the bicycle-mounted german infantry seized control of the town's railway station, post office, police station and telegraph building. the undersea cable to the united kingdom, which unbeknownst to the germans had been inoperable for more than three months, was severed. as they took control of the town without encountering any opposition, the germans also seized a cache of rifles which had been used by the norwegian authorities to provide military training to civilian volunteers in the months prior to the invasion. before the germans reached the norwegian army's air raid station and the royal norwegian navy's group centre in arendal, the administrative officers there had made their way out of the town.