Berlin Diary by William L. Shirer

Author:William L. Shirer [Shirer, William L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7953-1698-2
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 1941-10-17T05:00:00+00:00

BERLIN, April 10

It is plain from what I have heard today that Hitler and the High Command expected Norway to give up without a scrap. Now that it hasn’t, the complete confidence of yesterday is evaporating. An inspired statement today warned the populace that “yesterday was only the beginning of a daring enterprise. Allied counter-action is still to be reckoned with.” As a matter of fact, I get an impression in army and navy circles that if the British go in with their navy and back it up with strong landing-forces, Germany will have a much bigger fight on her hands than she bargained for. The German weak spot is its lack of a navy. The garrisons in the western Norwegian ports can only be supplied by sea. Also there are no suitable airfields north of Stavanger.

Following a brief account of the naval battle between German and British destroyers at Narvik today, the High Command mentions something that has us a bit baffled. It remarks that on April 8—that is, the day before the Germans seized the Norwegian harbours—“a British destroyer was sunk in another affair.” Several of us have a hunch that if we could find out what that “other affair” was, we might penetrate the mystery of how the German navy managed to get warships and landing-parties into so many Norwegian ports so quickly without the British navy doing anything about it.20 As it is, it is incomprehensible.

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