Evacuating Namsos under air attack and gunfire

The Royal Navy evacuated about 5,400 members of Mauriceforce from Namsos after fog delayed the operation. Carton de Wiart had thought removing the entire force in one night impossible, but the ships got his troops away and were intended to carry them toward Narvik. The covering force paid for that speed with the losses of HMS Afridi and the French destroyer Bison. Elsewhere in the fjords, destroyers acted as the artillery and perimeter fire the troops lacked, regularly engaging German guns. The sinking of the Polish destroyer ORP Grom under air attack illustrates the danger of holding a stationary firing position in an air-threatened coastal theatre.