A Bold Policy in Norway
When Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, at the reunion dinner of the Diggers Abroad Association last Saturday, urged a policy of boldness in Norway, he was speaking as one who had been Chief of Staff to the three Admirals who successively commanded the Allied fleet in the Gallipoli campaign. He recalled the "hesitations, checks and cruel .disappoint- ments " which led to the disastrous failure of the expedition, and contrasted with them other expeditions on the Belgian coast where boldness was repaid with success ; there were those who from excess of caution had opposed the attack on Zeebrugge, which was among the most brilliant achieve- ments of the last war. Sir Roger's hearers no doubt wondered if he meant that a successful naval attack might have been or still might be made by the fleet upon Trondheim. Or they may have thought that he was advocating more daring naval action in the Skagerrak against the German supply ship; on their way to Oslo. The layman is not qualified to judge the prospects of success in the one enterprise or the other, though he is entitled to assert that it is justifiable to face dangers and incur losses in order to avoid greater ones. The Germans certainly took immense risks, which Admiral Raeder is believed to have considered foolhardy, when they ventured on an invasion of Norway by sea. According to some informed opinion, they achieved the theoretically impossible.
Previous page
