Daring Rescue of Prisoners of War - Norway 1940 Documentary
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- Опубликовано: 25 май 2018
- The first in a series of videos examining the German campaign in Norway in 1940. We begin by looking at the Altmark incident.
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Sources:
Richard Petrow, The Bitter Years: The invasion and Occupation of
Denmark and Norway April 1940-May 1945 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1974).
Corelli Barnett, Engage The Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War (London: Penguin, 1991)
James Holland, The War in the West - A New History Vol. 1: Germany Ascendant 1939-1941 (kindle edition)
Henrik Lunde, Hitler’s Preemptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940. (kindle edition)
Earl Ziemke, German Northern Theater of Operations 1940-1945. (kindle edition)
SERVICE HISTORIES of ROYAL NAVY WARSHIPS in WORLD WAR 2 by Lt Cdr Geoffrey B Mason RN (Rtd) (c) 2004: HMS ARETHUSA - Arethusa-class Light Cruiser www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chro...
Music:
“Crypto" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
“Division" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
“Crossing the Chasm" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Sound Effects:
forest gun shots and gunfire by jgrzinich freesound.org/people/jgrzinic...
Distant WW2 gunfire Kent by Cheeseheadburger freesound.org/people/Cheesehe...
Large_crowd_medium_distance_stereo.wav by eguobyte
freesound.org/people/eguobyte... 
Развлечения
"The Navy's here!" became a popular catch phrase following the Altmark incident.
Especially for the British Army.
To the Norwegians, it became the start of a war.
We became stuck between two big naval powers, with not mutch to defend our long shores.
So to awoid beeing draged into the war, we could not act on Altmark, due to beeing neutral.
Altmark did follow all the rules, but higher powers pushed to get her on the way fast, so she got the clerance through a norwegian set exclusion zone.
Norway escorted her, as they did with all foreign warships traveling our coast at that time. German or English.
Personel that entered said that there where prisoners onboard, but they did not know natonality.
Nothing the Norwegians could do, as neutral.
Art. 7 of the Laws of War.
Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War (Hague XIII); October 18, 1907
A neutral Power is not bound to prevent the export or transit, for the use of either belligerent, of arms, ammunition, or, in general, of anything which could be of use to an army or fleet.
What the English did on the other hand.
Art. 2.
Any act of hostility, including capture and the exercise of the right of search, committed by belligerent war-ships in the territorial waters of a neutral Power, constitutes a violation of neutrality and is strictly forbidden.
So the Germans atacked, due to the english did not respect Norway's neutrality.
Had Hitler managed to capture the norwegian goverment, he might have got a hold of Norway's merchant fleet.
The merchant fleet that saved the english from starvation, before the americans joined the war.
This move, almost cost the english the war.
@@eilertv I'm sure the American merchant fleet is more deserving of saving the British from starvation, American merchandise and lend lease was enacted way before they joined the war.
For another case, Norway failed to exclude the ship from its protected zone, they PROTECTED the ship that was clearly carrying POWs as the protests were heard and the report sent to Oslo stated, and they still decided to escort it in their exclusion zone, imo Britain did the right thing and defended their POWs.
@@advisorynotice Our government at the time was a gang of spineless apathic cowards that makes my blood boil and the inspectors should have done a better job and demand access to the sealed off areas of Altmark's cargo hold.
That being said the Norwegian merchant fleet was one of the largest in the world and made a real contribution to bring supplies both to the UK and Murmansk in USSR. Watch the movie "War Sailor". It tells the story about the Norwegian sailors who were all civilians and were thrown into the war effort. Its a good film.
Incredible work. Concise and on point!
Agreed!
You guys should do a collaboration!!!
K&G joins the ranks of Historigraph!
Completely agree. Really good work. Top class. What's this business of editing out swastikas in a strictly historical context!? If true, surely disgraceful.
@@MLeonardReel The guy doesn't want to get demonitized. Simple.
My maternal grandad was a POW on this ship. My paternal grandad was also a seaman, and served on the Cossack....but the 6th Cossack, not the one involved in this rescue. Thank you for helping me learn more about this
It took until the end of the video for me to realise that Altmark was an oil tanker, not a cruiser. I was confused as to why it was being pushed around by smaller ships.
It makes me laugh how fast Britain always finds out about stuff lmao
Thank the Polish, they told us everything
Through the whole war British #infowar absolutely outclassed all others. It arguably was the biggest factor in the Allies' win.
Extensive network of spies, counter spies, double agents and supporting equipment. Predominantly the mosquitoes picking up SOE radio messages
@@moritamikamikara3879 I’m surprised they did even though the UK never came to Polands aid after the German and Soviet invasion. A lot of Polish people saw that as a betrayal.
@@moritamikamikara3879 including giving us and the French an early Enigma machine.
> Norway Green
> Denmark Green
Reeeee we independent now I swear
Norway? you mean North-Denmark?
u wot?
Both sweeds and danes are imperialist swine ;-)
At lest Swedes let us go after a war and a referendum xD
They let you go and you guys went straight back to a danish monarch hahaha
*NOTES ON THE VIDEO*
1. Yes, I have censored the swastika. I hate doing it and I think it looks rubbish, but I feel I have no choice considering RUclips’s policies.
2. There is a typo in the writing of the Norwegian Lieutenant rank. It should be Løytnant.
3. Ironically, for all the planning the British put into cutting the Germans off from iron supply from Narvik, this would have only severed around 30% of the German supply from Sweden. Another 7,000,00 tons were planned to be shipped in 1940 from the Swedish port of Lulea, in the gulf of bothnia. It was only during the winter that Narvik would need to be used as Lulea became ice-bound.
4. There was some disagreement among the sources over which British ships were involved at Jossingfjord. Richard Petrow correctly identified the RN ships as Arethusa and 5 destroyers, while Jonathan Dimbleby incorrectly said it was 6 destroyers. This disupute was resolved by myself by looking at Arethusa’s service record, which indicated she was present. www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-06CL-Arethusa.htm
The next video will cover Operation Weserubung itself, should be out in about two weeks (ish)
It sucks how political correctness forces you to censor a symbol, even when teaching history.
i just dont understand youtube anymore
Someone in other WW2 videos should replace the censored flag with a RUclips logo
Replace Swastika with Iron Cross?
What about a Black X?
Some girls I knew used to get quite excited with that "Come on up. The Navy's here" shout as well.
Gotta say, I fucking loved this video. The little ship icons in the actual map made it really easy to understand and a great video. You explained everything amazingly. You definitely earned my sub dude!
Good job, very well presentation of this interesting and important story.
Funny note: There are accounts of the British crew to have been wildly swinging their *cutlasses* (normally only for ceremonial use) like pirates as they boarded the Altmark. Whether those stories are true are up for debate but if true it would be the last recorded incident of these blades to have been used in a naval boarding action. _"Arrrrgh, matey! Avast, ye lubbers!"_
I think this video was very entertaining. I have not found much WW2 content about scandinavia on RUclips. The ones I have found are either documentaries from the 50's or low quality presentations. I hope you're going to cover more stuff in scandinavia in the future.
Greetings from Norway!
Man, Norway got screwed either way.
@@H-to-O international law did not ban the transfer of prisoners of war through neutral waters. One set of rules for the UK and a totally different set of rules for the rest of the world.
@@toast2610 Britannia rules the waves, and waives the rules. Huzzah.
Well, they could have not overturned Tank-Neilson's decision, and refused the Altmark access on the grounds that it had POWs on board. If Germany got upset over that then they would have got upset over ANYTHING.
Furthermore, they should have joined the Allies because they should have realised that neutrality meant d*** to Germany so it was their best chance to resist getting invaded.
H-to-O yeah but the Norwegian government at the time was stupid honestly. Coming from a Norwegian
@@H-to-O what? britain planned an invasion of norway even before the incident. and norway wanted to protect their nation. because of the brits actions, norway was invaded. the brits wanted germany to invade norway
Unbiased histroy videos are a rare thing these days.
Thank you for this high quality video :)
I love the amount of high quality and interesting historical youtube channels there are these days. Keep up the good work I'm looking forward to the next video!
Absolutely love the thoroughly researched; informed; and clear explanations in your videos. Bravo!
An excellent video presentation. Concise informative commentary and excellent graphics combine to create an easy clear explanation of the events.
Fantastic video :)
AMAIZING !!! Keep up the great work man!
Don't worry about the numbers, just do what you love with passion and everything will turn out great for you !
I learned about this story when I was about 10. The model maker Airfix brought out a model of HMS Cossack which I built and with the kit came this story!
Me too!
It’s hard to overstate how central this is to Norway’s self-image. It’s totally different from any other country in the region
Neutrality v Cowardly
I'm from Norway, and now at the 6 minute mark I'm just sitting here hoping the British will sink the Norwegian ships being kind enough to escort a prisoner transport. No idea about what kind of self image I have though. Are we even supposed to have some kind of self image about this?
@@kopicat2429 Blame it on the politicians in Oslo, not the crew of the naval ships, Tank-Nielsen's orders were countermanded remember.
Possibly the most spineless government the country has ever had.
Also, heard about people during the occupation being branded as (good) Jøssings? Here's origin, IMO strangely enough. Secondly, you're sitting there hoping, not knowing about this incident from before...says a lot about the Norwegian education system. Brushed under the carpet as the embarrassing incident that it was.
@@trevorhart545 tell that to Sweden.
Can I ask you to elaborate?
Thank you, another superb video with great graphics. But more than that while your presentation was brief it was complete. I am also very glad for the photos and names of the officers involved.
Very well done.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Really one of the better RUclips Channels i've seen. Keep up the great work!
Best description I’ve seen of this incident. Crystal clear
it's amazing i never heard of this incident, thank you for sharing this :) it's very well created
This is definitely my favorite video of yours. Awesome detail!
Thanks, youv'e made this way more interesting than I was expecting.
Dude brilliant video, there are a lot of areas of WWII that I know little about and the Scandinavian front is definitely one of them! Thanks for the brilliant educational content, sorry youtube is so shit you do deserve better! Peace
You may have already come across it but one good piece of programming on the subject is 2 hour plus segment of the Discovery Channel series "Battlefield" from the late 90's. The episode in question is called "Scandinavia the forgotten front", if you haven't seen it it might be worth a watch, if I recall correctly it covers the Finish war and the Norwegian campaign of 1940
Yeah, that's a great one to watch. Also some really good norwegian movies. Like Max Manus, one of our greatest resistance heroes.
-The kings choice, about the german invasion of Norway, and the kings refusal to surrender.
- Battle for the heavy water, short series about the Norwegian resistance destroying heavy water plant in Norway. It was used in Hitlers nuclear program.
- The 12'th man. About a norwegian resistance team of 12, were all but 1 were captured. He managed an miraculus travel to Sweden whit the help of civilian norwegians.
Thank you that was interesting. I was aware of that incident but your video explained it well in the context of the strategic significance.
A great video, thank you for sharing!
Thank you. A lot of the WW2 history is not well covered. Thanks for covering this incident.
What a great story. I can’t believe with all my love of this kind of history that I hve never herd this story.. well done .
Fantastic!!!
Brilliant video, keep it up!
As always, great work man!
As usual, a great summary of an interesting event from WWII.
One slight correction, however: The helmsman of HMS COSSACK is credited with "quick thinking" that saved the destroyer from damage as ALTMARK tried to ram her. COSSACK was a Tribal class; this class were designed with the helm below the bridge and the helmsman had no ports or scuttles to see what was going on outside, so he couldn't have even known the ship was at risk of being rammed, let alone take avoiding action. The helmsman would have normally been receiving orders from the OOW, except that under the circumstances, Captain Vian would have taken direct control of the bridge. There's no doubt that the credit for the quick thinking is due to Capt Vian himself - most destroyer captains were exceptional ship-handlers.
Really love these videos, keep it up man
thank you !
Hi, I absolutely love your videos, thank you so much for making them! Luckily my memory is bad enough that I can rewatch them while I wait for the next ones!
Thanks for the video
Fantastic vid, but such a teaser! >.
Amazing work!
New favorite channel
This video is incredible!!
Woho another videoooo, Keep it Up man
Nicely done video
"I have my orders".... Couldn't have been more clear to be fair!
really excellent. thank u!
Thank you.
You guys did a great job. First time hearing the story for me.
Guys? There’s only one person behind this channel :)
Well done, top notch. Keep it up.
thank you for the kind words
These videos are very great.
It’s not really a matter of opinion. Purely on the surface, Norway allowed a German vessel, a belligerent nation, through its restricted waters without conducting a full search. That alone is a violation of its own neutrality. Even not taking into account that their own officer said he suspected pows were on board and that the German captain directly refused to have his ship searched. As someone pointed out below, they were screwed either way. Germany was going to pull a WW1 and invade it anyway or Britain was going to pull a WW1 and occupy it anyway like the allies did in Greece 25 years earlier. But Norway hastened its own occupation with that
Exactly.
The British had a moral duty to rescue the Merchant Seaman.
If only I could watch videos like this every second of the day 😢
My Grandad was on HMS Mohawk, F31. Also a tribal class destroyer, he recorded that the crew were armed encase they were needed for the boarding of the Altmark, but Cossack done it first.
awesome video! :)
Is he still alive, if so may you thank him for his service from me.
The big question: So as per legend. Was Cossack the last ship/RN ship to send a boarding party armed with cutlass?
I hope he never comes to Norway again. That's the only thing I can say and he's certainly not welcome here.
I'm loving your vids. They provide a fresh and interesting perspective.
Any progression planned with the English Civil War Vids you've started. I'm interested in the rise of the New Model Army and how they fared.
It’s certainly planned- need to find the time to complete the series
Very good video
I want to thank you for all the hard work that went into developing and producing this. I was not aware to this incident and I considerate myself an amateur WW2 historian.
Recommend including a legend to help understand your symbology ... DD = destroyer ... CL = Light Cruiser
Great piece .. it’s awesome job. You filled in a very interesting piece of history the had a huge impact on the war ... and it was done very concisely. You managed to avoid any obvious political messaging
I think I need to find a way of making the ship type clearer yeah. Perhaps where possible I will just write the name of each
Good job thanks
Really good video
Glad your issue with the Battle of the Bulge video got fixed!
Well researched.
Excellent video, please can we have more. Hello to Norway from the UK 🖐. Brothers in arms, I've been to Spean Bridge many times and seen where the Commandos were trained that fought in Norway.
I never knew about the British invasion tie in with the Russians fighting Finland. Very interesting. Thank you.
*Soviets
The French were to participate too. The same troops earmarked for Operation R4 ended up being used to take back Narvik from the Germans.
Real good stuff. Not too many videos on the Norwegian campaign
This channel is going to grow very fast.
Really liked this. :)
Good work
Very well made video.
this series was super interesting!
Expert video!
The censored Swastika. Why, RUclips? I know some jerks will use that symbol for promotion, but seriously?
I feel the same way
Never underestimate the power of stupid.
In Germany the Swastika is illegal and you get arrested when you use it in public
Unless it's used for academia.
or art and movies but everything else is Illegal
Great Video
Much appreciated
Never heard of this incident crazy!
AMAZING !
Excellent
Just subscribed to this series. There are not enough existing information re the german invasion of Scandinavia in WW2. Short and precise. 👍
I also recommend Kings and Generals. 👍
the british mining of norwegian waters would be nice to be included. im sure that played into the german descition
British plans to mine waters will definitely be discussed in the next video in this series
@@historigraph they weren't just plans.
@@toast2610 No, but for the invasion to be kicked off so quickly after the waters were mined, the Germans had to have been preparing for an invasion long before the mines were laid, so the whole issue is semi-irrelevant.
@@hagamapama the Brits were mining Norwegian waters months before the German invasion. Britain prepared with plan R 4 to invade Norway themselves if Germany did not take the bait (as they did in Poland). Goal #1 was to establish Germany as the aggressor to counter the fact that Britain and France declared the war. After WWII Britain had people at every radio station in Norway for a number of years in order to censor anything that countered their narrative from being broadcast.
@@nakenmil interesting style you have discerning truth from fiction man. All you need is whether once a Nazi parroted something. You should seriously patent this technique. A company like Boeing can sure use some cutting edge stuff like this right about now.
Nice video
Now I know what my great grandmother saw that day
Awesome video!
Good stuff
I am from Germany, currently living in a region called....
Altmark.
Its north in Saxony-Anhalt.
Before, this region was called „Nordmark“. Its a bit like Rohan in LotR. But with more forest.
Fun fact: Altmark later got renamed to Uckermark. Uckermark is in Brandenburg, near Poland. Angela Merkel comes from Uckermark.
Excellent video. Shame about your Battle of the Bulge video - that one was also excellent.
this channel is like listening to jingles, but not crap :D
And without the incessant chuckle. I like his content, for the most part, but that chuckle really gets under my skin.
Yesterday I watched "Pursuit of the Graf Spee" on You Tube and it showed the Altmark taking on the British Prisoners!
Loved it
Fascinating
Brilliant...
More dude, more of this stuff
I was not familiar with this incident. Thanks.
Very well done. Thanks!
At 3:30, you've put the marker on Haugesund, about 100km south of Bergen.
Stuff there I didn't know. Was only aware of the bare bones of the incident. The diplomatic and political ramifications, as well as the operational details are all new. Good video.
4:09 "we are here, we are here, we are here!" - Horton Hears a Who
That's it, I'm subscribing!
I have only recently discovered your channel, and it's simply amazing. Thank you and fight the (RUclips) man! Edit: as funds become available, your channel will be the first (and probably only) channel I will support on Patreon.
I served at Orlund RNAFB in Trondheimfjord in Nov/Dec. 1980 when I was USMC AirWing.
'Just when we thought we were out, they pull us back in!'
Incredible
I've heard about the minelaying the Allies did in Norwegian waters, but this is something else! Really cool video!
In the grand scheme it's clear both sides wanted Norway in the fight. The occupation was an inevitability.
They planned to but never did it.
3:30 Bergen seems to be to far south from there it really is. On the map, it is closer to Haugesund than Bergen.
I believe that First Lord of the Admiralty’s (Churchill) signal to Vian was actually a little more detailed, albeit clear enough for him to use his judgement - an essential element where rules of engagement are concerned.