Brian Hodgkinson - Saviour of the Nation

At Oslo and at other major ports.

This was a bitter blow to Churchill’s pride.

How had the German navy carried there,

To Norway’s western coast, those Wehrmacht troops,

Without alerting Britain’s northern fleet?

The Narvik force had briefly been observed

By air reconnaissance. The Admiralty,

Not realising how bold the Führer was,

Did not believe that Narvik was their goal.

Belatedly the British navy fought

To compensate, by courage, for its lack

Of necessary vigilance and speed.

Along the fjord coast fierce actions flamed

Between the British and the Kriegsmarine .

The German losses so reduced their fleet

That when, weeks later, Britain faced the threat

Of mass invasion from the Channel ports,

The German generals feared to cross the sea.

When, in the Commons, Churchill rose to speak,

He looked quite tired, and hesitated much

In fumbling with his notes and spectacles.

He could not really say how it occurred

That German ships arrived at Narvik first.

But later, in the Cabinet, he urged

That Narvik, first of all, must be regained.

The prime objective still remained the same:

To halt the flow of ore to German ports.

Yet other views prevailed. The case was made

For taking Trondheim, further to the south.

So Allied forces sailed to Namsos, too,

And Aandalsnes, to make a pincer move

From north and south on Trondheim’s garrison.

Disaster followed. Under air attack

And ill-equipped to move in heavy snow,

They gave some help to Norway’s patriots,

But then returned to havens on the coast.

Theirs was the first of many such retreats.

Whilst long delay ensued at Narvik port,

Despite the First Lord’s plea of urgency,

On mainland Europe mightier events

Cast Norway’s tragic battle into shade,

And left its sturdy people and its land

To traitors and the will of Germany.

Deficient in equipment, poorly led,

And hamstrung by political neglect,

The Allied forces soon withdrew by sea.

This was a bitter foretaste of defeat

In other theatres at the Wehrmacht ’s hands.

Though Narvik had been stormed belatedly,

It could not now be held. The German grip

On Norway’s vital coastline was complete.

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