Wednesday 15 April 2015

#WW2 April 15th 1940 #NorwayCampaign

General Carton de Wiart, found at: http://badassoftheweek.com/images/30045813384/wiart1.jpg


On April 15th 1940 The codebreaking team at Bletchley Park broke the Enigma code used by the German army and Luftwaffe. Unfortunately there was no team to analyse the information, and no way of transmitting information directly to British forces securely http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/08/a6841208.shtml.

Further British reinforcements for Alesund were delayed by gales off Scotland.
Troops at Namsos reported snow 4ft deep. The British Commander General Carton de Wiart was unable to leave the flying boat he had arrived at Namsos in due to German machine gun fire.
Night time temperatures fell to zero degrees farenheit. Frostbite was reported,
Other British troops held positions at Harstad, Salangen and Bogen, all suffering in the harsh conditions.

In the south of Norway the Norwegian 3rd Division surrendered to the Germans at Sedestal. 2000 soldiers surrendered.