Word: altmark
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After dark came the Admiralty's command: go in and rescue the Altmark'?, prisoners, with or without Norway's permission. Captain Vian at once took his Cos sack into the fjord again. He went aboard the Norwegian gunboat Kjell, invited her commander to lead a British boarding party which would find out for certain about prisoners on the Altmark. The Norwegian declined, but went aboard the Cossack, which proceeded up the moonlit fjord to its precipitous end, where the Altmark had got fast in pack...
...Cossack approached, playing its searchlights, the Altmark broke free, tried to swing around and ram the Cossack. The latter darted alongside and grappled...
...this Altmark affair, international law was fractured. First, Great Britain argued that Norway violated international law when the Altmark was allowed to pro ceed through neutral waters with concealed prisoners of war. Moreover, said Britain, the Norwegian authorities obviously shut their eyes to the Altmark'?, true character. The British Admiralty, in ordering a raid in neutral waters, certainly was breaking international law right & left, regardless of its excuses. While Berlin snarled horrendous but vague threats of reprisal at both Britain and Norway, the London Times heartily observed that the Battle of Punta del Este would have lacked a fitting...
Norway was good and mad. Early this week Norwegian Foreign Minister Halvdan Koht, in a special statement before the Storting, let Great Britain have a piece of the Norseman's mind: "Lord Halifax was of the belief that the Altmark had been in Bergen although the ship had not been in any Norwegian harbor. ..." Further snapped Foreign Minister Koht: ". . . The British Government is of "the opinion that it can neglect ordinary international law. . . . The [Norwegian] Government cannot believe that the British Government, when having thought the case over, will not acknowledge that it is in open conflict with...
...Besides the homing Altmark and Baldur, the British and French last week intercepted and captured two out of six Nazi ships trying to slip home from Vigo, Spain. Germany's first and big Altmark revenge was torpedoing the destroyer Daring with loss...