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Besides bringing out safely the royal family and the government, Norway also succeeded in bringing out our gold reserves from the Bank of Norway. The income from the Norwegian merchant fleet was considerable, all in all giving the Norwegian exile government in London an economic independency and the ability to finance the considerable expenditure of the Norwegian military effort outside Norway during WWII. Norwegian volunteers by the thousands, whalers from the Antarctic, seal hunters from Greenland, miners from Svalbard and escapees from Norway were organised in the Norwegian Brigade in Scotland and contributed in various locations: training British troops in winter warfare on Iceland, defending a meteorological station on the Arctic island of Jan Mayen, defending Svalbard in the Arctic and South Georgia in the Antarctic. The Company Linge commandos served as an important link between the Norwegian Army HQ in London and the clandestine MilOrg forces in Norway. In the winter of 1944/45 this unit also took part in the conquering of the island of Walcheren near the mouth of the Dutch river Schelde where ten thousand German troops were captured. |
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His Majesty King Haakon was interested in everything concerning the armed forces. During an inspection, he is personally testing a "Stengun" (left), the British machine gun which played an important role in the armament of British and Norwegian troops.At right with Norwegian commandos of "Company Linge" who demonstrates railway sabotage, the German guard already "taken care of". |
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1,024 Norwegian merchant ships (the worlds fourth largest fleet) were ploughing the deep blue on April 9th,1940. From that day on 20,000 Norwegian seamen were sailing for the freedom of mankind. This represented the largest and most important Norwegian contribution to the Allied war effort outside our homeland. Our friend to the left represent the well known type who makes life on board more bearable, in war as well as in peace. Here he is, admiring landings in Normandy with apparent satisfaction. |
| The 7,000 km long convoy route from
the US across the North Atlantic and Barents Sea to Murmansk , Russia was
haunted by German subs. Besides weapons, oil was an important cargo: at
times half of the oil needed by Britain was carried on Norwegian ships.
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 The convoy is under attack and the off duty crew takes a nap on the cabin stairs so they quickly can jump ship in case of a hit. The guy at right seems intent on saving the ship's dog. Before the enemy gave up, 47% of the Norwegian merchant fleet was lost during the war; 3,734 seamen found a wet and unknown grave. |
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The Norwegian Navy brought only two hunters, one outdated sub and some minor boats with them to England after the battle of Norway in 1940. Thanks to merchant marine income, our Navy had by 1944 acquired several modern hunters, subs, corvettes, miners, sweepers and sub hunters. Our Navy assisted the British and American Navy in the Battle of the Atlantic, played a major role in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst in 1943, and took part in naval operation during the invasion of France in 1944. The motor torpedoboats stationed on the Shetland Isles took part in many operations against German navy and German-controlled traffic along the Norwegian coast. The small fast MTBs could often quickly sneak in among the island of Norway and hide in camouflage under a rocky wall while local fishermen passed by without seeing them. Then they might get a chance and the boat would race into position. "Torpedo fire!" - and a German troop transport would go down as the torpedo boat raced back to Shetland in a hail of bullets from German coast guards and batteries! |
While their father, Crown Prince Olav stayed in London with King Haakon during the war, the rest of the family stayed safely in the US. |
Crown Princess Märtha (right) with her three children, Princess Ragnhild, Princess Astrid and Prince Harald (our present king) at the dedication of the ship's bell from a Norwegian tanker who shipped 200,000 tons of gasoline from the US to England, in recognition of how lieutenant colonel Ole Reistad (centre), founder of Little Norway (the training school for Norwegian pilots in Toronto, Canada, 1941-45) helped to make good use of the gasoline. |
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Secret groups were either parachuted or sent to
Norway by fishing boats or by fast "sub-hunters". "Shetlands- Larsen",
a famous Norwegian fisherman operated a clandestine route that was nicknamed
"The Shetland Bus". |
One of about 250 Secret Service agents: Hans B. Clifton (above) was a salesman and radio repairman in Oslo before the war. He escaped via Sweden to England in 1941, was trained as a paratrooper and Secret Service agent and dropped with clandestine shortwave radio equipment near Tønsberg in 1943 where he maintained close observation of German naval operations in the Oslo Fjord. |
Kirk Douglas starred in the movie "Heroes of Telemark" commemorating this piece of action: The heavy water production facility of Hydro at Vemork in Rjukandalen, Telemark was vital to the Germans' attempt to produce an atomic bomb and became the objective of a select group of 6 commandos (second lieutenants Joakim Rønneberg CO, Knut Haukelid, Kaspar Idland, sergeants Hans Storhaug, Birger Strømsheim and Fredrik Kayser) from Company Linge who were dropped on Hardangervidda - the mountain plateau above the factory in February 1943 with orders to destroy the factory. Aided by an advance party headed by second lieutenant Jens Anton Poulsen, sergeant Arne Kjelstrup, radio operator Knut Haugland and sergeant Claus Helberg and a 9-man demolition group, the commandos managed to get four men inside the heavily guarded 'eagles nest'-like mountainside target, placed their high explosives with a 30-second fuse, and got out to watch the factory go up in smoke. 5 months later an American air bombing attack again stopped production and one year later Knut Haukelid assisted by two locals Rjukan-boys, Lier-Hansen and Sørlie, blew up the ferry transporting the only heavy water ever made before it could be sent to Germany. |
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Several Norwegian freighters brought supplies to the Normandy beaches on D-day June 4th, 1944. Many more joined in the following days and to overcome the problem of missing harbours, many captains grounded their ship on the beach to facilitate fast unloading like M/S "Vestmanrød" shown here on the French coast June 7th, 1944. |
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 The Norwegian 2 hunter squadrons were based outside London and took part in the city's air defence and following the Normandy landings were stationed in Northern France and later Belgium. Here they are visited by an important guest: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme commander Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe 1944. The pilot above has marked off 5 German "downs". |
| Crown Prince Olav visiting the Norwegian fighter squadron in Belgium, here inspecting a Spitfire that has "crossed paths with" German antiaircraft artillery fire. |  |
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May 8th, 1945 a representative of MilOrg accepts the surrender of Akershus Fortress in Oslo from the Germans, the day after Germany signed the unconditional surrender ending WWII in Europe.
The aftermath ... 30 Norwegian and German war criminals received death penalties in the ensuing court cases, 25 death penalties were carried out; among those shot were Norwegian Nazi leader Quisling. A total of 46,000 Nazis in Norway were convicted, 18,000 to prison, 28,000 to fines. |
The war had cost 10,262 Norwegian lives, of those were 883 women. The greatest loss were among seamen. The resistance had suffered 2091 dead, of those 226 women. The Germans had executed 366, 162 had fallen in fire fights with the Germans in Norway during the occupation. 130 Norwegians lost their lives in Norwegian prisons and concentration camps, of those 39 were tortured to death and 43 took their own lives - mostly to avoid further torture. 1,340 died in prisons and concentration camps in Germany, victims of starvation and illnesses, mistreatment and executions. In addition several died shortly after the liberation, too worn out to live longer. 93 died trying to escape to England, besides which 1,779 civilians lost their lives. Of the Nazis who volunteered in German uniform, 689 died. Apart from these numbers 65 dangerous informers were shot by saboteurs or other members of the resistance. |
| I - Invasion of Norway | II - The Home Front | III - Norwegian Allies |