10 MAY 1940, Page 6

A naval officer just back from Norway tells a story

that throws an interesting sidelight on the speed of modern communications. At 5.30 p.m. one afternoon a Norwegian saw a submarine steaming up the coast. He ski-ed to the telephone and rang up the police in the nearest town. A British Intelligence Officer, informed at 6.55 p.m., gave the information to the signal officer. It was coded and wirelessed to the War Office. There the mes- sage was de-coded and telephoned across to the Admiralty. Coded again, it was wirelessed to a cruiser in a Norwegian fjord, de-coded and signalled by helio-lamp to an adjacent anti- submarine trawler, where it was received at 9.52 p.m. Shortly after midnight the submarine was located, attacked and probably sunk.