H.V. Kaltenborn News and Comment – April 123, 1940 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
News for this day conveyed a feeling of no sensational developments, especially in Norway and Denmark. However, speculation was rife that Britain would be staging some invasion, somewhere and that Germany was busy shoring up any possible cracks. Many in Berlin felt an invasion would take place somewhere near Trondheim as it was a deep water fjord with rail lines, communications and close proximity to Sweden. Reports from Berlin radio indicated British planes and light cruisers were attacking Trondheim and were successfully driven off by German air and naval forces. The area was being monitored for any further developments.
The British Admiralty reported mining four additional areas in the North Sea and directly off the Norwegian coast in an effort to prevent German naval forces from entering or leaving the critical fjords.
In addition to reports on Naval action there were also reports of Air action over Norway, with British planes attacking and blowing up a German ammunition ship and a supply ship damaged as reported by the latest communiqué from London. British bombers were also attacking ships over a wide area, from Oslo Fjord to coast of Germany. Another ammunition ship was attacked and blown up with such force, that the attacking bomber was rocked by the force of the explosion. And some 10 additional German ships were attacked near the entrance of the Baltic Sea.
Berlin Radio, for their part, reported all Royal Airforce attacks had been repulsed, but no reference was made as to attacks on German ships with no acknowledgement of denial of the attack on the munitions ship. There were also reports that additional German troops had landed near Narvik and that, according to Berlin radio, the British effort to seize Narvik was continuing. A spokesman for Berlin was reported to have said German positions in Norway and Denmark were becoming stronger and were already so consolidated that any possibility of successful British counter-action has disappeared. There was speculation those reports were greatly exaggerated as even with a landing of some 30,000 troops, German positions were stretched too thin and precarious to be effective against a British landing, no matter where it was going to take place.
And that’s just a small slice of news and commentary by H.V. Kaltenborn for this April 12, 1940 as presented by NBC.
