Norway in World War II

During World War I, Norway remained neutral . After 1933, the development of Norway depended on three factors:

• tough financial policies helped by conservative parties;
• the pacifism is fostered by the Norwegian Labor Party , which has been in power since 1933;
• the doctrine of neutrality, based on the assumption that there will be no need for Norway to participate in the war if it remains neutral.

In the late 1930s, the Storting increased its military budget , despite an increase in public debt. As it turned out later, most of the plans included in the budget were not implemented on time.

Despite the fact that the principle of neutrality remained valid until the German invasion, everyone knew that the Norwegian government, first of all, did not want to be at war with Great Britain . By the fall of 1939, it was widely believed that Norway was not only ready to defend its neutrality , but also to fight for its “freedom and independence”. Efforts to increase combat readiness intensified between September 1939 and April 1940 .

The invasion of Norway took place on the night of April 8-9, 1940 . Germany invaded Norway under the pretext that Norway needed protection from military aggression from Great Britain and France. Strategically, Germany through this operation solved the following problems:

• Gained access to the ice-free northern Norwegian ports for further access to the Arctic Ocean and the North Atlantic .
• Got access to Swedish iron ore , exported through Narvik .
• Ahead of the British and French invasion of Norway.
• Strengthened propaganda of the Third Reich.

In accordance with the Blitzkrieg doctrine, German air and naval forces attacked Norway as part of the Weserübung operation , which began on April 9, 1940 . With a foothold in Oslo and Trondheim, they launched a ground attack against the scattered internal resistance in Norway. The Norwegian army launched several counterattacks, but to no avail. Although the military resistance in Norway was not very successful, it had a significant political effect, which allowed the Norwegian government, including the Royal Family, to leave Norway and form a government in exile . This was mainly aided by the death of the German cruiser Blucher in Oslofjord Bay on the first day of the invasion, as well as a shootout between German and Norwegian forces near Midtskugen when the Norwegians successfully defended their king from capture.

Most and best of the Norwegian weapons was lost in the first 24 hours after the German invasion, which significantly reduced the effectiveness of the Norwegians. Military resistance in southern Norway ended on May 2 .

After the end of hostilities, in 1940 the Reich Commissariat of Norway was created, headed by Josef Terboven . To manage the economy of Norway, the headquarters of the war economy was created ^[1] .

German group in Norway

In the summer of 1940, 7 Wehrmacht infantry divisions were in Norway ^[2] .

As of June 22, 1941, parts of the German army “Norway” (three army corps) were located in Norway and northern Finland, 5 German destroyers, 6 submarines and a number of auxiliary vessels were in the ports of Norway, as well as former ships of the Norwegian transferred under German control fleet (3 destroyers, 2 mine-layers and 10 patrol ships) ^[3] .

As of April 1, 1942, in the territory of Norway there were 8 infantry and 1 tank division of the Wehrmacht ^[4] , as well as aircraft of the 5th Luftwaffe air fleet; the ports included the battleship Tirpitz , the heavy cruisers Lutzov and Hipper, the light cruiser Cologne, two flotilla of destroyers, 20 submarines, and escort and auxiliary vessels ^[5] . Later, from the beginning of August until the middle of November 1942, two divisions were transferred from Norway to the USSR ^[6] .

At the beginning of November 1943, the total number of German troops in Norway was 380 thousand people ^[7] . In December 1943, the German battleships Scharnhorst and Tirpitz, 14 destroyers and destroyers, 2 mine loaders, over 50 patrol ships and minesweepers, up to 20 submarines, a flotilla of torpedo boats, as well as auxiliary vessels, small patrol and patrol boats; more than 200 aircraft were based at airfields ^[8] .

As of early 1944, there were 13 German divisions in Norway ^[9] . In mid-February 1944, one infantry division was sent to the eastern front ^[10] .

The number of SS troops in Norway under the command of William Radiss was about 6 thousand people .

Resistance Movement in Norway

The vast majority of Norwegians opposed the occupation. Resistance was largely supported by the exile government in London , which regularly distributed underground press in Norwegian and coordinated sabotage raids against the Nazi invaders.

Resistance took various forms. Some Norwegians took part in armed resistance, others supported them, many Norwegians committed acts of civil disobedience . Over time, armed resistance was organized, mainly under a single command. A distinction was made between rear operations ( Norwegian Hjemmefronten ) and external operations ( Norwegian Utefronten ). The Norwegian fleet and Norwegian forces were part of the armed forces of Great Britain. The unity of the command structure played an important role in the orderly transfer of power in May 1945.

On August 10, 1940, the Communist Party of Norway called for an intensification of the struggle against the German occupiers. In the fall of 1940, anti-Nazi demonstrations were held in Bergen, Trondheim and Sarmsborg. ^[11]

On September 10, 1941, a strike took place in Oslo, in which 25 thousand workers participated. German troops dispersed the strikers, dozens of workers were arrested, and two trade union activists (V. Hansteen and R. Wickström) were shot ^[12] .

In mid-November 1941, a student strike took place in Oslo ^[12]

In February 1943, in Wemork, a group of Norwegians trained by the British special services blew up a workshop of the Norsk Hydro enterprise for the production of heavy water .

In April 1943, Norwegian underground detonated a German ship ^[13]

On March 15, 1945, one of the largest actions of the Norwegian Resistance movement took place - the only railway connecting southern Norway with the northern part of the country was blown up in more than 1000 places ^[14] .

Norwegian collaboration in World War II

Relatively few Norwegians were explicit collaborators. It was estimated that about 10% of Norwegians supported the Nazi occupation, although this estimate is uncertain and takes into account the different types of support during the occupation .

The party " National Unity " collaborated with the Germans, which included government officials and representatives of the business community.

Representatives of business circles, business owners actively cooperated with Germany (in particular, they carried out German orders, including orders from the German occupation administration and orders for the German army and military industry);

• as of April 1, 1941, 275 enterprises in Norway were fulfilling orders of the Wehrmacht with a total value of 59,005 marks ^[15]
• As of January 1, 1942, 263 enterprises in Norway were fulfilling Wehrmacht orders with a total value of 55,740 thousand marks ^[16]

A number of intellectuals, including journalists and publishers of publications in Norway, participated in Nazi propaganda. Knut Gamsun is considered the most prominent collaborator from the Norwegian intelligentsia.

During the occupation in Norway, the Norwegian police continued to operate, whose employees complied with the orders of the German occupation administration (participated in the search and arrest of anti-fascists, members of the Resistance movement, Jews, etc.), although some policemen collaborated with anti-German forces.

In June 1941, recruitment centers were opened in Norway and the recruitment of Norwegian volunteers began to be sent to the Eastern Front ; on August 1, 1941, the volunteer SS Legion Norway was created. In 1942, the Norwegian Legion was sent to the Leningrad Front .

In February 1942, with the permission of the German occupation administration, the "National Government" was created, headed by Vidkun Quisling .

In August 1943, the Quisling government declared war on the USSR and in January 1944, it began mobilizing 70,000 Norwegians in military units that were to participate in hostilities on the Eastern Front. The mobilization was disrupted, as of May 19, 1944, 300 people arrived at the mobilization points ^[17] . In total, about 15 thousand people were mobilized during the war in Norway, of which 6 thousand were sent to the Soviet-German front.

During the five years of occupation, several thousand Norwegian women gave birth to children from German soldiers as part of a special German program. These mothers were ostracized and humiliated after the war, they were given insulting nicknames, for example, “German whores” ( Nor. Tyskertøser ). Children from these unions were called "offspring of the Germans" ( Norwegian tyskerunger ) or "Nazi caviar" ( Norwegian naziyngel ). 14,000 Norwegian women were arrested in Norway on suspicion of collaboration and collaboration with the enemy; 5 thousand of them were placed in labor camps for a year and a half without trial and investigation, their children were taken away and placed in shelters ^{[18] [19]} . Women had their heads shaved, beaten and raped ^{[18] [20]} . In an interview with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter , one of the "German offspring" said that during his stay in an orphanage in Bergen , such children were forced to march around the city, while the townspeople could spit and beat them ^[18] . The discussion about the rehabilitation of such children began with appearances on television in 1981 , but only recently the descendants of these unions began to feel quite free.

After the war, the most active collaborators were held accountable - a total of 28,750 people were arrested ^[21] , while most of them were released from custody after a short time (as of July 15, 1945, 14 thousand people remained in custody ^[22] ), 45 were sentenced to death for treason and war crimes (in fact, only 37–25 Norwegians and 12 Germans were executed), another 77 Norwegians and 18 Germans were sentenced to life imprisonment .

See also the article “ Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation ”

During the last two years of the war, the Norwegian government in exile has obtained permission and cooperation from Sweden to create military units in Sweden (the so-called "police forces") recruited from Norwegian refugees. The term " police " is conditional due to the fact that in fact they were purely military units. Their total number was 12,000 people.

Some parts of this "police" were engaged in the liberation of Finnmark in the winter of 1944-1945. The rest participated in the liberation of the rest of Norway after the surrender of Germany in May 1945.

In the fall of 1944, after decisive military operations of the Soviet Army in Karelia and the signing of an armistice agreement with Finland, favorable conditions were created to completely expel the enemy troops from the Arctic and liberate Northern Norway.

After the war ended, Soviet troops were withdrawn from Northern Norway in September 1945 ^[23] .

• A.M. Noskov. Norway in the second world war, 1940-1945. M. , 1973.