The London Gazette of TUESDAY, the 28Th of MAY, 1946 by Registered As a Newspaper WEDNESDAY, 29 MAY, 1946
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Humb. 37584 2597 SUPPLEMENT TO The London Gazette Of TUESDAY, the 28th of MAY, 1946 by Registered as a newspaper WEDNESDAY, 29 MAY, 1946 The War Office, May, 1946 OPERATIONS IN CENTRAL NORWAY, 1940. PREFACE BY THE WAR OFFICE. including 3rd May. This report is divided into Of the two expeditions which the United four Parts as under: — Kingdom and France sent to Norway in April, PART I.—General Summary of Events. 1940, one to Northern Norway and one to PART II.—Operations in the Namsos area. Central Norway, the following despatch covers PART III.—Operations in the Andalsnes the latter from the beginning of operations. area. In Central Norway two main landings were PART IV.—Conclusions and lessons. made, one in the Namsos area by a force under I am indebted for Part II of this report to the command of Major-General A. Carton de Major-General Carton de Wiart and for Part III Wiart, V.C., C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., and one to Major-General B. C. T. Paget and Brigadier in the Andalsnes area by a force under the H. de R. Morgan, who have provided me with command, first of Brigadier H. de R. Morgan, the necessary material for them. D.S.O., and later of Major-General B. C. T. Paget, D.S.O., M.C. On igth April, 1940, Lieutenant-General H. R. S. Massy, D.S.O., PART I. M.C., was instructed to assume the appoint- GENERAL SUMMARY OF EVENTS. ment of Commander-in-Chief of the forces operating in Central Norway. He exercised this i. When the original plan for operations in command from his Headquarters in the United Southern Norway was made, the landings at Kingdom as the course of events did not per- Andalsnes and Namsos were intended as diver- mit the opening of a Headquarters in Norway. sions to a main attack to be made on Trond- heim. When the landings at Andalsnes and When the decision to withdraw from Central Namsos were effected without loss, and our Norway was taken on 27th April, 1940, it was troops advanced inland from these bases, it was agreed to press on with operations against decided that Trondheim might be captured by Narvik, and the force in Northern Norway com- a converging movement instead of by a prising British, French and Polish troops suc- hazardous direct attack from seaward. ceeded in capturing the town of Narvik before It was'hoped too that sufficient troops could it, in turn, had to be withdrawn at the begin- be put into Andalsnes to stiffen Norwegian ning of June, 1940. resistance in the South, and thus -put a limit to The following despatch was submitted to the the German advance from Oslo. Secretary of State for War on i^th May, It was against this background that I was 1940 by Lieutenant-General H. R. S. instructed on I9th April to assume the appoint- MASSY, D.S.O,, M.C., Commander-inr ment of Commander of the North-Western Ex- Chief, North Western Expeditionary Force. peditionary Force and to form my Headquarters •with a view to taking command as soon as I have the honour to submit my report on possible of the operations in progress North the operations in Central Norway, up to and and South of Trondheim. 2598 SUPPLEMENT TO THE LONDON GAZETTE, 29 MAY, 1946 My instructions, as I understood them, were necessary maintenance personnel could be to capture Trondheim, and I decided that the landed. The support provided by the Royal first step towards this end must be to stop the Navy consisted of fighters from H.M.S. " Ark German advance from Oslo, and then to plan a Royal " and " Glorious," which were to deliberate combined operation for the capture operate over the ports, and torpedo bombers, of Trondheim itself. which were to attack the enemy aerodromes in I record below a narrative of the operations the neighbourhood of Trondheim and his ships which took place and the various decisions in that harbour. Anti-aircraft cruisers and arrived at as the turn of events required. I sloops were also allotted to .give protection to have purposely kept this report as short as pos- the Base Areas. sible, fuller details on subjects which may 3. On the 23rd, General Paget and his staff require consideration will be forwarded sepa- with Brigadier Hogg and Brigadier Richards rately to the War Office. left for Norway. During this day news was 2. In accordance with my instructions I received from General Carton de Wiart that assumed direct control of operations on 22nd Brigadier Phillips had succeeded in extricating April. In view of the fact that my Head- the I46th Infantry Brigade which, supported quarters were still in the process of forming and by the French, was occupying a position cover- were not in a position to operate as such, ing Namsos and Bangsund. orders were issued by my Staff in collaboration On this day too British troops on the with the Staff of the War Office. This unusual Southern Sector had withdrawn as the result and difficult position was made workable by the of heavy enemy attacks to hold a line South co-operation and assistance not only of the of Tret ten, and behind them an effort was Military Operations Directorate but also of the being made to re-organise Norwegian troops in numerous War Office branches which were the sector. During the whole of this day and necessarily consulted and whose aid was the next both Base Areas were continually invoked during the period of operations. bombed, as were forward troops and the com- Briefly, the situation in Southern Norway munications between them and the Base. when I assumed command was as follows: — In the area South of Trondheim Brigadier 4. On the evening of the 24th, the 2&3rd H. de R. Morgan with the I48th Infantry Fighter Squadron, R.A.F. (18 Gladiators) was Brigade (1/5 Leicesters and 8 Foresters) was flown ashore on Lake Lesjaskog. It was how- in the Lillehammer area South of Dombas ever immediately spotted by tile enemy who in touch with Norwegian troops. The ship commenced bombing next morning and con- carrying Brigadier Morgan's first-line trans- tinued it throughout the day. It is understood port had been sunk. He was therefore bereft that, in spite of valiant efforts by the pilots of essential fighting equipment, including anti- and ground staff, but few of them were able tank guns. In the Namsos area, North of to take off, and were quite insufficient to hold Trondheim Major-General Carton de Wiart off the innumerable enemy bombers who had under his command Brigadier C. G. attacked the aerodrome continuously. Phillips' I46th Infantry Brigade (4 Lincolns, 5. On the 25th April, I was directed by the 1/4 K.O.Y.L.I., and Hallams) and one demi- Chiefs of Staff to submit an appreciation on brigade of Chasseurs Alpins commanded by the situation in Norway. As it appeared to General Audet. The I4oth Infantry Brigade me then, the possibility of landing further was in contact with German forces near troops or of maintaining the troops then ashore Verdalen, 45 miles North-East of Trondheim. depended entirely on our being able to obtain The Chasseurs Alpins were in the vicinity of control of the situation in the air. In my Namsos. appreciation I stated this fact and gave it as Major-General B. C. T. Paget had been my opinion that should adequate air support selected to command the British forces operat- be available I had no reason to suppose that ing South of Trondheim, and on this day he we could not hold our existing positions against was -handed iny instructions, a copy of which is the Germans, and at a later date eject them "attached to this report at Appendix "A." from Trondheim. Without it I had little doubt Accompanying him to assume control of the that any further operations would become im- Base Area^of Andalsnes and to make a plan possible and that we should be compelled to for its derelopment as a base were Brigadier evacuate our forces from Southern and Central D. McA. Hogg, D.A. and Q.M.G. of Force Norway. I further stated that should evacua- Headquarters, and Brigadier D. J. R. Richards tion -be decided upon it would have to be done as Air Defence Commander to plan the air at short notice and that all necessary plans defence of the Base Area. for this operation must therefore be made with- During this day news was received that the out delay. I requested that the Inter-Service I4&th Infantry Brigade had been attacked on Planning Staffs should be directed to make the the previous day, the 2ist April, by enemy necessary preparations forthwith. I was not landed from a cruiser and destroyers, and^tfiat aware when this appreciation was written 'that Steinkjer had been heavily bombed. The base the attempt to establish the Gladiators ashore at Namsos was now being regularly bombed had failed. and General Carton de Wiart reported that the During this day, the I48th Infantry Brigade maintenance of his force in this area was was withdrawn to Otta and it became evident becoming difficult and that, unless some respite that the I5th Infantry Brigade, which had from the enemy bombing could be gained, it sailed under General Paget's orders, part on might well become impossible. Bombing of 22nd and part on 24th April, would be required Andalsnes was also taking place and consider- to hold Dombas and Opdal if the process of able damage had been done.