wow your pronounciation of Norwegian words and names is way better than most other history channels. It's clear you've put a lot of effort into making your videos as high-quality as possible. Jævlig bra gjort.
It's a very common name, at least in central/eastern Norway (however, more modern spelling is Hjorth or Hjort). If you don't know how to pronounce it as a Norwegian, I'm sure you haven't been paying that much attention :P
Little piece of extra detail. The Oscarsborg fortress defenders had no idea of the identity of the Blücher at first, the fortress commander however had decided that whoever these ships belonged to they were hostile and heading for Oslo so gave the order to open fire. However the crew of Blücher began singing "Deutschland Uber Alles" as they passed by loud enough for the defenders to hear and only then giving away their identity as German. The fortress itself was quite old having been originally intended to defend against possible Swedish aggression after Norway became independent. Oscarsborg was being used for training purposes by 1940 and its torpedoes were British pre-World War I vintage, however Blücher was sailing so close to the fortress they could hardly miss. The Germans were hugely overconfident and not expecting any resistance.
The film is The Kings Choice " the crew of Blücher began singing "Deutschland Uber Alles" as they passed by loud enough for the defenders to hear and also giving away their identity. " - that seems a pretty wacky story, where did you hear it?
From the Wikipedia article Battle of Drøbak Sound en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dr%C3%B8bak_Sound "Identity of the intruders becomes known As the now crippled Blücher passed the fortress guns, a sudden outburst of voices from the burning cruiser could be heard above the battle noises; Norwegian sources state that the crew broke into singing Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.[25][26][27] Only at this point did it become clear to the men of the fortress whom they were fighting.[25][26][28][29][30] Later, at 04:35, Oberst Eriksen received a message from the Norwegian minesweeper HNoMS Otra confirming that the intruding ships were German.[27] The message had been sent to the naval base in Horten at 04:10, but the massive communications problems that severely hampered the efforts of the Norwegian military throughout the Norwegian Campaign had prevented it from reaching Oscarsborg in time.[31] The return fire from Blücher was ineffective, with the light artillery mostly pointing too high and the main batteries, 20.3 cm guns, unable to fire due to the damage caused by the second 28 cm round from Oscarsborg's Main Battery. The shelling lasted only for five to seven minutes. When the guns on both sides silenced, with all the "passengers" still under deck-"there was a dead silence on board the whole ship, no movement whatsoever was identified".[32]"
As earlier episodes in this series have mentioned the British Royal Navy entered Norwegian waters themselves on a few occasions while Norway was still a neutral nation. The commander of Oscarsborg who was acting without orders made a ballsy decision since it was not beyond the realms of possibility that the intruding ship was British. As it turned out his gut feeling was right.
The doomed Blucher was in service for less than six months when she was sunk. The Oscarsborg fortress had guns manufactured by Krupp in 1893 and torpedoes that were nearly 40 years old. The commander of the fortress was Coronel Birger Eriksen. an officer just six months from retirement. Most of the fortress gunners were reservists activated just days before the attack. He had been the fort commander since 1933 and knew the 28 cm guns and torpedoes intimately. The torpedo tubes failed about 50% of the time when they were used infrequently in practice engagements. The 28 cm ammunition was almost 40 years old, and the only practice gunners got was firing very low power blank rounds. They had never fired a full power armor piercing round before that fateful morning of April 9, 1940. To make the battle even more improbable, Eriksen was unable to reach defense headquarters in Oslo and had no orders to open fire. His standing orders were to only fire warning shots. Rather than let the Germans sail past after a few warning shots, Eriksen and his soldiers were determined to stop them, orders or not. The guns worked perfectly that day, as did the torpedo tubes, with the combination of gunfire and torpedoes sending the German Navy's newest cruiser to the bottom in the space of fifteen minutes. The secondary battery of 15 cm and 57 mm guns raked the escorting German destroyers, damaging them and causing the full scale retreat of the rest of the invasion fleet. When the Germans returned in full force four days later, their main target was the fortress. After two hours of heavy shelling, German paratroopers were landed behind the fort. After a brief period of skirmishing that sometimes included hand to hand fighting, Eriksen could see that the 80 soldiers manning the fort were no match for the might of the German army and navy combined and ordered the fort's surrender. To show that no good deeds go unpunished, Eriksen was actually court martialed in 1945 for surrendering the fort too easily! Two military commissions, one in 1945 and the other in 1946, cleared Eriksen of all charges and ruled he had acted according to orders.As you might imagine, this left Eriksen a broken man, and he died in 1958 as a hero that always had a black mark next to his name.
Good summary. This being internet, we need to clear up some slight inaccuracies :) the 28 cm guns fired High Explosives, not armor piercing. The secondary batteries were silenced by counter fire, and could not be the cause of German retreat. They retreated, because the Germans did not know Blücher was torpedoed and thought she hit a hidden mine field.
Nygårdsvolds government should have been court martialed, no other government did more to tamper with the ability of a nation to fight a resistance war . Then after the war they tarnished the reputations of several norwegian heroes such as Eriksen and Fleischer so they wouldn't loose face.
Tore Østgård Thanks for the correction. Indeed, it should have been HE rather than AP. I was temporarily think HC shells instead. My understanding was the secondary batteries inflicted damage on the destroyers, and that damage, along with the sinking of the Blucher, is what led to the retreat. I imagine the fear of sailing into a minefield also played a part.
Neil Wilson You're welcome. Eriksen has always been a personal hero of mine. A man who was looking forward to nothing more than a quiet retirement who stepped up and did his duty to the country when it was in peril. The way he was treated immediately after the war was despicable.
volpedasfuchs Nothing. Especially if you have to more than 50 km through a riverlike Fjord land inward with a fleet, while there are some forts on the way.
The thing was, the Germans knew about the coastal fortress, and its guns, but didn't know about the hidden torpedo arsenal under the fort. The heavy cruiser could withstand the batteries, but not the torpedoes. That's why it was sunk
The Oscarsborg battery was of 15'' main guns and a mix of others. 15'' shells are equivalent of those fired by a battleship while Blucher was only a heavy cruiser. Her armour would not be thick enough to withstand such hits. The torpedoes delivered the killing blow but by the time they were fired the ship was already heavily damaged and ablaze.
Never have I known a better account of the fighting in Norway in 1940. You did an excellent job on this video; incorporating scenes from the Norwegian movie King's Choice was very well done.
Sure, let's sail an entire fleet with one of our newest heavy cruisers at the head through narrow, hostile coasts with naval batteries on both sides, what could be wrong?
SantiFiore Well it was indeed stupid, but the germans were not expecting any resistance, and the Blücher was a central part of the plan of a quick surrender
It was a gamble which nearly paid off. They easily bypassed Bolærne Fortress and Rauøy Fortress of outer Oslo Fjord, which followed orders to shoot warning shots. Colonel Eriksen defied this order and said "either I will be court martialed or a war hero". His crew were few raw recruits who arrived a week before. They were so raw that they did not know how to rearm the big guns and had never fired them. However, shooting from point blank they could not miss. Including the cooks, Eriksen could only man 2 of 3 big cannons. Had it not been for the obsolete hidden torpedo battery, the Germans would've gotten through. Königsberg limped in to Bergen after sustaining heavy damage from coastal batteries.
The German military had to gamble, sometimes it paid off sometimes it didn’t. In the end most of the landings in Norway were successful despite having only very few troops aboard the ships (all in all only roughly 9700 soldiers were embarked aboard the Kriegsmarine ships that attacked at several locations). The attack through the Ardennes Forrest could’ve easily ended in a disaster for the German military, instead it led to the fall of France.
Those fortress were old and their torpedos, the Whitehead torpedo, dated to an era even before HMS dreadnought. It was reasonable to consider that fort unoperational.
A small team of crack Wehrmacht soldiers landed an attack boat outside Stavanger, Norway for an undercover mission during the start of Operation Weserübung. They were ordered to find a way to contact the German war administration as soon as they landed in Norway. However, because they thought calling abroad from Norway was the same as in Germany, the dialled the wrong number, and ended up at the mansion of a Swedish count. The count, being fluent in German, understood that something had to be terribly wrong if German soldiers called from Norway, so he immediately hung up and called the Norwegian embassy to warn them. Of course by that time it was way too late. I can only imagine the conversation they had, and the confusion on both sides...
If you're ever in Oslo during the spring, summer or early fall, you can board boat B21 or B22 from Aker brygge in the middle of the city and travel down the Oslo fjord to Oscarsborg for the price of a bus ticket. The trip in itself is nice, the island is very picturesque, and the old fortress is open to the public for free, you can sit on the massive Krupp guns and have a beer in the old mess hall. Cozy goats graze there.
We do. However, our history education is more focused on long term effects and consequences than actual events. We learn why Germany invaded Norway, and we learn how it affected us, but we learn no details on what happened as they invaded us. Although most of these battles are usually mentioned in class, the only event people really remember is the sinking of Blücher, since that actually had a long-term effect.
I doubt the thousands of young British servicemen who died fighting the Germans in Norway and Norweigan waters would be impressed by your tasteless and ill informed comments.
@@alecblunden8615 I'm commenting on the high command not organizing their effort well enough. They could have stopped the German invasion and ended the whole war years earlier, but instead they were sent to the wrong place with the wrong equipment so all of the soldiers on the ground couldn't hold back the Germans, and we all know what a German occupation entails.
"Competent defense" Lmao, unmobilized army and costal fortresses being unsure about firing on the ships ? Norway should have mobilized following the altmark incident, at least partially to not lose their major cities in 24 hours.
@@BraceletGrolf Well, yes. Compared to most other countries that fell before the invasion, it was a very competent defense. Remember that very few nations *wanted* to fight a war. Most kept their armies more or less at rest, so as not to provoke their meaner neighbours and to maintain hope of neutrality or another kind of diplomatic solution. That the fortress fired on the ships (in violation of its standing orders, remember), was a ballsy move. With what we know now, it's obvious that this commander assessed the situation better than his superiors did. As for the campaign taking two months: I wish I could say the same about my country, which was overrun within 5 days.
Im not sure. Until April 1940 they didn't lose a single man at the german french border. I mean the Germans had their whole army in Poland, but what does that have to do with that?😉
To much going on at that point, trying to defend a country thats on the verge of losing its footing while trying to defend yourself. The Allies where already in a bad spot.
If you watched the first videos of this series; the allies destroyed most of the German marine fleet at the start of the war on Norway. This may have prevented a land invasion on the British Isles later in the war.
EirikXL i doubt the Germans would have managed to set foot on Britian, even if they managed to somehow take 0 causalities in Norway. Even if they managed to land, Britian would be sending in ships to reinforce from all over the world, making it basically impossible for the Germans to maintain supply there.
The Norwegian king; Haakon VII spoke these famous words during the war: "Alt for Norge" (Eng: "Everything for Norway") this became his motto and has inspired many norwegians later on.
These are amazing. Loved the inclusion of scenes from Kongens Nei (english title: The Kings choice). A really good movie. Cant wait for the battles of Narvik!
A great warhero! Its a tragedy that someone of his status got humiliated, dishonored, and betrayed by his own government in exile. As a norwegian northerner, I have great respect for the defender of the north. Sure, he wanted surrender, understandably so, but he did his job as ordered. A man of honor. The destruction of his honor would be the end of him sadly.
@overjee: Shame is that I'm from Trøndelag and I never -ever- learned about him in school. My interest for World War II is what made me aware of him and I learned to appreciate him and his actions. He did what he could with what he had. What the government did to him is inexcusable... Even to this day, did you know that members of the Labour Party do not attend whenever he is honored? It's dispicable!
Same here, only my interest is what made me leard about him myself. I cant remember learning much at all in school about him or almost anything detailed about the second world war other than it happened, and that we lost norway to the germans and had a government in exile. Nothing about why. Hell, dont think I ever saw or heard anything in school about Quislings coup and cooperation with the Germans. Even though I favour the labour partys politics more today, their complete disrespect to someone fighting and risking his life for them is disgusting. Its like a child not wanting to admit their fault, so just sits there pouting. Noone could've forseen him taking his life because of it, but they should atleast owe up to it. He went out his own way while still keeping a resemblance of his honor. I don't think I could've forsaken my life for honor. A much stronger man than me and most of Norway
I don't bear a grudge easily and I can see the Labour Party back then and now being two different things.. But that they -still- choose to treat him with such disgusting disrespect to this day is something that hits me hard. As an ex-enlisted, I have seen how their policies have affected the military and due to that, I really don't like them. Though with that said, those reasons are my own. Got friends from all walks of life and having the opportunity to choose is one of the things General Fleischer although indirectly tried to protect. ALT for Norge.
The amount of research you have put in to this and the work you have put in graphically, to educate us, impresses me. Standing ovation! Sincerely, a Norwegian.
>Being Germany in ww2 >Having a sizable fleet but not enough to beat the British one >Sending a hyper class battleship into a nowegian strait where very big guns are positioned >Losing that ship in a matter of minute >Kriegsmarine arguing about the british naval dominance
Docibal Germany had only a very small surface fleet during WW2. The German Empire had the second largest fleet of the world during WW1, but that was scrapped at the end of WW1 and only a tiny navy remained.
I believe the pronunciation for the German heavy cruiser Blücher doesn't have the "ch" sound in it, it's more like "Bluu-ker," however I'm English and don't actually speak German so I'm likely butchering that myself.
Fair enough, as I said I have heard both pronunciations but I'm not a German speaker so I don't really know myself. I love your animations though and I'm curious where the footage you used came from? A documentary or a TV show?
Thank you for highlighting this part of WW2, the story of Norwegian resistance is often dominated by the focus on partisan movements later in the war. Glad you're shedding light on the early stages as well. Well worth patreon support.
As a norwegian myself I would say this is a very good video, and I appreciate the pronounciation. It's not perfect by any stretch, but way better than I would have expected from pretty much anyone outside of scandinavia
My grandfather Einar Wilhelmsen and Colonel Eriksen where close friends. The Commander of Oscarsborg, borg = "castle", but i this case I think "fortress" is a more accurate description of Oscarsborg. When Blücher arrived Commander Eriksen called my grandfather who lived on the main land further out the fjord so he could see if the ships had flags. My grandfather told him that none of them had flags and then he asked Eriksen what he was going to do. "I'll shoot!" he said. Some minute later my grandfather heard the highest bang he had heard in his life. The fjord are keeping the shock wave from spreading out, but instead compress and keep it in the fjord passing my grandfathers house. Eriksen had only time to shoot one shot from each of two of the canons. This was old canons and it took too long time to reload them, and on top of that they were understaffed and had only crew for two canons. Two rounds and two hits! The first projectile with a weight of 470 kg. hit the bridge and made the ship uncontrollably, the second hit the ammunition magazine. On the east side of Oscarsborg there is a torpedo battery which gave Blücher the final blow. Fun facts: I'm born and raised in the village you can see at the left corner on the map from 00:42 a huge part of the buildings were one of Oscar Nobel's first dynamite factory. The powder that was used in the canons were produced at that factory. A little irony is that the canons that hit Blücher is that they were German produced by Krupp.
Thomas, many thanks for your information, especially about your grandfather. I did not check - but the projectile of this old Krupp cannon weighed 470kg? Cheers mate
Funfact: Eriksen ordered cooks, washers etc. to help arm a second cannon, because they didn’t have enough men to arm all 3 👌🏽 Source: My History Teacher, i wrote an text about it.
Great content. Loved it since the start. The effort in your maps are not overlooked, and your voice is pleasant. Keep up motivation and there is only one way to go... Up.
Fun fact: If you're ever in Oslo and encounter road work, especially where they dig manholes to do work on pipes and such, they cover the holes with big plates of metal so that people won't fall into them. It is said that these plates are all from the hull of Blücher. ;)
Alright! I didn't know that. Seems you are indeed correct! ^^ After checking I found it was hauled to Oslo after the war, and the plates they use are indeed from Tirpitz. Thank you! Both shipwrecks are now protected as war memorials.
I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of this video series, and this one most of all. Not only do you provide a lot of information that most people never heard of, but you also manage to couple it with animations to great effect. And as others mentioned, showing care for the pronunciation of Norwegian names is great - when I listened to "Hitler's pre-emptive war" about the Norwegian campaign I damn near stopped after the first couple of chapters since the narrator butchered both the Norwegian and German names.
That sabotage have been hyped up. We are led to believe this is the only place heavy water was produced but both Germany and the US produced large quantities of heavy water themselves during the war.
@@nordicnostalgia8106 For all they knew at the time, it was the only place it was produced. Later it has also been known that the nazis wasn't anywhere near actually being able to build the bomb and it also turns out that you actually don't need heavy water. But nobody knew that at the time.
Small addition from a Central Norwegian - The last resistance of the region was at the Hegra Fortress, near the Swedish Border (it was built and intended to resist potential Swedish invasions). It resisted unyieldingly untill ordered to stand down due to being the only ones still fighting in the southern half of the country
Your excellent post adds so much to our appreciation of the courageous actions of Norway's defenders. Most histories deal with this entire chapter of the war with a sentence or two. Thank you for creating and posting! And i'm hoping for more!
@Dreadios "white race would be minority" As an inhabitant of a frontline country (Poland) I wonder, if you westerners are aware that a large number of such posts have their origins in St Petersburg, Russia. And is pretty well paid. Wait for your next election to know, that i'm not joking.
@@zowikspowolniony3546 We are aware. (Canada) My sister was married in a church that has the statement 'Semper Fidelis Poloniae' over the door. If the Russians cross that line your NATO brothers will be there to help.
@@alexdoiron8419 what an ironic comment, Canada’s already been invaded by the Chinese and Poland is probably the safest most insulated Nation in Europe. You really do have it back to front.
When I was thirteen, my junior high school class went with on a study tour with the White Buses down to Poland and Germany. Even though the Concentration Camps were the main agenda, we rode down the eastern side of Drøbak. Our guide, an old man who I sadly do not remember the name of had apparently served on Oscarborg and knew Colonel Eriksen. He could tell us that when they opened fire on "Blücher", they were guessing the distance to the ship to get the correct degree angle for their guns. One degree off and they would have missed the target.
Great series on the battle of Norway! I would love to see a Historigraph series on the valiant resistance by the Finnish Army, in the Soviet battle for Finland. 👍🏽
@Tor Bygjordet Hahaha, that's not true, Norwegians from SOE had the most successful sabotage in WW2 in 1943, following many other successful sabotages, you can hear stories from almost every great grandfathers and grandmother's in Norway about action in the resistance.
@ Tor B From the beginning of the 2nd half of the war the Norwegian underground was severely upsetting the german efforts. British Norwegian SOE operatives led many good campaigns against the invaders and by the end of the war Norway was really pissing the germans off. Norwegian underground was very strong and capable at the end of the war.
Great videos man. I love that you dont make your videos around popular events but if you make some you will get some boost in subscribes but i am really thankful for your production of videos now. Keep up the great work
Not all germans were bad. My great grand parents had a farm and a german company arrived at the farm. They demanded to stay over, and demanded 1. floor of the house. My great grand parents had no choice and gave them rooms for sleeping for the soldiers. At evening commander of the troup talks to my ggp, and say " im tired of this war". Next day the left the farm, and rooms was completely cleaned and nothing were stolen
Similar experience with my grandfather in Northern Norway. It was a high ranking officer and his men, and they all behaved very professionally to the my great grand father's family, even thought they were not well off in any way.
Could your next Topic be the German Balkan Campaigns against Yugoslavia and Greece? I would appreciate it, as it's an interesting war theater, with not much coverage on UA-cam. Thanks
I'm in love with this format of video and your channel. I asked this before but I hope you'll do something on Irish history like the 1916 Rising in the future. All the best.
You say that Blücher was hit multplie times. Yes, multiple, as in only 2 times. The fort was manned by fresh recruits, that only managed to fire the 2 shells that was already pre-loaded. Both of these hit, starting fires on the heavy cruiser, but by no means dooming the ship. Torpedo hits (2 or 3 I believe) however, sealed Blüchers faith. The germans was actually totally unaware of the underground torpedo battery, and thought that the Blücher had come upon a mine field, and therefore the Lübeck as well as the rest of the taskforce turned around. It's also worth mentioning that the Blücher was under constant fire from small caliber weapons from the surrounding forts, and that no norwegian soldiers manning the forts lost their lives that night, despite heavy countering fire from the germans.
Well described. I also caught this, but since Blucher was hit many times by the secondary batteries (15 cm and 57 mm) in addition to the 2 main battery (28 cm) hits, he isn't wrong when he says Blücher was hit multiple times.
He's technically correct, but I think he could have been a bit more careful with the details, as the sinking of Blücher is such a seminal point in Norwegian history.
A fact for you; the guys hodling up the German paratroopers, many of them were new recruits who had never fired a gun. Before the shoot out, they were taught how to reload their weapons. Pretty cool
Great stuff! absolutely great! and very underrated aswell, which I love--- you and Montemayor both are great, Looking forward to the next one of the series with Narvik!
This is why you dont trust your national defense to "allies". No one will fight harder than the people defending their homes but they must properly trained and equipped and currently maintained.
Arguably the problem was that they didn't. Norway didn't have the money, population or industry to resist Germany alone. If they'd allied before they were invaded they would likely have had British or French troops, ships and aircraft stationed to prevent the invasion, rather than them being ineffectively rushed in after it had already begun.
Really looking forward to the second part of this one! :D The first major Allied land victory was attributed to a Norwegian General from Trøndelag! Shame history has chosen to forget him... But we will never forget him!
im norwegian! im so proud. just imagine if we only had better equipment and alittle better training we could have done much more. atleast i think so :)
12:51 I think that's the best pronounciation of Tromsø i have ever heard. I would like to call it flawless, or at least as flawless as a non-Norwegian could get without living here for a while. Well done!
so it took the nazis 2 months to take out Norway? France - 6 weeks Poland - 1 month in other words Norway > France > Poland i'm impressed Norwegians, well done
Remember that Norway's mountainous geography is much harder to invade than France or Poland. Flat terrain is one of the major reasons Denmark only lasted 6 hours to Germany's invasion.
Oscarsborg had 2 11” guns in open turrets that got off one shot each both hitting Blücher, one hitting the bottom of the bridge area. The ship was not ablaze from bow to stern, but the second 11” shell hit the seaplane hangar and set the aviation fuel on fire. As the Germans started firing back the Oscarsborg gun crews had to leave their poorly protected positions.
The guns at Oscarsborg were 11 inch, not 15. Still, The Battle of Drobak Sound is one of the most interesting "battles" of WW2, with a brand new German heavy cruiser being destroyed by guns and torpedoes (if they were the Mk1s I believe they were) that were almost older than Hitler himself. Oh and I love the German "offer". "Hey, you should let us invade you so these other guys don't invade you."
wow your pronounciation of Norwegian words and names is way better than most other history channels. It's clear you've put a lot of effort into making your videos as high-quality as possible. Jævlig bra gjort.
The same cannot be said for his German pronunciation. Great content nonetheless.
He actually pronounces Ø correctly..! Well done!!
Pretty good. Only thing he butchered was Hiorth.
@@GardEngebretsen tbf not even i as a Norwegian know how to pronounce that without looking it up first
It's a very common name, at least in central/eastern Norway (however, more modern spelling is Hjorth or Hjort). If you don't know how to pronounce it as a Norwegian, I'm sure you haven't been paying that much attention :P
Little piece of extra detail. The Oscarsborg fortress defenders had no idea of the identity of the Blücher at first, the fortress commander however had decided that whoever these ships belonged to they were hostile and heading for Oslo so gave the order to open fire. However the crew of Blücher began singing "Deutschland Uber Alles" as they passed by loud enough for the defenders to hear and only then giving away their identity as German.
The fortress itself was quite old having been originally intended to defend against possible Swedish aggression after Norway became independent. Oscarsborg was being used for training purposes by 1940 and its torpedoes were British pre-World War I vintage, however Blücher was sailing so close to the fortress they could hardly miss. The Germans were hugely overconfident and not expecting any resistance.
The film is The Kings Choice
" the crew of Blücher began singing "Deutschland Uber Alles" as they passed by loud enough for the defenders to hear and also giving away their identity. " - that seems a pretty wacky story, where did you hear it?
I believe I read it on Wikipedia some time ago when reading about this incident
From the Wikipedia article Battle of Drøbak Sound
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dr%C3%B8bak_Sound
"Identity of the intruders becomes known
As the now crippled Blücher passed the fortress guns, a sudden outburst of voices from the burning cruiser could be heard above the battle noises; Norwegian sources state that the crew broke into singing Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.[25][26][27] Only at this point did it become clear to the men of the fortress whom they were fighting.[25][26][28][29][30] Later, at 04:35, Oberst Eriksen received a message from the Norwegian minesweeper HNoMS Otra confirming that the intruding ships were German.[27] The message had been sent to the naval base in Horten at 04:10, but the massive communications problems that severely hampered the efforts of the Norwegian military throughout the Norwegian Campaign had prevented it from reaching Oscarsborg in time.[31]
The return fire from Blücher was ineffective, with the light artillery mostly pointing too high and the main batteries, 20.3 cm guns, unable to fire due to the damage caused by the second 28 cm round from Oscarsborg's Main Battery. The shelling lasted only for five to seven minutes. When the guns on both sides silenced, with all the "passengers" still under deck-"there was a dead silence on board the whole ship, no movement whatsoever was identified".[32]"
They had an idea, but it was unconfirmed.
As earlier episodes in this series have mentioned the British Royal Navy entered Norwegian waters themselves on a few occasions while Norway was still a neutral nation. The commander of Oscarsborg who was acting without orders made a ballsy decision since it was not beyond the realms of possibility that the intruding ship was British. As it turned out his gut feeling was right.
The doomed Blucher was in service for less than six months when she was sunk. The Oscarsborg fortress had guns manufactured by Krupp in 1893 and torpedoes that were nearly 40 years old. The commander of the fortress was Coronel Birger Eriksen. an officer just six months from retirement. Most of the fortress gunners were reservists activated just days before the attack. He had been the fort commander since 1933 and knew the 28 cm guns and torpedoes intimately. The torpedo tubes failed about 50% of the time when they were used infrequently in practice engagements. The 28 cm ammunition was almost 40 years old, and the only practice gunners got was firing very low power blank rounds. They had never fired a full power armor piercing round before that fateful morning of April 9, 1940.
To make the battle even more improbable, Eriksen was unable to reach defense headquarters in Oslo and had no orders to open fire. His standing orders were to only fire warning shots. Rather than let the Germans sail past after a few warning shots, Eriksen and his soldiers were determined to stop them, orders or not. The guns worked perfectly that day, as did the torpedo tubes, with the combination of gunfire and torpedoes sending the German Navy's newest cruiser to the bottom in the space of fifteen minutes. The secondary battery of 15 cm and 57 mm guns raked the escorting German destroyers, damaging them and causing the full scale retreat of the rest of the invasion fleet.
When the Germans returned in full force four days later, their main target was the fortress. After two hours of heavy shelling, German paratroopers were landed behind the fort. After a brief period of skirmishing that sometimes included hand to hand fighting, Eriksen could see that the 80 soldiers manning the fort were no match for the might of the German army and navy combined and ordered the fort's surrender. To show that no good deeds go unpunished, Eriksen was actually court martialed in 1945 for surrendering the fort too easily! Two military commissions, one in 1945 and the other in 1946, cleared Eriksen of all charges and ruled he had acted according to orders.As you might imagine, this left Eriksen a broken man, and he died in 1958 as a hero that always had a black mark next to his name.
Good summary. This being internet, we need to clear up some slight inaccuracies :) the 28 cm guns fired High Explosives, not armor piercing. The secondary batteries were silenced by counter fire, and could not be the cause of German retreat. They retreated, because the Germans did not know Blücher was torpedoed and thought she hit a hidden mine field.
Nygårdsvolds government should have been court martialed, no other government did more to tamper with the ability of a nation to fight a resistance war . Then after the war they tarnished the reputations of several norwegian heroes such as Eriksen and Fleischer so they wouldn't loose face.
Thanks for this excellent information. Eriksen made a big difference, and history will remember him as a defender of sanity versus evil.
Tore Østgård Thanks for the correction. Indeed, it should have been HE rather than AP. I was temporarily think HC shells instead. My understanding was the secondary batteries inflicted damage on the destroyers, and that damage, along with the sinking of the Blucher, is what led to the retreat. I imagine the fear of sailing into a minefield also played a part.
Neil Wilson You're welcome. Eriksen has always been a personal hero of mine. A man who was looking forward to nothing more than a quiet retirement who stepped up and did his duty to the country when it was in peril. The way he was treated immediately after the war was despicable.
KMS Blücher: Let's just blindly rush towards their capital, what could go wrong?
volpedasfuchs
Nothing.
Especially if you have to more than 50 km through a riverlike Fjord land inward with a fleet, while there are some forts on the way.
The thing was, the Germans knew about the coastal fortress, and its guns, but didn't know about the hidden torpedo arsenal under the fort. The heavy cruiser could withstand the batteries, but not the torpedoes. That's why it was sunk
The Germans expected the guns to stand down since they knew they would overwhelm the capital regardless.
They didn't know about the torpedo battery at Oscarsborg, had it not been for that it could have worked.
The Oscarsborg battery was of 15'' main guns and a mix of others. 15'' shells are equivalent of those fired by a battleship while Blucher was only a heavy cruiser. Her armour would not be thick enough to withstand such hits. The torpedoes delivered the killing blow but by the time they were fired the ship was already heavily damaged and ablaze.
Never have I known a better account of the fighting in Norway in 1940. You did an excellent job on this video; incorporating scenes from the Norwegian movie King's Choice was very well done.
Thanks!
Sure, let's sail an entire fleet with one of our newest heavy cruisers at the head through narrow, hostile coasts with naval batteries on both sides, what could be wrong?
SantiFiore Well it was indeed stupid, but the germans were not expecting any resistance, and the Blücher was a central part of the plan of a quick surrender
It was a gamble which nearly paid off. They easily bypassed Bolærne Fortress and Rauøy Fortress of outer Oslo Fjord, which followed orders to shoot warning shots. Colonel Eriksen defied this order and said "either I will be court martialed or a war hero". His crew were few raw recruits who arrived a week before. They were so raw that they did not know how to rearm the big guns and had never fired them. However, shooting from point blank they could not miss. Including the cooks, Eriksen could only man 2 of 3 big cannons. Had it not been for the obsolete hidden torpedo battery, the Germans would've gotten through. Königsberg limped in to Bergen after sustaining heavy damage from coastal batteries.
The German military had to gamble, sometimes it paid off sometimes it didn’t.
In the end most of the landings in Norway were successful despite having only very few troops aboard the ships (all in all only roughly 9700 soldiers were embarked aboard the Kriegsmarine ships that attacked at several locations).
The attack through the Ardennes Forrest could’ve easily ended in a disaster for the German military, instead it led to the fall of France.
Those fortress were old and their torpedos, the Whitehead torpedo, dated to an era even before HMS dreadnought. It was reasonable to consider that fort unoperational.
British navy tried the same stupidity at the Dardanelles.
A small team of crack Wehrmacht soldiers landed an attack boat outside Stavanger, Norway for an undercover mission during the start of Operation Weserübung. They were ordered to find a way to contact the German war administration as soon as they landed in Norway. However, because they thought calling abroad from Norway was the same as in Germany, the dialled the wrong number, and ended up at the mansion of a Swedish count. The count, being fluent in German, understood that something had to be terribly wrong if German soldiers called from Norway, so he immediately hung up and called the Norwegian embassy to warn them. Of course by that time it was way too late. I can only imagine the conversation they had, and the confusion on both sides...
kebman evidence of this?
imagine getting that call xD what's the chance
Silentdeath haha yes
Commander! We have landed in Norway. Requesting further orders assist the invasion!
Sir, this is a Wendy's.
That story is never ever a real one.
If you're ever in Oslo during the spring, summer or early fall, you can board boat B21 or B22 from Aker brygge in the middle of the city and travel down the Oslo fjord to Oscarsborg for the price of a bus ticket. The trip in itself is nice, the island is very picturesque, and the old fortress is open to the public for free, you can sit on the massive Krupp guns and have a beer in the old mess hall. Cozy goats graze there.
Thanks for this tip.
somegoddamnguy I live in oslo
Remember visiting a couple years back. Wasn't as interested in history at the time, but it's a pretty cool place.
That is so cool, ngl
It's so weird being a Norwegian and learning about my country's history from an Englishman. Can't say I dislike it though
The Battle of Norway if very lacking in schools. At least in my time.
You never learned your own countries history in school? Wow
We do, just not on what went on around WW2 and why it happened.
Norway during WW2 is its own chapter in Norwegian history classes so if you haven't learned about it your teachers are doing something wrong.
We do. However, our history education is more focused on long term effects and consequences than actual events. We learn why Germany invaded Norway, and we learn how it affected us, but we learn no details on what happened as they invaded us. Although most of these battles are usually mentioned in class, the only event people really remember is the sinking of Blücher, since that actually had a long-term effect.
Norway: mounts a competent defense, holding back the Germans long enough for ally reinforcements
The allies: no
Save PewDiePie! Wait I have a question, is it elsker den skilpadden or elsker det skilpadde? Someone corrected me and I want a second opinion lol
I doubt the thousands of young British servicemen who died fighting the Germans in Norway and Norweigan waters would be impressed by your tasteless and ill informed comments.
@@alecblunden8615 I'm commenting on the high command not organizing their effort well enough. They could have stopped the German invasion and ended the whole war years earlier, but instead they were sent to the wrong place with the wrong equipment so all of the soldiers on the ground couldn't hold back the Germans, and we all know what a German occupation entails.
"Competent defense" Lmao, unmobilized army and costal fortresses being unsure about firing on the ships ? Norway should have mobilized following the altmark incident, at least partially to not lose their major cities in 24 hours.
@@BraceletGrolf Well, yes. Compared to most other countries that fell before the invasion, it was a very competent defense. Remember that very few nations *wanted* to fight a war. Most kept their armies more or less at rest, so as not to provoke their meaner neighbours and to maintain hope of neutrality or another kind of diplomatic solution. That the fortress fired on the ships (in violation of its standing orders, remember), was a ballsy move. With what we know now, it's obvious that this commander assessed the situation better than his superiors did.
As for the campaign taking two months: I wish I could say the same about my country, which was overrun within 5 days.
Why does it seem like the Allies always manage to do everything wrong at this phase of the war?
Im not sure. Until April 1940 they didn't lose a single man at the german french border. I mean the Germans had their whole army in Poland, but what does that have to do with that?😉
To much going on at that point, trying to defend a country thats on the verge of losing its footing while trying to defend yourself. The Allies where already in a bad spot.
If you watched the first videos of this series; the allies destroyed most of the German marine fleet at the start of the war on Norway. This may have prevented a land invasion on the British Isles later in the war.
EirikXL i doubt the Germans would have managed to set foot on Britian, even if they managed to somehow take 0 causalities in Norway. Even if they managed to land, Britian would be sending in ships to reinforce from all over the world, making it basically impossible for the Germans to maintain supply there.
I said "may"
The Norwegian king; Haakon VII spoke these famous words during the war: "Alt for Norge" (Eng: "Everything for Norway") this became his motto and has inspired many norwegians later on.
Germany: Yeah bro lets send one of our newest ships to Oslo, what could go wrong?
Norway: *Sinks the ship*
Germany: You were not supposed to do that
imwuw germany: aaaa yes big brain time
Great channel
One of the best...
Just needs some NATO Nomenclature to be no. 1
These are amazing. Loved the inclusion of scenes from Kongens Nei (english title: The Kings choice). A really good movie. Cant wait for the battles of Narvik!
Carl Gustav Fleischer!
A great warhero! Its a tragedy that someone of his status got humiliated, dishonored, and betrayed by his own government in exile. As a norwegian northerner, I have great respect for the defender of the north. Sure, he wanted surrender, understandably so, but he did his job as ordered. A man of honor. The destruction of his honor would be the end of him sadly.
@overjee: Shame is that I'm from Trøndelag and I never -ever- learned about him in school. My interest for World War II is what made me aware of him and I learned to appreciate him and his actions. He did what he could with what he had.
What the government did to him is inexcusable... Even to this day, did you know that members of the Labour Party do not attend whenever he is honored? It's dispicable!
Same here, only my interest is what made me leard about him myself. I cant remember learning much at all in school about him or almost anything detailed about the second world war other than it happened, and that we lost norway to the germans and had a government in exile. Nothing about why. Hell, dont think I ever saw or heard anything in school about Quislings coup and cooperation with the Germans. Even though I favour the labour partys politics more today, their complete disrespect to someone fighting and risking his life for them is disgusting. Its like a child not wanting to admit their fault, so just sits there pouting. Noone could've forseen him taking his life because of it, but they should atleast owe up to it. He went out his own way while still keeping a resemblance of his honor. I don't think I could've forsaken my life for honor. A much stronger man than me and most of Norway
I don't bear a grudge easily and I can see the Labour Party back then and now being two different things.. But that they -still- choose to treat him with such disgusting disrespect to this day is something that hits me hard. As an ex-enlisted, I have seen how their policies have affected the military and due to that, I really don't like them.
Though with that said, those reasons are my own. Got friends from all walks of life and having the opportunity to choose is one of the things General Fleischer although indirectly tried to protect.
ALT for Norge.
The amount of research you have put in to this and the work you have put in graphically, to educate us, impresses me. Standing ovation! Sincerely, a Norwegian.
Do a video on Denmark. Oh wait we didnt fight xd
:(
You did fight, but for something like 3 hours ;)
Have you seen the movie 9 April..?
DENMARK FOUGHT 3 HOURS 😡😡😠😠😠🤣
Better than the Egyptians
Actions like this (often called "minor" by historians) are quite interesting and deserve more attention. THANKS!
>Being Germany in ww2
>Having a sizable fleet but not enough to beat the British one
>Sending a hyper class battleship into a nowegian strait where very big guns are positioned
>Losing that ship in a matter of minute
>Kriegsmarine arguing about the british naval dominance
Docibal
Germany had only a very small surface fleet during WW2.
The German Empire had the second largest fleet of the world during WW1, but that was scrapped at the end of WW1 and only a tiny navy remained.
NEIN NEIN NEIN
nine
Hipper class not hyper
Oh, you just made my day. Sipping coffee and watching this, heaven.
Let's hope I didn't make too big a mess of the pronounciations!
Just roll your Rs and you got 90% of it done. Try to pronounce everything with a socttish accent.
Well, the pronounciations weren’t perfect, but that’s to be expected. As a norwegian, i’ve heard worse XD. Good job.
I believe the pronunciation for the German heavy cruiser Blücher doesn't have the "ch" sound in it, it's more like "Bluu-ker," however I'm English and don't actually speak German so I'm likely butchering that myself.
I used the Bluu-ker sound in the last video on this and everyone said it was wrong. I think its with a soft c sound
Fair enough, as I said I have heard both pronunciations but I'm not a German speaker so I don't really know myself. I love your animations though and I'm curious where the footage you used came from? A documentary or a TV show?
Thank you for highlighting this part of WW2, the story of Norwegian resistance is often dominated by the focus on partisan movements later in the war. Glad you're shedding light on the early stages as well. Well worth patreon support.
Nice, love you covering Norway during WW2.
The battles in Norway are almost always neglected by most documentaries and text books.
I know, and it’s sad.
As a norwegian myself I would say this is a very good video, and I appreciate the pronounciation. It's not perfect by any stretch, but way better than I would have expected from pretty much anyone outside of scandinavia
My grandfather Einar Wilhelmsen and Colonel Eriksen where close friends. The Commander of Oscarsborg, borg = "castle", but i this case I think "fortress" is a more accurate description of Oscarsborg. When Blücher arrived Commander Eriksen called my grandfather who lived on the main land further out the fjord so he could see if the ships had flags. My grandfather told him that none of them had flags and then he asked Eriksen what he was going to do. "I'll shoot!" he said. Some minute later my grandfather heard the highest bang he had heard in his life. The fjord are keeping the shock wave from spreading out, but instead compress and keep it in the fjord passing my grandfathers house.
Eriksen had only time to shoot one shot from each of two of the canons. This was old canons and it took too long time to reload them, and on top of that they were understaffed and had only crew for two canons. Two rounds and two hits! The first projectile with a weight of 470 kg. hit the bridge and made the ship uncontrollably, the second hit the ammunition magazine. On the east side of Oscarsborg there is a torpedo battery which gave Blücher the final blow.
Fun facts: I'm born and raised in the village you can see at the left corner on the map from 00:42 a huge part of the buildings were one of Oscar Nobel's first dynamite factory. The powder that was used in the canons were produced at that factory. A little irony is that the canons that hit Blücher is that they were German produced by Krupp.
Thomas, many thanks for your information, especially about your grandfather.
I did not check - but the projectile of this old Krupp cannon weighed 470kg?
Cheers mate
Funfact: Eriksen ordered cooks, washers etc. to help arm a second cannon, because they didn’t have enough men to arm all 3 👌🏽
Source: My History Teacher, i wrote an text about it.
This channel needs to be bigger the work that goes in is just so much and the videos are so good
de Wiart: we need air cover we're being pounded by German aircraft
British: OK here's 10 biplanes
Great content. Loved it since the start. The effort in your maps are not overlooked, and your voice is pleasant. Keep up motivation and there is only one way to go... Up.
Fun fact: If you're ever in Oslo and encounter road work, especially where they dig manholes to do work on pipes and such, they cover the holes with big plates of metal so that people won't fall into them. It is said that these plates are all from the hull of Blücher. ;)
Tirpitz not Blücher :)
Alright! I didn't know that. Seems you are indeed correct! ^^ After checking I found it was hauled to Oslo after the war, and the plates they use are indeed from Tirpitz. Thank you! Both shipwrecks are now protected as war memorials.
Germany: we have ze greatezt battlezhip ever
Norge (Norway): hold øle mitt
Loving this deep dive into aspects of the war we normally brush over, cheers!
I was so happy that you used clips from “The Kings Choice”
I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of this video series, and this one most of all. Not only do you provide a lot of information that most people never heard of, but you also manage to couple it with animations to great effect. And as others mentioned, showing care for the pronunciation of Norwegian names is great - when I listened to "Hitler's pre-emptive war" about the Norwegian campaign I damn near stopped after the first couple of chapters since the narrator butchered both the Norwegian and German names.
Thank you so much, that's very kind of you to say
do the heavywater sabotage in Rjukan!
Yeah this something I would like to cover in the future- it won't happen for a few videos as I have other things planned, but for sure at some point
That sabotage have been hyped up. We are led to believe this is the only place heavy water was produced but both Germany and the US produced large quantities of heavy water themselves during the war.
its still a pretty big sabotage..
As someone who actually lives here, i vote yes !
@@nordicnostalgia8106
For all they knew at the time, it was the only place it was produced. Later it has also been known that the nazis wasn't anywhere near actually being able to build the bomb and it also turns out that you actually don't need heavy water. But nobody knew that at the time.
This is hands down the best documentary about Weserübung you can find on the internet. Keep up the greatwork!
Small addition from a Central Norwegian - The last resistance of the region was at the Hegra Fortress, near the Swedish Border (it was built and intended to resist potential Swedish invasions). It resisted unyieldingly untill ordered to stand down due to being the only ones still fighting in the southern half of the country
Your excellent post adds so much to our appreciation of the courageous actions of Norway's defenders. Most histories deal with this entire chapter of the war with a sentence or two. Thank you for creating and posting! And i'm hoping for more!
Do a video documentary about the Italian Invasion of Greece in 1940
Hahaha so you can laugh about Italians eh?
@@AunknownMan Well not really i want to see what is actually history and what is just myths
I will look forward to that. Mussolini going for an 'easy' victory. Not so easy after all.
No warning, No hesitation! These are enemies!
@Dreadios "white race would be minority"
As an inhabitant of a frontline country (Poland) I wonder, if you westerners are aware that a large number of such posts have their origins in St Petersburg, Russia. And is pretty well paid. Wait for your next election to know, that i'm not joking.
@@zowikspowolniony3546 We are aware. (Canada) My sister was married in a church that has the statement 'Semper Fidelis Poloniae' over the door. If the Russians cross that line your NATO brothers will be there to help.
@@alexdoiron8419 what an ironic comment, Canada’s already been invaded by the Chinese and Poland is probably the safest most insulated Nation in Europe. You really do have it back to front.
When I was thirteen, my junior high school class went with on a study tour with the White Buses down to Poland and Germany. Even though the Concentration Camps were the main agenda, we rode down the eastern side of Drøbak. Our guide, an old man who I sadly do not remember the name of had apparently served on Oscarborg and knew Colonel Eriksen. He could tell us that when they opened fire on "Blücher", they were guessing the distance to the ship to get the correct degree angle for their guns. One degree off and they would have missed the target.
@Steven G - Perhaps, but during the night? Harder than you'd think.
@@Methalec1985 It was early morning (05:30am??), so maybe not that dark any more.
Excellent combination of commentary, visual aids and historic footage!
Great series on the battle of Norway! I would love to see a Historigraph series on the valiant resistance by the Finnish Army, in the Soviet battle for Finland. 👍🏽
Your videos are getting much better. Good job!
Even though Norway got occupied, our resistance after the occupation was badass.
The resistance/insurgence was strong but from a small number of men, not like the majority of Norwegians rose up
No, it wasn't. It was rather pathetic.
@Tor Bygjordet Hahaha, that's not true, Norwegians from SOE had the most successful sabotage in WW2 in 1943, following many other successful sabotages, you can hear stories from almost every great grandfathers and grandmother's in Norway about action in the resistance.
Gunnar Sønsteby - national hero.
@ Tor B
From the beginning of the 2nd half of the war the Norwegian underground was severely upsetting the german efforts.
British Norwegian SOE operatives led many good campaigns against the invaders and by the end of the war Norway was really pissing the germans off. Norwegian underground was very strong and capable at the end of the war.
Great videos man. I love that you dont make your videos around popular events but if you make some you will get some boost in subscribes but i am really thankful for your production of videos now. Keep up the great work
the good old hoi4 capital rush
Thank u for this. We don’t have any historical youtubers in Norway so it’s hard to find videos like this
Norway, my home country
Delta 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴 an amazing country.
The pronunciation is spot on. It's really just another war video, but details like the effort to pronounce names correctly makes it so much more.
Not all germans were bad. My great grand parents had a farm and a german company arrived at the farm. They demanded to stay over, and demanded 1. floor of the house. My great grand parents had no choice and gave them rooms for sleeping for the soldiers. At evening commander of the troup talks to my ggp, and say " im tired of this war". Next day the left the farm, and rooms was completely cleaned and nothing were stolen
Similar experience with my grandfather in Northern Norway. It was a high ranking officer and his men, and they all behaved very professionally to the my great grand father's family, even thought they were not well off in any way.
@@willek1335 Nice to hear it.
This is truly the most underrated history channel on youtube.
Could your next Topic be the German Balkan Campaigns against Yugoslavia and Greece?
I would appreciate it, as it's an interesting war theater, with not much coverage on UA-cam. Thanks
I'm in love with this format of video and your channel. I asked this before but I hope you'll do something on Irish history like the 1916 Rising in the future. All the best.
1:13 I don't remember those guns being 15 inches of diameter. I though they were 11 in. Or 283mm guns
@MarloYT - I believe that you're correct, Oskarberg Fortress had 11 inch guns.
Amazing video, thanks for creating it in such detail. Well done.
You say that Blücher was hit multplie times. Yes, multiple, as in only 2 times. The fort was manned by fresh recruits, that only managed to fire the 2 shells that was already pre-loaded. Both of these hit, starting fires on the heavy cruiser, but by no means dooming the ship. Torpedo hits (2 or 3 I believe) however, sealed Blüchers faith. The germans was actually totally unaware of the underground torpedo battery, and thought that the Blücher had come upon a mine field, and therefore the Lübeck as well as the rest of the taskforce turned around. It's also worth mentioning that the Blücher was under constant fire from small caliber weapons from the surrounding forts, and that no norwegian soldiers manning the forts lost their lives that night, despite heavy countering fire from the germans.
Well described. I also caught this, but since Blucher was hit many times by the secondary batteries (15 cm and 57 mm) in addition to the 2 main battery (28 cm) hits, he isn't wrong when he says Blücher was hit multiple times.
He's technically correct, but I think he could have been a bit more careful with the details, as the sinking of Blücher is such a seminal point in Norwegian history.
Wow, first time seeing one of your videos and OMG! This is the best battle doc. I've ever seen and I've seen tens of thousands of documentrys.
12:01. Strange verb tense. The fall of France would be in the future not the past.
Good catch! I am always up for a grammar correction.
That was a fascinating tale, thank you the videos are fantastic, and the format is easily understood !!
Even tho we lost, we still sat a record for withstanding the Germans. Denmark 1 Hour, poland 4 weeks, France 6 weeks, Norway 2 Months. It's something
A fact for you; the guys hodling up the German paratroopers, many of them were new recruits who had never fired a gun. Before the shoot out, they were taught how to reload their weapons. Pretty cool
You can't really blame the germans for being too confident in the beginning, as they were by far the superior force.
Great channel, filling the gaps with less well known battles, that are really interesting to long-term history buffs. Thanks!
Do the battle for Greece
Great stuff! absolutely great! and very underrated aswell, which I love--- you and Montemayor both are great, Looking forward to the next one of the series with Narvik!
This is why you dont trust your national defense to "allies". No one will fight harder than the people defending their homes but they must properly trained and equipped and currently maintained.
that's why our doctrine right now is never the repeats of 9th of april
Arguably the problem was that they didn't. Norway didn't have the money, population or industry to resist Germany alone. If they'd allied before they were invaded they would likely have had British or French troops, ships and aircraft stationed to prevent the invasion, rather than them being ineffectively rushed in after it had already begun.
Great quality! Keep up the good work!
Kongens nei
Really good movie!
This is like something off old-school good history channel. Keep it up man.
Each like means long live the memories of the people that fought for their country even if it was futile for Denmark 🇩🇰 France 🇫🇷
Norway 🇳🇴
@Atlas aït Amazal wtf?
Nice job with the maps and the unit markings. Well done.
Really looking forward to the second part of this one! :D The first major Allied land victory was attributed to a Norwegian General from Trøndelag!
Shame history has chosen to forget him... But we will never forget him!
What was his name?
@@novacolonel5287 - Major General Carl Gustav Fleischer.
Outstanding quality and very informative!
Watching this should be mandatory in Norwegian High- and Middle Schools
Yeah, but I don't see that happening any time soon. It wouldn't look good for Arbeiderpartiet.
NordicNostalgia haha
@@nordicnostalgia8106 *APene
We did learn this stuff back in the 80s. It's not taught anymore?
@@nordicnostalgia8106 haha! Det har du rett i
Thank you for detailed description of these little-known battles. Very interesting review with successful animation!
Lenge leve kongen
Alt for Kongen. Alt for Norge!
Ja lenge leve Norge
Norge lever til Dovre faller!!
Kongen er for normies B)
Fuck the king.
Amazing video Addaway
I have notifications on and clicked on it so fast. I look forward to these videos so much
Continue the great work.
Probably brought the Blucher with Free XP, Wallet Warriors that Captain are.
Another Amazing episode !
Well done dude!
im norwegian! im so proud. just imagine if we only had better equipment and alittle better training we could have done much more. atleast i think so :)
Or if we didn't use letters to order mobilization
Im German. I am so ashamed.
Sadly only months prior to the attack, norway had decided to cut down on its millitary power by almost 2/3 :/
Georg LP lol.
yeah, i remember that part.
Great channel. Good content. Keep up the good work
Norwegians: "the Brits are coming"
French: "and theyll be the first to leave!"
Didn't you guys surrender? at least the British fought til the end.
12:51
I think that's the best pronounciation of Tromsø i have ever heard. I would like to call it flawless, or at least as flawless as a non-Norwegian could get without living here for a while. Well done!
thank you!
Make a video about Romania 🇷🇴
The less well-known areas of the conflict should be remembered. Romania would be an excellent area to cover.
@@neilwilson5785 not only Romania but other countries from east Europe, this countries lost more people that the western European countries
you have the perfect voice to make history even more enjoyable..
so it took the nazis 2 months to take out Norway?
France - 6 weeks
Poland - 1 month
in other words Norway > France > Poland
i'm impressed Norwegians, well done
Remember that Norway's mountainous geography is much harder to invade than France or Poland. Flat terrain is one of the major reasons Denmark only lasted 6 hours to Germany's invasion.
Yes because duration is everything, numbers or terrain have no bearing, it's that calender that does it.
France had 3.3 million troops and got wrecked in 6 weeks, Norway had 93k and lasted for 2 months. just accept it frogs, you suck
I'm not even French, but American. If you only care about speed alone, Napoleon defeated Prussia in only 19 days in the war of the
4th coalition.
Poland has been invaded also by Soviet Union from the other side.
This was excellent, nice work!
This is is some seriously fantastic content. I just supported you on patreon
Thanks for the video, good production, informative.
Very good!
The way of presentation is both entertaining and informative.
Keep up the good work. Sub confirmed :)
Love everything about these vids! Keep it up fam.
Very well made video, with decent pronunciation! Thank you :)
You are a amazing channel with so much good history, I love it
amazing video!! well done
Oscarsborg had 2 11” guns in open turrets that got off one shot each both hitting Blücher, one hitting the bottom of the bridge area. The ship was not ablaze from bow to stern, but the second 11” shell hit the seaplane hangar and set the aviation fuel on fire. As the Germans started firing back the Oscarsborg gun crews had to leave their poorly protected positions.
Tusen takk for making an effort on pronunciation!
Wonderfull as always. keep em coming!
Great video as always
The guns at Oscarsborg were 11 inch, not 15.
Still, The Battle of Drobak Sound is one of the most interesting "battles" of WW2, with a brand new German heavy cruiser being destroyed by guns and torpedoes (if they were the Mk1s I believe they were) that were almost older than Hitler himself.
Oh and I love the German "offer".
"Hey, you should let us invade you so these other guys don't invade you."