1940 Namsos Campaign II

May 13, 1940 British Newsreel.The Verdal bridge was defended by some 80 Norwegian militia. When the Germans attacked on the morning of the 21st, the Norwegians were supported by a section of Royal Engineers who happened to be in the area. For an hour and a half this force held the German attack off. The majority of the British forces were a little further back. But, the Germans landed forces at several points behind them in an attempt to outflank, drawing the attention of the main British forces. Fearing to be cut off, the Norwegians and the Royal Engineers withdrew.A battle developed. Advantage was with the Germans, who were equipped with snowshoes and skis, and sledge mounted heavy mortars, and light field guns. They possessed air support from an airfield 35 miles away and had supporting naval gunfire.There was no panic among the British and Norwegian forces and they succeeded in countering the first moves of the Germans. Heavy fighting occurred around the small village of Vist. Initial attacks were repelled, but the Germans outflanked the British positions by going around them on skis through the deep snow.The Luftwaffe attacked and destroyed the British forward base at Steinkjer on 21 April, causing the loss of much of their supplies and destroying 242 houses, leaving over 1,800 Norwegian civilians homeless.Although 80% of the town was destroyed in the attack no lives were lost in the bombing.German bombers destroyed much of the wood-constructed town of Namsos on April 20. Attacks lasted throughout the day and most of the wood houses, as well as the railway terminal, a church, the French headquarters and the two wooden wharves were burned. The stone wharf was damaged. Fortunately, only one Allied ship was present in the harbour when the attack occurred. Fourteen German bombers went after the tiny anti-submarine trawler, HMS Rutlandshire, and badly damaged it just down the bay from Namsos. The ship was beached and the survivors were machine gunned in the water. None were killed and only two injured. They were later rescued by the destroyer HMS Nubian, sister ship of HMS Afridi.The British felt the need to provide protection from submarine attack for their ships entering and leaving Namsos. Lacking air cover, the small, slow anti-submarine sloops and trawlers used were very vulnerable to air attack. On April 30th, the sloop HMS Bittern was sunk by Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers off Namsos. On May 1, three British anti-submarine trawlers at the entrance to the Namsfjord, HMS Gaul, HMS St. Goran and HMS Aston Villa were destroyed by aircraft, the latter managing to make it back to Namsos where she burned.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Norway
• Namsos
• Norwegian
• Campaign
• Britiah
• German
• Amry
• Royal
• Navy
• Luftwaffe
• 1940
• Tondheim

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