Seventy four years ago today...

Quote:

From the Home Front Leadership
Our fight is crowned with victory
Norway is again free

Our minds are filled with joy, our hearts of gratitude toward those who fell in battle and towards all who were struggling to win the victory.

The enemy has now surrendered, and soon we will again fully be in control of our country. But remember: Capitulation is not the same as peace. The enemy still has weapons.

Let us in the midst of celebration preserve peace, dignity and discipline. Do not provoke the beaten enemy, and do not take the law into your own hands.

The duties of war are completed, the duties of peace await. They demand that we put everything in place to restore our democracy and rule of law.

The peace we have now won shall commit us as strongly as the war and the necessity tied our will to the fatherland's cause. Together we will rebuild the country as a better, happier home for everyone.

God bless our precious fatherland!

May 8th. Victory Europe Day, and the Norwegian Liberation day... when five years of occupation (more or less, depending on where in Norway you were) ended.

Some titbits from the liberation:
- On May 8th, Norwegian Resistance units quickly and peacefully took control of administrative centres, radio stations and transport hubs.
- The German forces were - with a few exception - were happy to give up, and were put in "house arrest" until POW-camps could be organised.
- On May 9th and 10th Norwegian "police troops"* trained in Sweden arrived in selected Norwegain cities to assist taking control over the large mass of German prisoners.
- The first allied forces started arriving by air on the 10th as well, including a fair number of intelligence specialists to take control of any advanced German military equipment.
- On May 14th enough of the government in exile had returned for the resistance to officially hand over the governing of the country back to the elected officials.
- On June 7th King Haakon VII returned to Norway, five years to the day after he went into exile rather than surrender.

Major Josef Nichterlain (centre) and his aide-deecamp hauptmann Hammel (right) surrenders Akershus Fortess - the location of main German military head quarter in Oslo - to 2. Lt Terje Rollem (left) of the Norwegian Resistance in accordance with the German instrument of surrender. Legend has it that Nichterlain felt disrespected and insulted by having to surrender to low ranking officer who were not in uniform, and didn't carry rank insignia.

*) To avoid breaking Swedish neutrality, the Swedes could not train Norwegian military personnel... however, they could train a "police reserve" to help preserve peace in Norway - and since there were "foreign elements" in Norway that might "resist the police", such a police force must be trained and equipped with the necessary equipment; i.e.: infantry small arms, anti-tank artillery, anti-aircraft artillery, mines, radios, etc... Had the war continued, there would even have been a unit of "police paratroopers" fully trained.

Happy Norwegian Liberation Day and Victory Europe Day Hans.  I am reminded of this comment:

Congratulations to all free Norwegians and may we ALL never forget the unmeasurable cost of freedom...

Thankful for a free Norway.

(05-08-2019, 02:16 AM)primotenore Wrote: Congratulations to all free Norwegians and may we ALL never forget the unmeasurable cost of freedom...

As the cliche goes; freedom isn't free....

(05-08-2019, 04:19 AM)Lipripper60 Wrote: Thankful for a free Norway.

Thankful for all free nations, everywhere.

What a great day for Norway!

I can't add anything more to what has already been said.

Both educational and thought provoking.  Thanks

I love my Norwegian and other scandi-noir TV thrillers.

Go Norway!

Happy Happy Joy Joy but never forget the suffering that was necessary to provide that happiness and joy.

Thank you for the reminder; it’s very easy to forget these important events. Because of your post I looked up the date of the liberation of the Netherlands, which was 5 May 1945. I shouldn’t have forgotten this date as my father fought in Holland and was involved in many battles culminating with the Battle of Groningen.

History in the making and still on our minds. Thanks for sharing

I grieve because of the many in the next gen' here in the USA who simply know twisted history and not what really happened and who the players were.  The even sader thing is that they were taught it and are in so called "higher" learning.

(05-08-2019, 02:34 PM)ShadowsDad Wrote: I grieve because of the many in the next gen' here in the USA who simply know twisted history and not what really happened and who the players were.  The even sader thing is that they were taught it and are in so called "higher" learning.

Brian - I agree with you. We try our best to teach our children and grandchildren the historical facts that are sanitized/overlooked in school nowadays. It seems that the farther ago an event was, the less attention it gets in public schools and the more it gets revised so as to be politically correct.

Completely agree with Brian as well ... We had yesterday bank holiday due to celebration of "Day of Victory" and schools were closed. I asked to my 10yo daughter if she knows why she wasn´t at school. She vaguely answered "due to end of war?". I asked her -  What did you learn about that at school? She answered - "Nothing".

I have much more understanding for US teens simply because no ruined and burned out whole villages (all men, women, old people killed and children sent to concentration camp) at teritory of US, but here in Europe ...?

So I started to explain her what happened and found, for her generation is WW II something like Columbus, Ming dynasty or even dinosaur ... Only deep history ...  Sad.

Norway has collaborated with the German's ...  it's a fact.

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

(05-09-2019, 12:41 AM)zennhorst Wrote: Norway has collaborated with the German's ...  it's a fact.

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

A few Norwegians collaborated, yes... just like a few Poles, Frenchmen, Belgians, Danes and so on collaborated with the Nazis during the occupation. It happened in all the occupied countries. Most of them had to face justice after the war (Norway brought capital punishment back just for those people).

The vast majority of the Norwegian people, as well as the legal government, the majority of the judicial system, teachers, priests and other people in positions of authority? Resisted and never collaborated.

Poles? Really? ... give an example!
Did you hear about Der Norske Legion or SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment „Norge"? 

Who collaborated and who didn't doesn't alter the fact that the world rose up, came together and defeated one of the greatest threats to freedom in our history. 

primotenore ... true

Human nature being what it is, in every country there were those who collaborated. But it makes no difference today, nazism was defeated, but as Ron Reagan said, and I'll misquote it, "Freedom is only a generation away from extinction.".