Saturday, April 24, 2010

Day 238 April 25, 1940

3000 British troops of General Paget’s 15th Brigade advance to the village of Kvam, 55 km South of Dombås, where they engage General Pellengahr’s 196th Division (8500 motorised infantry with tanks, artillery and dive bomber support) moving up the Gudbrandsdal from Lillehamer. 15th Brigade’s Hotchkiss 25mm anti-tank guns destroy 1 Neubaufahrzeug heavy tank, 1 light tank and an armored car in an initial skirmish. For the first time, a British line holds the German advance.

RAF Gloster Gladiators on Lake Lesjaskogsvatnet are discovered by the Luftwaffe and bombed for 8 hours. 13 Gladiators are destroyed or fall through the broken ice. Several Gladiators get off the ice and provide air cover for Paget’s 15th Brigade at Kvam. Returning, they shoot down 3 Heinkel He111s. 263rd Squadron Leader John Donaldson abandons the undefended lake airstrip and withdraws the remaining 5 Gladiators to Stetnesmoen, near Åndalsnes. http://www.aeroflight.co.uk/types/uk/gloster/gladiator/gladiator.htm

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