Posted on 04/09/2007 1:25:58 AM PDT by Dacb
During World War II, Nazi Germany invades neutral Norway, surprising the Norwegian and British defenders of the country and capturing several strategic points along the Norwegian coast.
During the invasion's preliminary phase, Norwegian fascists under Vidkun Quisling acted as a so-called fifth column for the German invaders, seizing Norway's nerve centers, spreading false rumors, and occupying military bases and other locations. In June, Norway fell to the Nazis.
Quisling was made head of a puppet government, but was vigorously opposed by the Norwegian resistance, the most effective resistance movement in all of Nazi-occupied Europe.
After the German surrender in May 1945, he was arrested, convicted of high treason, and shot. From his name comes the word quisling, meaning traitor in several languages.
Thanks for the memory jogger Dacb.
The destroyers, moving closer to Narvik, were spotted by Norwegian vessels, which promptly reported the sighting and alerted the old armored coastal defence ships HNoMS Eidsvold and HNoMS Norge. Both Norwegian ships prepared for combat: the guns were loaded and life preservers issued to the crew. Around 04:15am, the Germans spotted Eidsvold, and Eidsvold immediately signalled the leading German destroyer with an aldis lamp. When the Germans failed to respond to the signal, a warning shot was fired across their bow while the Eidsvold flew a two flag signal, ordering the destroyer to halt.
The Germans had orders to occupy Norway peacefully if at all possible, so the German flagship Wilhelm Heidkamp stopped and signalled that it would send an officer to negotiate. From a distance of about 200 meters, a small launch ferried Korvettenkapitän (lieutenant commander) Gerlach over to Eidsvold. Gerlach and a signalman were taken to the bridge to speak to Captain Willoch. At the same time, the gun crews of both the 21 cm guns and the 15 cm guns aboard Eidsvold kept the German destroyer in their sights, at point-blank range.
Gerlach tried to convince Willoch that the Germans had arrived as friends and that Willoch should surrender peacefully. Willoch pointed out that he was bound by duty to resist, but asked for a ten-minute break to consider the matter. He used this time to contact his superiors, including the captain of Norge, further inside the fjord, informing them of his intent to engage the German forces. In the meantime, a second German destroyer crossed behind Eidsvold and took up a position 700 meters from the vessel, ready to fire her torpedoes.
Gerlach tried once again to convince Willoch to surrender, but Willoch refused. As Gerlach left Eidsvold, he fired a red flare, indicating that the Norwegians intended to fight. At this point, Captain Willoch shouted: “På plass ved kanonene. Nå skal vi slåss, gutter!” (”Man the guns. We’re going to fight, boys!”). Eidsvold turned towards the closest destroyer and accelerated, while the battery commander ordered the port battery (three 15 cm guns) to open fire.
The Germans, afraid that Eidsvold might ram the destroyer, fired two or four torpedoes from Wilhelm Heidkamp at the old ship. Two or three of the torpedoes hit before the port guns could fire, according to Norwegian sources: one under the rear turret, one midship and one in the bow. It is likely that the torpedoes ignited one of the magazines aboard, because Eidsvold was blown in two and sank in seconds around 04:37am, propellers still turning. Only six of the crew were rescued by the Germans, 175 died in the freezing water.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Narvik
It’s better to be prepared.
The pacifist government did not mobilize even after German soliders were rescued on April 8th from a ship that the British sunk.
Individual military commanders were Norway’s heroes that day and they fought back with what little they had, killing a lot of Germans but losing in the end.
The sinking of the German cruiser... Blucher was one of the bright spots. Probably the last fort/ship battle in history.
Indeed it was.
Thank you for posting this, I believe we should use methods of back then now in our war against terrorism as this “bomb through the window” war has about as much effect as using a laser against ants.
Remember Dresden, remember the “Black Rain” of Tokyo, the “Dambusters” and other attacks of a mass scale. Our war methodology isn’t working very well with just JDAMS, we need to use methods that create fear, panic and negate the will to fight.
Frying one ant at a time with a magnifying glass may be fun but takes to long to rout the nest, you need to either gas it, flood it or burn it. And thats my armchair General advice of the day.
"British defenders" is a little disingenuous. The only reason the invasion of Norway was a German operation is because the Brits were slow off the mark.
Britain, too, was preparing to seize control of Norway so that it could more effectively blockade Germany, and it was with these partially mustered invasion forces that Britain 'defended' Norway.
Also on this day in history, the subject of my tag line was captured and likely murdered by the islamist swine.
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