Per Askim

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Per Askim (born February 24, 1881 in Moss , † March 8, 1963 in Oslo ) was a Norwegian naval officer . He was in command of the coastal defense ship Norge , which was torpedoed and sunk by German invaders on April 9, 1940 in the port of Narvik . He was the only Norwegian member of the military commission that accepted the German surrender in Norway in May 1945.

Pre-war period

Per Askim was the son of Carl Askim (1843-1922) and his wife Alette Henrikke Kristiansen (1846-1909). In 1906 he married the telegraph operator Anna Marie Hanssen (1881–1935). After her death he married her sister Signe Hanssen (1894–?) In 1937.

After finishing school, Askim entered the Norwegian Navy and was appointed second lieutenant after successfully completing the Naval Academy in 1901 . He was promoted to prime lieutenant in 1904. In 1905 he became the commander of a torpedo boat . From 1905 to 1907 he served in the naval department of the Ministry of Defense, and from 1907 to 1911 he headed the seaman's school in Larvik . In this position he was promoted to captain lieutenant ( kaptein ) in 1910 . From 1911 to 1919, Askim was an inspection officer and teacher at the Naval Academy. He then moved to the admiralty staff, where he served until 1930. In 1925, 1927 and 1928 he was the flag adjutant of the maneuver squadron. 1928–1930 Askim was a member of the International Committee for Signaling at Sea, and in 1934 he was a member of the International Committee for Marking the Coasts, both in London . He also took part in the Radio Beacon Congress in Stockholm in 1933 and took part in work on international labor standards in maritime transport. During these years he wrote several books on maritime affairs. In 1934 he was promoted to frigate captain ( kommandørkaptein ).

In the autumn of the same year he switched from the Navy to the Coastal Administration Service, where he was head of the beacon and radio beacon department.

Second World War

German occupation of Norway

When the Second World War broke out , Askim returned to the Navy and on September 19, 1939, he became the commander of the coastal armored ships and the commandant of the old Norge . In December 1939, he was appointed commander of the Ofoten appointed in Northern Norway Department, which in addition to the two ironclads Norge and Eidsvold nor the submarines submarines B1 and B3 with the mother ship Lyngen and the patrol boats Michael Sars , Senja and Kelt belonged. From April 4, 1940, Frigate Captain Askim was also acting commander of the 3rd Maritime Defense District in Northern Norway.

The coastal armored ship Norge in 1910

During the German attack on Norway on April 9, 1940, Askim was responsible, among other things, for the defense of Narvik , where he was at that time with the two ironclad ships. When Norwegian merchant ships noticed and reported the ten destroyers of the German Navy under Commodore Friedrich Bonte as they entered the Ofotfjord in the early morning of April 9 , Askim had both ships cleared for battle, albeit with an incomplete crew, as some were on shore leave. The Eidsvold drove a little out into the fjord , sighted the leading destroyer, the Wilhelm Heidkamp , Bonte's flagship, at around 04:15 , and ordered it to stop. After negotiations could not persuade the captain of the Eidsvold , Frigate Captain Odd Isachsen Willoch , to surrender without a fight, the Wilhelm Heidkamp shot a torpedo fan at the Norwegian ship and sank it within seconds. Willoch had informed Askim of his intention to take up the fight, and the Eidsvold's explosion could be heard on the Norge . Shortly afterwards, the first two German destroyers appeared in the port of Narvik about 800 meters away, in fog and blowing snow. Askim gave orders to open fire on the Bernd von Arnim with his 21 cm and 15 cm guns . The first volley was short, the second too long, and none of the eleven or twelve shells fired hit.

The Bernd von Arnim first went to the harbor pier to land her mountain troops before she returned fire with her 12.7 cm guns. The second destroyer, the Georg Thiele , also shot at the coastal armored ship. The poor visibility, which had already hindered the Norwegians, also made it difficult for the Germans to score. The Bernd von Arnim then shot a total of three torpedo double subjects. The first two missed, but the third hit the Norge amidships. The ship sank in just a minute. 90 men of the crew could be rescued, while 101 men were killed. Askim himself floated in the water for an hour and a half before he could be retrieved and taken to a hospital in Narvik.

1940-1945

Askim soon succeeded in crossing to England. On July 3, 1940, after the end of open fighting in Northern Norway, he was promoted to sea captain ( kommandør ) and shortly afterwards seconded to the Norwegian embassy in the United States as a naval attaché . In 1943 he was transferred to London, where he was head of the planning group at the High Command of the Norwegian Armed Forces ( Forsvarets Overkommando ) and dealt with the preparations for the liberation of Norway and the reconstruction of the Norwegian armed forces. In the autumn of 1944 he drove with the first British convoy to Murmansk to find out about the future supply of expedition troops in Finnmark about the situation in northern Russia and northern Norway.

When the German Wehrmacht surrendered in Norway at midnight from May 8th to 9th 1945, Askim, meanwhile promoted to Commodore , was the only Norwegian member of the military commission who was sent from Scotland to the Allied surrender conditions to the Wehrmacht commander in Norway, General Franz Böhme to surrender in Lillehammer and accept the surrender.

Post-war years

From May to December 1945, when he reached the age limit, Askim was Commander-in-Chief of the Norwegian Naval Command East. Then he switched back to the Coastal Administration, where he worked until his retirement in 1952. From 1946 to 1949 he was also a member of the military commission of inquiry, which investigated the circumstances and causes of the defeat of 1940.

On April 12, 1953, Askim unveiled a memorial in Narvik for the 282 sailors who died on April 9, 1940 on the ironclad Norge and Eidsvold .

Works

  • Lærebok i Sjømandskap, is in charge of public foranstaltning to the bridge in Sjøkrigsskolens next avdeling. H. Aschehoug, Kristiania (Oslo), 1916-1917
  • Beretning om Den norske sjøkrigsskoles virksomhet 1817–1917. This publication is published in the festskrift i anledning av sjøkrigsskolens 100 aars-jubileum October 27, 1917, Kristiania (Oslo), 1917
  • Oslo Skoleskib. 50 årsjubileum 1931. Oslo skoleskibinstitusjon, Oslo, 1931
  • Norsk-engelsk maritim-teknisk ordbok. 1936
  • Det tyske angrep på Narvik. Commandor Askims beretning. Grøndahl, Oslo, 1947
  • Engelsk-norsk maritim-teknisk ordbok. Grøndahl, Oslo, 1953

Honors

For his service on April 9, 1940, Askim was decorated on December 18, 1942 with the highest Norwegian award , the war cross with sword . He was also awarded the “Defense Medal 1940-1945” ( Deltagermedaljen ) and the “Haakon VII. 70-Years Medal” ( Haakon VIIs 70-årsmedalje ).

Among his foreign honors were:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ According to Peter Brooke: Warships for Export: Armstrong Warships 1867-1927. World Ship Society, Gravesend (1999), ISBN 0-905617-89-4 , p. 210, the Norge fired a total of 17 rounds.
personal data
SURNAME Askim, Per
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Norwegian naval officer and naval writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Moss , Norway
DATE OF DEATH March 8, 1963
Place of death Oslo