Greetings, friends! Norwegians here?

Stud Baker · Post by **Stud Baker** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 9:12 am

Hi, all!
I am a man from Norway.
I have a great passion for the beautiful German warships from WW2. Tirpitz, Bismarck, Scharnhorst... Pure art, I believe, although they had their flaws...
I have just attended this forum and looking forward to discuss these ships and topics related to them.
As I said, I live in Norway. In Tromsø, quite near the place where Tirpitz sank.
This, and the prescence og german ships and soldiers in this aera, makes my interest and fascination high.
Any norwegians here? Noen nordmenn her?
Feel free to take contact!

Terje Langoy · Post by **Terje Langoy** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 3:03 pm

Hello

My avatar, name and location should confirm your request. With an interest for the Kriegsmarine, I'd say you have definitely come to the right place. Especially regarding the Bismarck but also warships in general regardless of class or home ports.

Best regards

RF · Post by RF » Wed Aug 29, 2007 1:00 pm

Given the atitudes of Norwegians who experienced the German occupation, would I be right in thinking that interest in WW2 German warships in Norway is a fairly recent development?

Terje Langoy · Post by **Terje Langoy** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 2:00 pm

My first thought was no. This because the ships of the Kriegsmarine most likely didn't interfere with the civilian life in the same manner as the common soldier. I like to assume that any norwegian who saw the Bismarck in Bergen found her to be an awesome sight. Not alarming, just very big. That would definitely have been my first thought! But then again, with the Tirpitz it became a little different because of the concentration of forces due to her presence. The search parties constantly on guard, looking for spies and hidden radios. Then the ship would directly affect the lives of the citizens around her anchorage. It is a personal question you ask, RF, and I fear that the answer would be very individual. Hard to tell indeed.

Best regards

Stud Baker · Post by **Stud Baker** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 3:39 pm

RF wrote:Given the atitudes of Norwegians who experienced the German occupation, would I be right in thinking that interest in WW2 German warships in Norway is a fairly recent development?

I believe the Norwegians experienced the occupants different from place to place.

Gerard Heimann · Post by **Gerard Heimann** » Wed Aug 29, 2007 8:35 pm

An interesting question. Regarding Tirpitz, did the RAF's constant bombing cause many civilian casualites and if so, I gather that Tirpitz' presence would be have been very unwelcome. Nevertheless, from various threads, I get the impression that its past presence is remembered with great interest and not negatively.

Gerard

RF · Post by RF » Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:04 pm

Terje, don't forget the ''Shetland bus'' which involved the Norwegian resistence directly against the Kriegsmarine. The KM presence in Norway directly affected the population in the coastal areas, the sailors were part of the occupation forces, on the same side as the SS, Gestapo etc. although admittedly not directly implicated in war crimes themselves.

Terje Langoy · Post by **Terje Langoy** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:12 pm

Of course, RF. I remember the actions of Shetlands-Larsen, Kompani Linge, HnoMS Hitra, Hessa and Vigra, the resistance group Milorg and the undeground radio group Theta. Books are a fine way of learning about the Germans in Norway although nothing beats talking with those who actually were there. There is however one episode that came to mind when I read your post. It was one of the largest "local" tragedies during the war and it took place just outside Bergen, in a place called Telavaag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telav%C3%A5g

Post by **José M. Rico** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:59 pm

I didn't know anything about Telavåg tragedy.
However, am I wrong if I say that life under German occupation was not as hard in Norway as in most other European countries except for Denmark that enjoyed a certain level of autonomy?

RF · Post by RF » Tue Sep 11, 2007 12:48 pm

My impression was that Norway suffered one of the longest and most rigid of the German occupations of western European countries in WW2.

The occupation lasted a full five years, with for the Germans the problem of the exposed coastline facing Britain. It was Hitler who insisted on keeping some 300,000 troops in Norway against possible invasion; the Germans were also fighting the Russians at the top end of Norway in a futile attempt to take Murmansk.

The German Reichscommissioner Terboven was indicted for war crimes after WW2 and hanged and I believe a substantial number of other war crimes trials also took place.

As I say it is an impression, and an impression only as I wasn't there at the time.

Terje Langoy · Post by **Terje Langoy** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 4:37 pm

I believe many civilians during the war simply tried to carry on as usual. (to whatever degree usual would be) They were not active combatants but still patriotic and would offer shelter to resistance agents if required. Most probably the norwegian resistance agents and SOE seeked to avoid this after seeing the extreme German response as showed with Telavaag. During the sabotage at Vemork, the agents took refuge in desolate mountain cabins instead of hiding amonst the civilians. Besides, not only did their presence endanger the civilians, they would also run the risk of being compromised by German collaborators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_ ... r_sabotage

But you would be right by assuming that Norway had a more "peaceful" experience of the occupying forces than many other countries. In fact, I think all the western nations were far better off than the eastern ones. France was, unlike Norway, a glowing hot battlefront and naturally suffered a lot from that. But it is my firm opinion that the slavic countries east of Germany were the ones to really suffer from the wacky Hitler-ideology.

The fury of the Norwegians after the war were not (to begin with at least) directed towards the Germans. The first ones to take the heat were the collaborators. The expression "Quisling" speak for itself. Another name would be Henry Rinnan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Oliver_Rinnan

Unfortunately, one of the groups that also took much of the"heat" were the Lebensborn. They were not well-treated despite the fact that they couldn't be held responsible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_children

RF, there's a recently published book in norwegian, "Operation Westküste" which have been climbing my books-to-buy-list for a while now. It deals with the many smaller events along the coast and when I've finally acquired this, then we can start talking about the significance of the Kriegsmarine presence in our fjords.