
landed few thousand Allied troops
on both sides OF Trondheim ano
later at Narvik, but were forced tc
withdraw. On April 80, Hitler pro.
claimed complete victory, and
within short lime Allied troops
had withdrawn.
Bottle of France
May 10 the great blow In the
west fell on Holland, Belgium, Lux.
embourg and France. The fate Of
Germany would be sealed for 1,00C
years by the outcome, Hitler told
his soldiers.
Swarms of parachutists descended
on the airports near Rotterdam, The
Hague and Amsterdam, and seized
the bridge at Moerdijk, south of
Rotterdam. Holland fell in four days
The Nazis overwhelmed the Bel
gian fort, Eben Emael, and rushed
their columns across the Albert
Canal near Maastricht.
In three days German tanks sur
prised the French, seized Sedan and
were racing for the English Chan
mel, with fleets of motorcyclists
spreading fire and terror ahead of
the armored attachments.
The Germans reached the channel
at Abbeville> on May 81, and King
Leopold announced the surrender
Of his 300, 000-man Belgian Army on
May %.
Dunkerque, the British epic of
the war, in which a strange armada
of 900 warships, skiffs, tugs and
yachts rescued an army Of $4,000
men from the beaches, was over by
June 4.
In vain Gen. Maxine Weygand
set "mousetraps" for tanks along
the Somme. Turning south on June
6 Hitler brushed aside the Wanted
French Army. The Maginot Line
was turned. The French govern
ment evacuated Paris June 10, the
same day Mussolini committed his
stab in the back" and sent troops
into the border area OF France,
where they dug in without any at
tempt to help Hitler clean UP.
Taking over the French govern
ment. Marshal Petain announced on
June II, with a broken heart" that
he had been compelled to ask Hitler.
as one soldier to another, for an
honorable arnistice.
The high point of the WARRIOR
Hltler-came at Compiegne on June
81 in the railway car where Marshal
Foch had dictated peace terms to
Germany in 1918 and France signed
an armistice.
Bottle of Britoin
Hastily importing hunting rifles,
old tanks and World War guns from
America, Prime Minister Churchill
hunched his head down between his
great shoulders and declared, I'VE
will fight on the beaches and the
landing grounds. in the fields, in the
streets, on the hills. We will never
surrender ~
Grimly, TOO Spitfres and Hurri-
canes opposed the entire German
Air Force. British fighting planes
mounting eight guns, and radar,
which gave warning of coming raids,
probably saved the British in the
aerial battle that lasted from Au-
gust through May. But $4,000
Britons died from bombs. Septem-
Der Is, 1910, when the Germans lost
l85 planes and were forced to switch
to night bombing, has been called
one of the decisive battles of the
war-a Waterloo or Trafalgar.
In September and October, the
Germans were assembling their
invasion fleet of 5000 barges and
1 100000 tons of ships. Not until
1914 did Churchill disclose the
reason why the Germans never in
vaded England-the invasion fleet
was smashed by the Raj bomber
before it could leave port.
The Balkans
Mussolini believed the Greek gen.
erals had been bought OF and in
vaded Greece from Albania on Oc-
tober %, 1910, three hours after a
3 am. ultimatum, and thereupon
came one of the big surprises of the
war. Instead of whiting, the Greeks
fought.
Hitler, who had not been informed
OF Mussolini's plans, let his partner
sweat in his trouble through the
winter. One by one, Hungary, Ro-
mania and Bulgaria had fallen into
the Hitler line-up-Romania on o.
tober 8, 1910, when German troops
moved in following the Iron Guards
custer of King Carol, Hungary on
November 20, when she joined the
Axis alliance, and Bulgaria, on
March l, 1941, when she signed the
ome-Berlin- Tokyo pact. Now the
screws were put to Yugoslavia.
But an uprising upset the Yugo-
slav pact with Hitler, and on Sum
day morning. April s, the German
dictator launched his Balkan cam
paign with ferocious bombing Of
Belgrade.
Striking from Bulgaria, the Ger
mans in three days had broken
across the Vardar Valley, severing
the links between Greece and Yugo-
slavia, and had reached the Aegean,
Selling Salonika. In vain, 4 tiny
British force which had been rushed
in from Africa, made q stand at
Thermopylae. The Nazi mechanical
divisions marched into Athens on
April ~, and again the British car
ried out a costly evacuation, this
time from the Peloponnesus.
The swastika had fioated over the
Acropoiis only about three weeks
when Hitler struck his most au-
dacious air-borne blow, invading
Crete on May 20. Ten days later,
the British admitted the loss Of the
island.
Africa
The Battle OF Africa really
started in the tragic event of July 5,
1910, when the British attacked the
French feet at Mers-el-Kebir to
III. -