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Push from Andalsnes. More important in the Allies' plan was the drive farther south. Troops landed on the quays of Molde and Andalsnes reached Dombås by train from the Andalsnes railhead. From Dåmbas junction they advanced in two directions. One force pressed north toward Storen to aid in besieging Trondheim from the south. Another contingent hurried southeast to brace the retreating Norse at Lillehammer (famed resort, home of Novelist Sigrid Undset) who faced the main German Army. In the Dovre Mountains around Dombås. German bombing planes, unopposed by Allied fighters or antiaircraft, again raised hob. They furiously strafed transports and harbor facilities at Molde and Andalsnes, blasted stations and rolling stock along the railroad, rendered precarious the communications and supply between both Allied advance parties and their slower-moving main force. When Allied airmen improvised a landing field on a frozen road southwest of Andalsnes, the Nazis destroyed or damaged eleven fighter planes parked there.
Power Drives. Meantime, from Rena up the Ősterdal (Glomma River Valley) and from Lillehammer up the Gudbrandsdal (Lågen River Valley), the Germans launched two mechanized columns which again showed the world, as in Poland, how a modern juggernaut can open the road to war. These spearheads, to be followed by heavier forces from the growing Nazi troop-pool in the Oslo district, drove to reach their comrades at Trondheim before the floundering Allies should surround that town and close the roads to reinforcements. One struck north to the copper town of Röros at a speed which excited correspondents called "lightning"—actually about 50 miles in one day, which is excellent for tanks and lorries moving through mountain country if the retreating defenders are blowing out bridges, touching off landslides. When the Österdal spearhead reached Röros it consisted only of five armored cars, 15 trucks, carrying 150 shock troops, 20 motorcycles with two men each. But they were escorted by warplanes overhead, which scattered the handfuls of Norse troops guarding the way, panicked the populace. The Nazis captured police chiefs and ministers, held them as hostages to get gasoline. They promised total bombing to the villagers if there was any sniping. In one day no German transport planes were seen flying men and supplies up to Trondheim.
The invaders camped overnight south of Röros. Then they smashed ahead to a wild, rocky gorge. Here ensued the second preliminary struggle for Trondheim, with Allied artillery at last planted on the commanding mountainsides.
In the Gudbrandsdal, after the main Nazi power-drive had plowed through Lillehammer, the Norse and British who escaped capture there fell back on Allied reinforcements for a stand where the valley narrows at Otta and Kvam, only 35 miles south of Dombås. Norwegian General Otto Ruge rallied his men with this message: "Now the time for withdrawing has passed," he said. "Stand by and keep together and we shall fight the battle to victory."