military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (04/12/90)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Friday, 12 April, 1940 A large British bomber group of some 90 aircraft searches the Stavanger area for the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but fails to locate the two ships. Norway claims the sinking of the Gneisenau in Oslo Fjord. The government of the Faroe Islands, a Danish possession, agrees to accept British protection. A small garrison is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Britain also embarks on a huge aerial and seaborne mining operation in the Kattegat and Skaggerak with the intention of severing Germany's sea route to Norway. Further, London announces that outbound mail from Germany will be blocked. The Royal Navy begins siezing Danish merchant shipping, which has been classed as enemy property. Sweden again affirms her neutrality, and states that she will not allow foreign troops to transit her borders. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "All precedents in naval history have show that the massive use of forces at sea by the weaker side may provide the ephemeral glory of individual prowess, but inevitably it has always ended in a check. It is not the beginning of an operation at sea that is difficult. It is its successful competion." - Premier Paul Reynaud of France, referring to naval operations in the Norwegian campaign