Norway During WW2 - Website

Posted this on an isolated regimental thread last year, but re-posted for visibility now.

For a wider perspective this new book may be of interest: 'Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940' by retired General John Kiszely. From Cambridge Military Histories and was published in April 2017.
See: Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940 (Cambridge Military Histories): Amazon.co.uk: John Kiszely: 9781107194595: Books

 

Citing in part Harry Ree's comment on 4/10/2019:

The wonders of YouTube refer to shots being fired by Some Danish troops and a modern film 'The 9. April', which is available via Netflix (subscription req'd). Short six minute clip: and one with English sub-titles for another skirmish:

The film's official trailer: and the IMDB review has this in the comments:

See:9. april (2015) - IMDb

 

I've just come back from a trip on the Coastal Express going from Bergen to Kirkenes and back. I would recommend the Lofoten Krigsminne Museum (War Museum) at Svolvaer. It's fairly small but packed with a huge amount of material from WW2 from recovered items, British and German, to collected items, including uniforms and equipment and aircraft instrument panels . It's owned and run by William Hakvaag, who is pretty aged with no offspring to continue it so not sure how long it might be retained. Hopefully some organisation will save it.

In Kirkenes we visited the tunnels used as the town's air raid shelter (only accessible with official guide). Kirkenes was the Germans northernmost base with up to 100,000 personnel and it was second to Malta in terms of bombing raids. Hitler had his eyes on the Iron ore mine there and also hankered after the nickel deposits in Finland.
7 Norwegians died in the bombings and many had been forcibly evacuated to southern parts of the country. The Germans carried out a scorched earth operation during their retreat in 1945 and the whole town was razed to the ground, as were others during the retreat. As part of the Marshal plan, assistance was given for the rebuilding of the town.
There is a memorial to the Soviet army near the tunnel in recognition of the conquest of the Germans.

 

I visited the Lofoten Krigsminne Museum last year.

Small but packed with items spanning the entire war. A bit chaotic. One really must have the knowledge to appreciate the items on display. No timelines and much is intermixed. IIRC, mainly a private collection/operation so not much in terms of signage to help the uninitiated.




But a lot of great items if you know what you are looking at.

Pista! Jeff

 

Adam,
interesting, with lots of information is the book and the film: Into The White 17th April1940, involving The RAF and The Luftwaffe.

And the house today like a museum was re-build after the war which we could visit during our Norway trip years ago.
And the glacier was there too, I hope for more years to come.
Stefan.