Norwegian Army in Exile

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Norwegian soldier in front of Little Norway , 1940

The Norwegian Army in Exile (Norwegian: Utefronten ) formed the armed forces of the Norwegian exiles after their country was occupied by the Wehrmacht in 1940.

history

After the Weser Exercise operation and the defeat of Norway on June 10, 1940, several hundred soldiers from the Norwegian Army , as well as 13 ships and five aircraft, left for Great Britain . There they formed the Norwegian Army in Exile, which from then on also had its own training camp in Little Norway on the Toronto Islands on Canadian territory. Numerous refugees also came to England via the " Shetland Bus " to join the troops there.

The infantrymen of the army in exile mainly served in Allied special forces . So they formed u. a. the Norwegian Independent Company No. 1 of the SOE and No. 5 Norwegian Troop of No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando. Norwegian pilots served mainly in No. 331 Squadron and No. 332 Squadron of the RAF , but also in other combat units. Norwegian ships and sailors took part in the Battle of the Atlantic , mainly serving on escort ships and mine clearers. You were also involved in D-Day . The Norwegian ship Svenner was sunk by the Germans. 650 exile soldiers lost their lives on the part of the naval forces alone.

The army in exile also included around 15,000 Norwegians who fled to Sweden in 1940 and were trained there as police militia on behalf of the Norwegian government in exile. In 1944/1945 these troops participated in the liberation of the Norwegian province of Finnmark , before they helped disarm the German troops after the war.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of 331 Squadron ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on raf.mod.uk @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.raf.mod.uk
  2. ↑ History of 332 Squadron ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on raf.mod.uk @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.raf.mod.uk
  3. ↑ The Navy  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on arkivverket.no@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.arkivverket.no  
  4. ↑ The task of the navy on landing on histoire.normandie-dday.com
  5. ↑ Anchor Norwegian Destoyer Svenner on tracesofwar.com
  6. ↑ Military forces in Sweden  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on arkivverket.no@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.arkivverket.no