20 prominent citizens of Oslo, including a Norwegian Bishop, taken hostage by German occupiers; they will be shot if Germans face 'resistance or sabotage'

As British warships pound German ships & shore batteries with shell-fire, HMS Eskimo is hit by a German torpedo. Her bow completely blown off, she still manages to steam away.

In Narvik fjord, the Royal Navy have devastated the outnumbered Kriegsmarine: 3 German destroyers sunk, 5 scuttled by their own crew, & a U-boat sunk by a British plane.

Harry Neesdowne, sailor onboard one of the British warships: 'Grey cliffs of Narvik fjord rise above us- very forbidding. It looks a grim & lonely place.'

10 Royal Navy warships, led by battleship HMS Warspite, have steamed into Narvik fjord, aiming to finish off German destroyers guarding the Norwegian port.

King Haakon plans to leave Elverum & flee further north, to protect civilians from further German air attacks: 'I cannot bear to watch children crouching in the snow as bullets mow down trees.'

UK War Cabinet arguing: British army want to land at Trondheim to cut off German forces in north & south of the country; Churchill obsessed with iron-ore port of Narvik as site of first landing.

Speaking in British House of Commons, PM Chamberlain is declaring Britain will send troops to Norway: 'Hitler has a real fight on his hands!'

British forces are occupying the Danish Faroe Islands, north of Scotland; Winston Churchill proclaims this is to save Danish inhabitants from 'the foul thraldom in which they have been plunged by the German aggression'.

19-year-old Ruth Maier, an Austrian refugee who fled to Norway to escape the Nazis, is in occupied Oslo: 'I think of the Germans more as a natural disaster than as a people.'

Erik: 'Hotels are full of ministers huddling round stoves & breaking icicles to clean their teeth. All the town's stationery has been requisitioned for government business.'

Journalist Erik Seidenfaden has arrived in Norwegian town of Elverum, now 'overflowing with refugees joining the exiled Royal government.'

All leave cancelled in French & British armies; Allied forces ordered to be ready to fight at 6 hours notice- German attack expected soon.

Australia has banned the importing of foreign magazines & newspapers, in order to save valuable currency from going abroad.

Nazi occupiers in Denmark have ordered a blackout. Danish paper Politiken: 'The lights are extinguished over Denmark, as they are all across Europe. Denmark- & Europe- will be lighted again. Nobody knows when, but they will be lighted again.'

Luftwaffe are bombing Elverum, punishment for Norwegian refusal to surrender. Lying in snow as German bullets knock splinters from the trees, King Haakon (67) remarks: 'This is Hitler's gift to me.'

5.20PM Cars around Norwegian town of Elverum- where royal family & cabinet are sheltering- honking horns in warning: enemy aircraft coming. Royals & ministers flee into woods.

Polish city of Lodz has been renamed Litzmannstadt: part of the ongoing effort to 'Germanise' Nazi-occupied Poland.

German invaders explain 'peaceful occupation' to Danes & Norwegians: locals will keep their own governments, but lose control over foreign policy, and must quarter troops in their homes (they will be paid in Reichsmarks).

Norway's King Haakon & government- who have fled advancing Wehrmacht forces to the town of Elverum- have rejected German demands for surrender.