| Norwegian resistance | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofEuropean theatre of World War II | |||||||
.jpg) Soviets meet Norwegians sheltering in a mine inFinnmark | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Norway Norwegian resistance groups United Kingdom United States (from 1941) Soviet Union (from 1944) PolandTraining and Material Support:  Sweden | |||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Haakon VIIWinston Churchill | Vidkun Quisling Josef TerbovenFranz Böhme | ||||||
| Righteous Among the Nations |
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| By country |
TheNorwegian resistance (Norwegian:Motstandsbevegelsen) to theoccupation of Norway byNazi Germany began afterOperation Weserübung in 1940 and ended in 1945. It took several forms:
The Norwegian government of Prime MinisterJohan Nygaardsvold, with the exception of foreign ministerHalvdan Koht and minister of defenceBirger Ljungberg, was largely caught by surprise when it became apparent in the early hours of 9 April 1940 thatNazi Germany had launched an invasion of Norway. Although some of the country's gold reserve had already been removed from Oslo, there were few contingency plans for such an invasion.
The Norwegian government was unprepared and unwilling to capitulate to the ultimatum timed to coincide with the arrival of German troops and delivered byCurt Bräuer, the German representative in Oslo. The German demand that Norway accept the "protection of the Reich" was rebuffed by Koht and the Norwegian government before dawn had broken on the morning of invasion. "Vi gir oss ikke frivillig, kampen er allerede i gang", replied Koht. "We will not submit voluntarily; the fight is already underway."[citation needed]
Anticipating German efforts to capture the government, the entire Norwegian parliament (theStorting), theroyal family, and cabinet hastily evacuated Oslo by train and car toHamar and then on toElverum, where an extraordinary session of parliament was called. In large part because of the presence of mind of the parliament's presidentC. J. Hambro, theStorting managed to pass an emergency measure (known as theElverum Authorization) that gave full authority to the king and his cabinet until the Storting could convene again.
This gaveKing Haakon VII and the cabinet constitutional authority to reject the German emissary's ultimatum to accept the German invasion. Although there were several German attempts to capture or kill the King and the Norwegian government, they managed to evade these attempts and travelled through Norway's remote interior until leaving the country forLondon on the Britishheavy cruiserHMS Devonshire on 7 June.[1]
Reserving the constitutional legitimacy of the Norwegian government also underminedVidkun Quisling's attempts at claiming the Norwegian government for himself. After Quisling had proclaimed his assumption of the government, several individuals on the Supreme Court took the initiative to establish an Administrative Council (Administrasjonsrådet) in an effort to stop him. This became a controversial initiative, in that the legitimate Norwegian government refused to give the council any legal backing, and the German authorities ended up disbanding it.
Although some politicians across the political spectrum had advocated strengthening the country's defence capabilities, a longstanding policy ofdisarmament followingWorld War I had left the Norwegian military underfunded and undertrained by the late 1930s. As a result, forces in Southern Norway were largely unprepared for theGerman invasion, and the invading German army met little initial resistance.
There was also spirited defence seen at other locations, includingMidtskogen,Hegra andNarvik but these were largely the result of improvised missions by isolated military units and irregular volunteers. The battles slowed the German advance by several days, allowing the Norwegian government to evade capture and conduct critical constitutional business.[2]
The British and French began landing on Norwegian soil within a week of the German invasion.[3]
Several Norwegian military units that had mobilised as a precautionary measure inNorthern Norway during theWinter War, in cooperation with Polish, French and British forces, launched several counterattacks with moderate success. Allied forces had several successes in Northern Norway, but were redirected for the futiledefense of France. While Northern Norway ultimately fell, efforts there allowed the Norwegian government, including theNorwegian royal family, to escape and maintain the legitimate government in exile, as part of the Allies.[4]
While on station inLondon, the government contributed to Norwegian forces with the Allied effort and ordered the Norwegian Merchant Fleet to assist in troop transportation. To expedite this ships operated under theNortraship organisation, which at that time was the world's largest shipping company. It created apprehension among the Nazi leadership that Allied forces might try to recapture Norway with the intention of denying German naval units access to theNorth Atlantic, tying up several hundred thousand troops that otherwise might have been deployed to other fronts.
Although Norway did not have any major battles beyond those of theNorwegian campaign, a number of military operations served to subvert the Nazi authorities and contribute to the larger war effort.Milorg started out as a small sabotage unit and ended up building a full military force in time for the liberation.Company Linge was a special operations unit that specialised in coastal insertions and combat. There wererepeated raids inLofoten,Måløy, and other coastal areas.
Norwegian spotters aided in the destruction of numerous Germanwarships, such as the battleshipsBismarck[citation needed] andTirpitz.[5][6] The Norwegian resistance also smuggled people in and out of Norway during the war, through Sweden or by fishing boats toShetland, nicknamed the "Shetland bus". A number of saboteurs, most notablyMax Manus andGunnar Sønsteby, destroyed ships and supplies. Perhaps its most famous achievements were aseries of operations to destroyNorsk Hydro'sheavy water plant and stockpile of heavy water atVemork, crippling theGerman nuclear programme.[4] The Germans attempted to stifle Resistance activities and executed several innocent Norwegian men, women, and children in retaliation after any Resistance act.[citation needed] Probably the worst act ofreprisal was the assault on the fishing village ofTelavåg in the spring of 1942.[7][8]
To assist with the sabotage campaign, the United States sentOSS forces, including future CIA directorWilliam Colby, into Norway to support resistance.[9] In the mid-1980s, it was revealed thatSweden aided the Norwegian resistance movement with training and equipment in a series of camps along the Norwegian border. To avoid suspicion, they were camouflaged aspolice training camps. By 1944, some 7,000–8,000 men had been secretly trained in Sweden.[10]
During theLiberation of Finnmark from 1944 to 1945, 1,442 police troops from Sweden would be flown in to assist the Soviets andFree Norwegian Forces.[citation needed] In addition to forces brought in from abroad, local troops were also recruited.[citation needed]
Intelligence gathering within occupied Norway was very much needed for the Allied forces, and several organizations were established for this, the largest and most efficient of which was calledXU. Established byArvid Storsveen, its members were students from theUniversity of Oslo. One interesting fact was that two of its four leaders were young women, among themAnne-Sofie Østvedt.
One of the leading sabotage organisations in Norway during most of World War II was the communistOsvald Group led byAsbjørn Sunde.[11]
During the war years, the resistance movement in occupied Norway had 1,433 members killed, of whom 255 were women.[12]
The first mass outbreak of civil disobedience occurred in the autumn of 1940, when students ofOslo University began to wearpaper clips on their lapels to demonstrate their resistance to the German occupiers and their Norwegian collaborators. A seemingly innocuous item, the paper clip was a symbol of solidarity and unity ("we are bound together"), implying resistance.[4] The wearing of paper clips, the popularH7 monogram and similar symbols (red garments,Bobble hats) was outlawed and could lead to arrest and punishment.
Of lesser military importance was the distribution ofillegal newspapers (often with news items culled fromAllied news broadcasts; possession of radios was illegal). The purpose of this was twofold: it counteractedNazi propaganda, and it maintained nationalistic, anti-German feelings in the population at large. It has been suggested that combating the illegal press expended German resources out of proportion to the illegal media's actual effects.
Finally, there was the attempt at maintaining an "ice front" against the German soldiers. This involved, among other things, never speaking to a German if it could be avoided (many pretended to speak noGerman, though it was then almost as prevalent asEnglish is now) and refusing to sit beside a German onpublic transport. The latter was so annoying to the occupying German authorities that it became illegal to stand on a bus if seats were available.
Nazi authorities (both German and Norwegian) attempted to pressure school teachers into supporting the regime and its propaganda. Wages were withheld, and on 20 March 1942, 1100 male teachers were arrested, of which 642 were sent to Arctic Norway doing forced labour.[13][14][15]
Towards the end of the war, the resistance became more open, with rudimentary military organizations set up in the forests around the larger cities. A number of Nazicollaborators and officials were killed, and those collaborating with the German or Quisling authorities wereostracized, both during and after the war.
TheNorwegian Resistance Museum, atAkershus Fortress,Oslo, gives a good account of the activities of the Norwegian resistance movement.
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