Norwegian Language Blog

one of the huge craters formed by bomb attempts

FOR FRIHET

TIL MINNE OM ALLIERTE FLYMANNSKAPER

FRA ROYAL AIR FORCE

DREPT UNDER ANGREP OG REKOGNOSERING

PÅ DET TYSKE SLAGSKIPET TIRPITZ

I FÆTTENFJORD 1942

I TAKK OG ÆERBØDIGHET

TIL DE SOM OFRET LIVET

FOR VÅR FELLES SAK.

REIST AV LOKALE KREFTER I 1985

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

FOR FREEDOM

IN MEMORY OF THE ALLIED AIRCREWS

FROM THE ROYAL AIR FORCE

KILLED IN ATTACKS AND RECONNAISSANCE

ON THE GERMAN BATTLESHIP TIRPITZ

IN THE FÆTTENFJORD 1942

IN GRATITUDE AND VENERATION

TO THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES

FOR OUR COMMON CAUSE

ERECTED BY LOCAL PEOPLE 1985.

another large crater

The Bismarck class German battleship, Tirpitz, lived a short life.  She was built in 1941 in Wilhelmshavn, Germany for use in the German Navy during World War II.  A mere three years later, she was destroyed and sunk in near Håkøy in Balsfjord, near Tromsø.

Tirpitz´ debut was in the Baltic, completing combat missions after the German invasion of the Soviet Union.  A few months later, she set sail for Norwegian waters and was stationed near Trondheim.  Due to her location, Tirpitz was an enormous threat to supply lines between the Allies and the Soviets.  Her size and of course the brutality of the German military and its presence in Norway meant that she required a significant amount of manpower and attention by the U.S. and British navies.

Although Tirpitz never managed to interfere with Allied shipping and she only attacked once (in 1943 on Spitsbergen), she was a large enough threat that it was a great priority of the Allies to take her down.  It took several attempts before she fell, but fall she did, and it was a huge victory.  It was a small British mission that first injured Tirpitz by detonating explosives underwater nearby.  Soviet bombers made the next attempt and narrowly missed.  In 1944, British carrier planes successfully wounded Tirpitz and caused her to undergo further repairs.  Several more British attack missions ensued and finally Royal Airforce heavy bombers hit her hard in the bow and caused serious damage. Tirpitz then headed north to Tromsø where she spent her last days.  After a couple more attacks up north, on Nov. 12, 1944, she finally retired after ammunition explosions and sinking deep into Norwegian waters.

Frigjøringsdagen, as it is called på norsk, is a very important day in Norwegian history that does not receive proper attention because it is greatly overshadowed by syttende mai (May 17th, Norway’s Constitution Day).  Frigjøringsdagen is the day that Norway was officially liberated from Nazi forces.  65 years ago on May 8, 1945, Josef Terboven, Reichskommisar (Norwegian commissioner in Norway, who had almost complete control of the country) was forced to accept defeat and hand over makten (the power) to the Allies. 

Within one week of Hitler’s selvmord (suicide) on April 30th, 1945, det politiske landskapet (the political landscape) in Norway completely changed.  One week seems like such a short amount of time, just a blip on the timeline of the war, for so much to change.  On May 5th, the Nazis in Denmark overgav seg (surrendered).  That same day, American General Dwight Eisenhower sent a telegram to Norway with instructions regarding how Norway was to make contact with the Allies headquarters.  The official military overgivelse (surrender) of the Germans was signed in Reims, France on May 7.  Norske flagg (Norwegians flags) were flown for the first time since before krigen (the war).  On the evening of the 7th, German Commander-in-Chief, General Böhme, announced on the Norwegian radio at 22:00 that the Germans would be handing over makten. 

During the months preceding overgivelsen of the Germans, the Norwegian resistance movement had become quite active.  Working with the the regjering (government) in hiding in London, the resistance movement prepared for the liberation.  Once word got out of the overgivelse, the resistance movement, known as Milorg (Militær organisasjon), 40,000 strong, mobilised and occupied the Royal Palace, the politistasjon (police station), and other strategic public buildings.  On May 8, the overgivelse was official.  That same day, Josef Terboven begikk selvmord (committed suicide)by detonating en bombe (a bomb)  in a bunker of the Skaugum compound.  Kronprins Haakon and his wife Mette-Marit now occupy Skaugum, which is just  15 miles outside of Oslo.

5 days after the official overgivelse of the Germans, Kronprins Olav and the other government prepresentatives returned to Oslo from hiding in London.  It wasn’t until the June 7 (coincidentally the 40th aniversary of the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden) that Kong Haakon VII and the rest of the members of the royal family returned to Oslo.   It must have felt incredible to regain makt again after 5 years in exile. 

The conditions of the overgivelse included immediate arrestation and internment of all German and Norwegian Nazi party members, disarm all SS troops, and send all Germany forces (no fewer than 400,000) to designated areas.  As far as the fate of forrædrer (traitors) and samarbeidere  (collaborators), they were granted due process trials.  In the end 37 were henrettet (executed), 25 nordmenn and 12 tyskere (Germans).  20,000 (mostly Norwegians, although some Germans) were imprisoned.  There were many Nazi sympathizers.  There were also, as mentioned before, many who fought for the reisistance movement, which I will dedicate an entire post to another time.  Stay tuned, and when you celebrate syttende mai, don’t forget to remember this time of year 65 years ago when Norway celebrated frigjøring!

As I was running through the woods this morning with my dog, although it was beautiful, I became nostalgic about the waterfalls (fosser) in Norway.  At this time of year, especially, there is an abundance of fosser running down the sides of hills, cliffs, and mountains.  It is so peaceful to wander through the woods and observe the pristine remnants of winter’s frozen precipitation.  This is the time of year that the snow in the high altitudes melts and trickles down to soak the ground below. 

The fosser in Norway are even more magnificent when you think about how useful they are. Hydropower is one of Norway’s primary industries.  It is used in the production of metals, chemicals, petrochemicals, mineral products, paper and pulp.  Almost one third of Norway’s hydropower is used to produce these materials.  Surprisingly, 90% of Norway’s paper and pulp production is exported.  90% is also the percentage of decline in harmful substance emissions in the last 10 years.  If you would like more information about these industries in general, you can find it on norway.org’s website under “process industry.”

Norsk Hydro is the world’s fourth largest aluminum company.  The company has plants in 40 countries.  The first plant was built in 1907 in Notodden.  Five years prior, on Dec. 2, 1905, Sam Eyde, Marcus Wallenberg, and Edmond Moret (French) officially founded the company (originally Norsk hydro-elektrisk Kvælstofaktieselskab -literally Norwegian hydro-electric nitrogen limited).  The technology was actually developed by Kristian Birkeland, a professor who conducted extensive research on the northern lights and who originally intended for the technology to be used for harnessing energy to develop the electric cannon.  As I am not a scientist, I do not understand the intricacies behind the production of electrical energy by harnessing the power of fosser.  I understand only that the process of harnessing electric energy also allowed fixing nitrates from the air to create artificial fertilizers, which, as you can imagine, was quite the life-saver for many people in Europe with insufficient food supply. 

I am astonished at how much ownership the Norwegian government has in the company-a whopping 43.8%!  Another interesting tidbit about the company is the number of people it employs-28,000!  I will leave you with one last fascinating piece of information about Norsk Hydro-the plant at Rjukan was shut down by a sabotage raid by the Allied powers for fear that the Nazis would use the heavy water produced to use in the atomic bomb project.  The plant at Rjukan was later reconstructed. 

As you gather, water and gravity create a powerful force that has provided Norway with a great wealth of industries and financial stability.

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