Spring Offensive

This week, Nazi Germany launched her spring offensive. Like a running torch applied to tinder it set northern Europe afire.

Maybe the Allies had suspected, belatedly, what was coming, had put two and two together from reports that Germany last week had concentrated grey-clad soldiers on Denmark's southern border, had carried out extensive embarkation and debarkation for landlubber fighting men at Baltic ports. For British minelayers one morning sowed three great fields along Norway's rugged coast, in Norway's territorial waters, minefields to drive German-bound ships with Swedish ore out into the open sea where the British Navy could get them. At one stroke this paralyzed ore shipping from Narvik, far north in Norway, where eight ore-laden German steamers were blocked in by the minefield in West Fjord.

Less than eight hours later Germany struck.

The Plan. Daring, ruthless, well conceived and swiftly executed was Hitler's plan. He would take Norway to protect his ore shipments, and use its fjords as bases for air, sea and submarine raids against Britain. He would take Denmark to insure his communications, and stop the Allies from establishing a wedge in her route from the north. He would take them so quickly that Sweden, hemmed in on the west by Norway, on the east by Russian-dominated Finland, would not dare to fight, could easily be beaten if she tried.

It was a gamble on a great scale, fraught with the risk of extending an already long front and the danger of exhausting a vital hoard of oil and other strategic materials. To work it had to have 1) surprise, 2) complete and efficient coordination of the three striking arms, army, navy, air force, on a broader and more complicated scale than any war had ever seen before. It involved landing parties at many points over hundreds of miles, a swift invasion across Denmark's land border, preparation by air and sea bombardment.

The Attack. Before the first crashing chords of the new Berlin overture were heard, the orchestra began tuning in the pit. A British armed vessel off Norway's west coast fought two German submarines. Fishermen took ashore half a dozen dead, 40-10-50 wounded, of both nationalities. The Britisher and one submarine went down. British submarines were in the Skagerrak, past German minefields.

Near Lillesand, on Norway's southeast tip, a British sub sent two torpedoes crashing into the hull of the 5,261-ton German freighter Rio de Janeiro. The world knew she had slammed a troop transport when Norwegian fishermen reported picking up live and dead German soldiers in field uniform. The Rio de Janeiro had had aboard 500 soldiers, 80 horses. Where were they bound? Why? The overture began. Through the Skagerrak steamed a fleet of 125 German armed ships including one pocket battleship, either Admiral Scheer or Lutzow.

Norway ordered a blackout of every lighthouse on her coast. Into the Oslo Fjord steamed four warships--German. Norwegian coast defense batteries went into action and residents of Oslo fled to their cellars as they heard the door-slamming of the pieces and the bark of the naval guns in reply.

Meanwhile, across the Danish border, swarmed German troops by the thousands without sign of resistance from Denmark's surprised little army which has a peace strength of 11,000, a war strength of only 161,000. Denmark's island capital, Copenhagen, was taken without the firing of a shot. Within twelve hours the occupation was complete. Germany announced it had taken its neighbor "to prevent possible hostile attack." Free, democratic Denmark had ceased to exist.

Far to the north, Hitler's men were running into resistance from surprised Norwegian troops. While U. S. Minister Mrs. J. Borden Harriman announced that Norway had declared herself at war, that the Government had moved north from Oslo to safer quarters at Hamar. At Oslo, at Vallo, Bergen, Trondheim, Kristiansand, Narvik, other points along the west coast, German troops were landed.

As Norway's Government ordered full mobilization of its army and air force (war strength 90,000 men, 100 planes) Nazi fliers were bombing her cities to drive a wedge for their landing parties. As day ended, Germany began to report successes. Egersund, the ocean cable head, had been captured. Vallo, Bergen, Trondheim had been taken. Oslo surrendered at 4 p.m. Kristiansand was under heavy air bombardment.

Ready or Unready? Caught apparently by surprise, the Allies took challenge. Before the night was out France and Britain had made Norway their ally. Next morning in the House of Commons, haggard Neville Chamberlain announced that aid to Norway was already on the way. What it was he did not say, but the likelihood was that it was the air force, which can get under way fast and move with greatest speed to its objective. The British fleet, which had bungled in letting all but one of the German landing parties reach Norway, now had an infinitely tougher task. But to help Norway, to stop the Nazi thrust, more was needed, an expeditionary force with naval protection.

When would it be ready? An expedition such as the Germans launched against Denmark and Norway takes weeks and months of preparation and planning. It was a stroke of luck for German propaganda that the British had laid mines in Norwegian waters just before the Nazi attack was launched. That offered an excuse, but obviously the attack had been prepared long before--some of the German landing parties must already have been embarked when the British began minelaying. Germany had had all winter to prepare and plan its expedition. How soon would an Allied expedition be ready? Not for some time unless the Allies had foreseen what was coming.

Exit Denmark. "The Reich Government therefore has, beginning today, set in motion certain military operations which will lead to the occupation of strategic points on Danish soil. The Reich Government thereby assumes protection of the Kingdom of Denmark for the duration of this War. . . . The Reich Government, therefore expects the Royal Danish Government and the Danish people to have full understanding for Germany's procedure and not resist in any way. . . .

The Reich Government declares to the Royal Danish Government that Germany has no intention through her measures now or in the future of touching upon the territorial integrity and political independence of the Kingdom of Denmark." When this note was slapped down by Germany on the desk of Danish Foreign Minister Peter Munch, Denmark's fate was sealed. Resistance was in fact impossible. In the early hours of the following morning the Nazis announced by radio that the German General Staff had "made contact" with the Danish General Staff-- but not with arms. Soon the Copenhagen radio was issuing German bulletins and among the first an announcement that Danish newspapers would publish very little news, only dispatches from one news agency under German control.

Thus in a night Denmark passed under the German yoke for the duration of the war, perhaps for eternity if Germany wins.

Norway on the Spot. A note virtually identical with that served on Denmark was slapped by the German minister on the desk of Prime Minister Halvdan Koht of Norway. It had been a hard day for Minister Koht. At six that morning he had been wakened by delivery of a British note announcing that the laying of minefields in Norwegian waters had begun. He had been very angry and alarmed. The Prime Minister called a Cabinet meeting and sharp notes to Britain and France were sent, denouncing Britain's breach of Norwegian neutrality, demanding the removal of minefields.

For a few hours Norway may have been dangerously close to war with Britain--the British and French ministers actually asked Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, U. S. Minister, to assume the duties of protecting their interests in Norway. To come so close to war was enough to spoil any foreign minister's day. But he had not gone to bed by 4:30 the next morning when he was faced by a worse threat of war from the opposite side. It was almost too much. Professor Koht wearily, hopelessly told the Nazi Minister that Norway did not believe that the Allies had any intention of occupying Norway, as Germany asserted.

Then there was another Cabinet meeting. By that time King Haakon of Norway doubtless knew that his elder brother, King Christian of Denmark, had become a Nazi puppet. His ministers did not press him to accept the same fate. The Cabinet decided that Norway could not submit to the German demands. After German vessels tried to force Oslo Fjord Mrs. Harriman cabled the news to Washington: Norway was at war with Germany. The Norse had refused to kiss the hand that struck them.

Sweden's Grief. To old King Gustaf of Sweden, whose daughter Ingrid is married to Crown Prince Frederick of Denmark, whose niece Martha is married to Crown Prince Olav of Norway, Germany's Blitzkrieg presented a heartbreaking problem of statecraft and family ties. If Norway as well as Denmark fell into German hands his Kingdom would be encircled, become hardly less a pawn than Denmark. If Sweden were to remain even half free she had to fight, but with Norway already partly in German hands even fighting might do no good.

Perhaps it was already too late. Perhaps the old men who controlled the destinies of Scandinavia had hesitated too long to take decisive action. The old men of Sweden hesitated again.

Meanwhile Adolf Hitler who seldom hesitates, had put his fate again to the test. The rape of Scandinavia was certain to cover him with the world's odium. The rest of the world was already against him. His gamble was that if his stroke were decisive the rest of the world would no longer count. It remained to be seen whether he had overreached himself.

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