The many Norwegian seafarers that sailed on ships in allied service during WWII has FINALLY got some attention, although there are few left to see it:
https://www.nfi.no/eng/film?name=war-sailor&id=2244
Trailer w/English subtitles:
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Here is the vessel that was used in the filming of War Sailors:
Here is a story about Norwayâs (probably the worldâs) youngest War Sailor:
One-year-old Thor became Norwayâs youngest war sailor.
The little boy has a very special place in Norwegian war history at sea.
Thor Jensen was hired as a âdisturbance crowâ on his fatherâs boat when the war forced the family to be away from home for six years. (1939-45)
Now 84 years old:
Memory from X-Mas 1943:
Link: HandelsflÄtens «gullalder» | Facebook
(Donât know if this is open for view without membership, or if translatable into English)
During the second world war there was a training base for pilots in Canada, called âLittle Norwayâ:
https://www.wwiinorge.com/notes/little-norway/
Not much left of the original site, but some are retained in Muskoka, where the training centre moved in 1942:
Back to Thor and his adventures as a war sailor.
His Father was Captain on the ship Unita and his Mother was serving onboard as âSalongjenteâ.
Their 10 year old brother was left with the Grandmother, while 13 months old Thor came along for what was supposed to be a 7 month stint. It ended up lasting for 6 years:
Krigsseiler Ăistein Jensen hadde 9. april 1940 med seg sin 13 mĂ„neder gamle sĂžnn Tor Jensen og kone Inga Jensen. Inga Jensen var mĂžnstret som salongjente (ikke dokumentert i Londonregisteret), Tor Jensen som «ugagnskrĂ„ke». De var pĂ„ vei ut med Haugesunds-bĂ„ten «UNITA» for Ă„ seile i 7 mĂ„neder. Men de kom ikke hjem igjen fĂžr i 1946. Ăistein Jensen fortsatte Ă„ seile etter krigen.
A bit of background about the Norwegian WWII fleet in allied service.
Sorry, if you want to read the entire article you have to subscribe to Shipping magazine.
PS> There was also a home fleet controlled by the German occupiers and targets for allied attacks, with many casualties, both passengers and crews:
Sorry, not much to find in English.
List of the ships in the âhome fleetâ:
https://www.warsailors.com/homefleet/index.html
I watched the show and it was quite good and a very different take on WW II from the typical American movie/series.
First off was that the Norwegian sailors were not necessarily all 100% interested in being in a war, but they were drafted more or less just by being there, not much choice given.
Second was what was going on back home. Many of the sailors had families back home in port cities that were being bombed by the USAAF and RAF, so they were hauling bombs from Canada to England to get loaded in airplanes going to their hometown to blow up their own houses and families.
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A BBC Documentary about those of different nationalities who served on Merchant Ships during WWII:
One of those interviewed is Birger Lunde who was torpedoed thrice in the North Atlantic:
PS> After the war he settled in NYC and became an American citizen.
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An iconic picture of a War Sailor:
Source: Norwegian Shipping Historical Society - Eastern Norway (NSS-Ă)
There were also War Sailors serving in the Norwegian home fleet:
https://www.warsailors.com/homefleet/index.html
Many ships in the home fleet were attacked and sunk by allied aircrafts, or sabotaged by Norwegian resistance forces.
One of those ships were the D/S Eira (seen here in a colorized picture from before the war):
She was attacked by allied aircrafts on a minelaying mission 10. Aug.1944:
It is now 80 years since the end of WWII. In Europe this was 8th May 1945 and will be marked in many ways, by the high and mighty and ordinary people all over the continent of Europe and beyond.
One small celebration will be the âLiberation Convoy 2025â, when 5 of the preserved vessels that participated in the Shetland traffic from Norway will recreate the trip, yet again:
The route for each of the 5 vessels:
In Shetland they are preparing to receive them:
The article miss picture of one of the vessels, the M/K Heland:
MK âHelandâ has a permanent place at SunnmĂžre Museum. The fishing boat from 1937 is maintained as a floating memory of both fishing and war history.
Photo: Staale WattĂž smp.no
A picture of Heland on a previous visit to Shetland:
âHelandâ has been back to Shetland several times, here from a previous visit. Photo: Private
Here a picture of taken onboard the Heland in 1987:
Shetland sailors reunited. In 1987, Scottish TV made a film about the Shetland crossing. Here with âHelandâ in Ă lesund. From left: Sevrin Roald, David Howarth, Arild Rypdal, Gerhard Skorpen, Arne Roald and Leif A. Larsen.
Photo: Staale WattĂž
PS> I watched her sailing from her normal mooring at SunnmĂžre Museum a few days ago, heading south to join the Liberation Convoy 2025.
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Some pictures taken before M/K Heland left Ă
lesund to head for Bergen:
âHelandâ from SunnmĂžre Museum (Viti) is going on a âliberation cruiseâ to Shetland via Bergen, in a team with several other boats that participated in the voyage to England from Norway during World War II. The maintenance crew, from left: Ragnvald Holvik, boat builder at the museum, Knut Myklebust, leader of âHelandâs friendsâ, Ingvar Fylling, mechanic, Anders Krumsvik, engineer. Boat manager Marie Vermersch (in the wheelhouse window) is the skipper on the trip.
Marie Vermersch is the skipper on the trip across the North Sea to Shetland. She is happy that more engineers are joining.
Before the Shetland trip, the boat was taken ashore at FrydenbĂž in SkarbĂžvika to install the propeller system and other maintenance.
The engine is from 1952. It was purchased used and installed in the boat in the latter half of the 1960s and is still there.
â Fortunately, we have several volunteer engineers on the trip to Shetland. On a boat like this, the engineer is more important than the skipper, says Vermersch:
Machinist Anders Krumsvik (left) and Knut Myklebust work on maintenance on the engine and the connection to the propeller system.
The cabin at the front of the boat, which was built with berths for ten men.
PS> The fish hold has been converted into living quarters of a bit better standard.
The galley on board.
All photos: Staale WattĂž, smp.no
Source: «Heland» pĂ„ frigjĂžÂringsÂtokt til Shetland - smp.no
MK âHelandâ:
The fishing cutter MK âHelandâ was built at Vestnes in 1937 for Olaf RĂžssvik and the brothers Sevrin and Arne Roald at Vigra.
The boat was first used for year-round fishing, for herring, cod, minke whales and halibut.
The 63-foot-long motor cutter was built with berthing space for ten men.
In 1941, skipper Sevrin Roald was asked to go to Shetland with agents from Kompani Linge.
After three successful trips back and forth across the North Sea, Heland was assigned to the naval department of the Shetland bus in the England voyage.
The boats transported agents from Shetland to Norway, refugees and agents the other way.
Heland was taken over by SunnmĂžre Museum in 1972.
In 1977, the boat was granted status as a protected vessel by the Norwegian Ministry of Cultural Heritage.
In the 1990s, the boat underwent a large-scale restoration at the Hardanger Maritime Conservation Center.
Today, Heland is a museum vessel, both as a floating war memorial and in the dissemination of fishing history.
The boat has its own friendsâ association, volunteers who work with maintenance and dissemination.
Source: SunnmĂžre Museum
PS> In 1964-65 I sailed with one AB that had been a crew members on M/K Heland on the early trips to Shetland. He lived on Vigra throughout the war but did several trips to Shetland with other boats as well. He explained that he could do so because âthere were no Nazi sympathizers on Vigraâ.
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New Zealand with half the population of Norway lost 11928 KIA during WWII.
The Merchant Marine loses werenât included or recognized in the above records but it is believed to be about 500.
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I thought the population of NZ and Norway was fairly equal:
| Norway | New Zealand | |
|---|---|---|
| Population: | 5,520,000 | 5,223,0 |
| Source: Country comparison: Norway / New Zealand |
Not much difference in the number of casualties during WWII either:
âNew Zealand lost 11928 KIA during WWIIâ.
Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1285448/norwegian-deaths-manpower-wwii/
One of the reasons for the uncertainty is the number of civilians that died in occupied Norway, both from German activities, allied bombing and sabotage activities by Norwegian resistance fighter:
Source: The Norwegian Victims of WW2 - Online Journalism Awards
The exact death toll during the evacuation of Finnmark, due to the German âscourged earthâ tactic applied there, and the Russian liberation of part of Finmark in 1944:
Source: Scorching and liberation of Finnmark, a short introduction | Barentsobserver
Yes it is now but in the war years NZ population was 1.6 million and Norway 3 million.
Yes that is true. It is also a fact that NZ was never occupied, never attacked by foreign forces and without being hit by a single bomb.
NZ came out of the war with itâs industry and agricultural base intact. In Norway we had rationing on just about everything for many years after the end of the war.
I grew up with reasoning cards like these:
At the shops they would cut a tab for every purchase and the cards had limited validity. Shearing, or selling the cards were not possible since they were issued by name.
Luxuries, like oranges, were only available for X-mas, but limited based on number of children in the family.
The first time I tasted canned pineapples were in 1952, when a cosine came back from a trip to Greenland on a fishing boat and brought with him a few tins.
I eat so much that I got sick. (I never like tinned pineapples ever since)
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We did have rationing during the war as we were exporting most of our food . Our canning industry started in 1941 to supply US armed forces in the Pacific. Some hunting took place to supplement meat. My mother would never eat rabbit again.
There were not many males in New Zealand throughout the war. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbour our army was in the Middle East fighting Rommel. My father was serving in the Atlantic and an uncle lost his life in the Mediterranean.
After the war our parents procreated with enthusiasm and those born later than 1946 are known as the âBaby Boomers â.
We did lose one ship lost to a mine, SS NIAGARA of Auckland.
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So the Germans sneaked up on you:
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/niagara-mined-off-northland-coast
I donât belittle the New Zealand effort during WWII, only pointing out that there were others suffering under occupation, were civilians were also war casualties.
Because of the large Norwegian merchant fleet in allied service through Nortraship: Nortraship - Wikipedia
the Norwegian government in exile in London was able to pay for weapons, ship and aircrafts for the Norwegian forces that was established mainly in Britain and Sweden:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_armed_forces_in_exil
But also an air force training facilities in Canada (Little Norway): Fun Fact: Little Norway.
Liberation Convoy 2025 has arrived in Lerwick:
A video from the trip from Bergen to Lerwick:
Arrival at Lerwick: