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And then it was learned that parts of the Nazi thrust up the Österdal had split off northwestward from Alvdal and Tynset, slogged over the mountains by precipitous trails believed unpassable after the heavy snowfalls. When these forces got through to threaten the Dombås-Stören line at Hjerkinn and Ulsberg, another race began, to save Trondheim's south approaches for the Allies. Outcome of this race might determine the fate of N. W. E. F.'s whole first effort, for without Dåmbas, nothing between there and Trondheim would be tenable. With it, the Allies had the Nazi juggernaut stalled.
From the Sea into Trondheim Fjord lay one more avenue of assault for the Allies, obstructed by Germans in the harbor forts at Agdenes and Nazi field guns ranged along the fjord's inner shores. Allied warships hurled, Allied bombers dumped tons of destruction here but not enough to break in last week. Allied bombers were busy elsewhere trying to paralyze the German air arm at its sockets in South Norway and Denmark. Scores of heaviest R. A. F. planes, after warning Oslo's populace, concentrated on great Fornebu Field near the capital, on an oil refinery near Moss, on Stavanger and new German beachheads below Bergen. But still Nazi bombers and troop planes poured up through Norway's valleys. Still troop and supply ships slipped through the Allied sea blockade. And still angry swarms of Junkers and Heinkels dived at the ships and trains bringing Allied men and guns in force to the Dombås-Stören sector. Over the weekend, the Germans claimed hits on no less than 13 Allied troopships and five cruisers. Grimly the Allies would admit damage only to two trawlers.
Nothing was heard during last week of strong Allied forces reported as having landed at Laerdal, to reach the Bergen-Oslo rail line still held by the Norse. Methodically the Germans went to meet this threat with columns converging on Fossheim fortress above Fagernes. Nazi ships landed troops in the upper reaches of Hardanger Fjord, for an overland attack upon the towns of Voss and Myrdal, along the Bergen-Oslo railroad.
Two Weeks' Advantage. All these events were depressing to the Allies. The reaction at home in Britain was due to previous overoptimism. In the first stage of the campaign the Germans had two weeks alone in Norway with little opposition. Not till last week, when the second stage of the campaign opened with Allied landings, were they sufficiently strong and well organized to make any progress toward Trondheim. Allowing for a moderate degree of air opposition, according to ordinary military schedules they could not in less than four days to a week land a division with all its artillery, munitions and equipment and transport the whole from Namsos or Molde to face the Germans in force.
The Allied advance guards made contact with the Germans in both sectors in less than 48 hours. That they were rolled back by the Germans should have been expected in Britain. They could not possibly meet the Germans on equal terms until this week at earliest. The date of such equality may be further postponed because of German air superiority. The Allied danger was that before they could catch up, the Nazis' grip on mid-Norway would become unbreakable.