The King's Choice (2016) -- Oscarsborg Fortress Battle [2K]
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- Опубликовано: 31 мар 2019
- Based on the true the story about the three dramatic days in April 1940, where the King of Norway is presented with an unimaginable ultimatum from the German armed forces: Surrender or die. {Property of Samuel Goldwyn Films}
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What makes this even more impressive is that the three guns of the fortress only had one trained crew between them, and so they could only operate two guns by splitting that crew and supplementing them with whoever was on hand.
Basically, the Norweigans sunk a German Heavy Cruiser with a crew of cooks and trainees using weaponry well over 40 years old at the newest.
Ironically, this is a huge W for Prussian-German product quality.
It was an 11-inch gun. Even a battleship would've been badly damaged at such close range.
@@anzaca1It was the Germans newest class of heavy cruiser(i think it was a cruiser)
@@notnog Yes, Hipper class
Now that was a costly mistake by Germany, tho Norway basicly lost the war, (on a technical note), they did threw a hard punch at the Germany already small navy.
What a fucking badass- ignores the rangefinder and goes on instinct, scores two immediate direct hits
Instinct. And experience.
Back of hand familiarity, my young potato.
That say about old men and treachery
its called "local knowledge" :)
It's the way people can shoot from the hip and hit a bird in the eye at 200 meter/yards... sometimes it can be done by feel.
4:57 When that searchlight illuminates the silhouettes of those warships in the dark and that ominous foreboding music comes in....absolute cinematic perfection!
Yes. It is perfect. I like how the searhlight is sweeping. And then stays still. As if the the searchlight crew has just spotted something. And then, a couple of seconds later, we can see, for the first time, something is there.
But also by how it does it... for a second before the reveal, the beam is simply cut short and it's that sudden moment of knowing, before the image resolves.
Then when the scene is illuminated by fire… *chef’s kiss* Beautiful production.
Back in 1997 I took the night train from Oslo to Copenhagen. An elderly couple also stayed in my compartment and we had a drink and talked, well the wife talked and the husband used sign language bc he was completely deaf. The wife told me he lost his hearing when he fired one of the cannons on Oscarsborg that night Blücher went down. Now, did I believe their story, cos what are the odds, right? I chose to believe them .
Yeah no kidding, the guns actually shattered the windows of the nearby houses
At 1200 meters even those old heavy guns were as deadly for any warships entering the fiord as modern one could be... and to be fair, Blucher's Commander made huge mistake to enter the fiord without having 100% proofs that there will be no threat from the coastal defences located around it.
They were some BIG ass mf guns. 11-inch barrel width to be exact.
@@m4gn3tic82 There are no houses near the fort
@@gunnarthefeisty That was an early naval siege gun retro fitted for a land battery. Shit was loud lol
I admire the Fortress commander for making the tough decision to engage rather than wait for orders that might never have come. That soldier kept Norway from becoming a neutered nation during the war... and to think the government was going to prosecute him for taking steps to defend his nation without their permission.
When he gave the order he reportedly said "I shall either be decorated or court martialled"
What a chad
@@derlasercrafterwally4342 I presume you meant "Champ?"
@@namu1957 nope "Chad" in this context it means he has some huge balls to simply fire at ships without orders
@@derlasercrafterwally4342 Ya I was advised of that my my daughter...
I can’t believe they left out his famous line! In real life he said: “Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialled. Fire!”
*edited for spelling
Court-martial. Not marshal.
@@Strelnikov403 YES
its actually court-martialled
I know!! Left out the best line in the entire opening scene.
Technically he got both. Of course said court martial was quick to exonorate him of any wrong doing that day, but he did indeed both get his medal *and* a court martial.
One of The Greatest moments of World War Two. A gun from 1878 made in Germany by Krupp (who also made tank and artillery guns) destroyed a Modern Warship. Not to mention that the Colonel only had a handful of men who were too old and too young to pose any real threat. The next couple of days saw the fortress bombed into submission by the Luftwaffe. 'Never Underestimate Your Enemy's Willingness To Survive'.
Not to mention that the colonel was only a few days due to retirement and that the German intel grossly underestimated the threat of the fortress and a key moment as to why Norway lasted longer than France.
Also the torpedo’s fired were from Austria-Hungry which hadn’t existed since 1918
More like:" Never underestimate your enemy's determination to f*** you up."
A 200mm gun will sink even our current newest ships. An aircraft carrier will go down in 1 to 3 shots.
@@BHuang92 actually, the colonel had retired already a few years before that scene. He was called back into active duty in 1938 or 1939. His garrison wasn't even complete. Most were either legal minors, or nearing retirement age. Only a minority were of actual military age and active-duty soldiers.
Legend has it the Foundation of the fortress was shattered from the weight of the commanders brass balls.
Brass? Don't you mean steel?
lol
Too bad the Norwegian Government didn't have the balls to mobilize their military when they had the chance months beforehand out of fear Germany would take it as a sign of aggression. But the Norwegians weren't alone in this, if most of Europe didn't adopt an appeasement policy and actually fully mobilized and refused to allow Germany to violate the Versailles treaty and take ANY territorial concessions, things could have turned out quite differently in the early years of the war.
@@AScottish-AustralianM-84 freakin TITANIUM, LOL
Absolute STEEL
The Oscarsborg Fortress had been relegated to a training facility, and it was manned by a mix of pensioners and new recruits, it's commander was 64 years old. The original commander of the Torpedo Battery was sick at the time of the action, and so command of the battery during the battle was left to an officer who had actually retired 13 years prior, but was recalled to service due to rising tensions.
Thanks to his intimate knowledge of the old torpedo systems--which he had previously manned during the last world war--he was able to use them to great effect
The guns were older than most of the men and the torpedoes had been manufactured 22 years earlier by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a country which no longer existed.
... And they had sunk a German Cruiser that was so new, that it still had a new car smell on the toilet seats.
Copy and paste
@@thespectre5403 Copy and paste
4:40 This part is perfection
Perfection. Between the silence, the dark, when you see the spotlight finding the Blücher, and the deep ominous tones, just brilliant.
The rise in tension is palpable.
The Germans lost several ships during the Norway campaign. It was one of the reasons why Hitler called off the invasion of Britain - fear that the Royal Navy would sweep down from Scapa Flow and destroy the German invasion fleet. Thank you Norway.
Iwish they would have tried, it would result in slightly depleted RN ammo stock, and maybe a few ships lost, while Kriegsmarine surface fleet would cease to be and so would a few elite divisions of Wehrmacht.
I read in the book "we march for england" that the rn only had a couple battleships and about 10 dds that would have been able to engage the german invasion fleet before it could land its troops. And then NATO did a wargame in the 70s, apparently the germans were able to land a few divisions before the rn intervention would have cut the ships up as they went back. They spoke like it was a 50 50 shot.. not like we all expect, that the rn would have shown up with 10 bbs and 100 dds.. most of the fleet was spread out to guard the atlantic and such
You're referring to the bilateral British/German war-game of 1974, with three umpires from each side. Here is the punchline from the Wikipedia entry:
"After the game's conclusion, all the umpires unanimously concluded that the invasion was a devastating defeat for the German invasion force." So not a 50/50 shot at all.@@tra-viskaiser8737
@@tra-viskaiser8737the Sandhurst war game did however presume favourable circumstances for the Germans that were not achieved by September 1940.
@@tra-viskaiser8737 "Only had a couple battleships" Which were superior than the ships Germany had. All they had in 1940 was the Scharnhorst class, which were unable to match even WW1 British battleships in a fight. And once the Germans in Britain were cut off, that was that. Germany never could've kept them supplied with enough stuff to do more than survive without being able to ships supplies across the Channel and the rest of the Royal Navy would've quickly showed up after the initial invasion. Think Arnhem but on a bigger scale.
Old men with too many years and young men with not enough defended their home. Mad respect!
"Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed. Fire!" - Birger Kristian Eriksen,
"They are warships! Damn right we shoot at them!"
Imagine the crew on Lützow and Emden when they see one of Germany’s most model heavy cruisers getting memed by a fortress built in like the 19th century.
6:48 Oh no, it looks like you guys are on fire. Let me help get some water on those flames.
The irony is the shore guns were made by Krupp Steel!
From the 1890's along with the Whitehead torpedoes. However an eleven inch gun is still an eleven inch gun no matter how old.
@@thomasb1889 those torpedoes were from Austro-Hungary 40 years before world war 2 broke out.
@@AScottish-AustralianM-84 They were still Whitehead torpedoes with 250 pound warheads.
@@thomasb1889 I was mentioning their origin of manufacture
And the torpedoes came from Hitler's actual home country, go figure. 🤷♂️
Everything about this is great. The music is great, the cinematography behind spotting the ship with a floodlight is great, heavy cruisers are great (the best ship type, fight me), the determined look the commander gave at knowing he risks court martial and the fate of the nation is great, massive cannon and their EXPLOSIVE shots are great.
I've never heard of this movie but the cinematography, sound, music, and editing of this scene is amazing!
I love the way the whole ship is on fire.
Agreed
The actor who plays the king of Norway is Danish, WHICH IS IN FACT HISTORICALLY ACURATE.
There's no soldier like an old soldier!
True
The old are always ones you should fear in a war. Especially ones that are experienced with the weapons they work.
I went out to Oscarsborg last year, it's an amazing place and the museum is top notch.
One thing that is not always acknowledged: Erickson was extremely merciful with the Blucher. At the range they were firing from (1000m, point blank) they easily could have put an 11 inch shell straight through the cruiser's armor and into a magazine for an instant kill. Instead he gave them every chance to survive by shooting high, then into the deck, and only after that the torpedoes.
Quite frankly he could have blown that ship right to hell with the first shot, then saved the second shot for the Lutzow. After that show Lutzow turned and left under fire from the Kopas 6 inch batteries.
The guns were loaded with high explosive shot and the crew was too green to reload in time for a follow up shot. Realistically he was only ever going to hit the superstructure with any accuracy.
@@Zarastro54 The guns had a rate of fire of 1/ 2mins. They wouldn't have got another chance.
It is amazing what one, well disciplined and confidant person can do, to change the course of a war.
They actually aimed high intentionally with the big guns so as to not sink the ship immediately if it turned out to be friendly.
Or willing to surrender.
@@thomasb1889 the commander said after that it was specifically in case it was friendly fire. Capturing a warship wasn't the priority. Their RoE required positive ID, but presumably only an enemy would be running dark. Tough call, but he made the right one.
@@ThorsDecree Right, but he did fire high in case they were willing to surrender, remember that it was the torpedo battery that did the real damage. Any foreign ship that was legitimately entering the sound that lost electrical power would anchor so he went on that
@@thomasb1889
The coastal defence guns did a rather heavy amount of damage to Blucher, it took out the bridge and set afire to the aviation gasoline tanks. The guns alone would have sunk her, but the torpedoes quickened it.
@@ThatZenoGuy The aviation fuel was set on fire with the second shot form the fort but the "small" 6 inch guns on the other side of the sound could tear up the superstructure, secondary guns and AA armament. An amazing scene in an amazing movie.
I have seen this many times. Never gets old.
One of the best battle scenes ever made, IMO.
Theres 2 battle scene the blücher one and the land one
Wonderful. My father was in HMS Resolution at Narvik. I must seek out this film.
Kampen om Narvik ~ The Battle of Narvik.... ruclips.net/video/i67GHhHVoZA/видео.html
It's a great film. They had the full thing on YT a while back. With subs.
They sometimes have it on the BBC iplayer
This is an excellent scene, and the special effects are well done.
There are no special effects. Those are the actual guns that sunk the Blucher, firing blanks.
Finally watched this movie two days ago. I can't remember such suspense in a movie from start to finish quite like this one. Great portrayal of how much war sucks for everyone: commoners and nobility alike.
Props to the old commander who didn’t hesitated to defend his country from its invaders.
The snap zoom when the ship was spotted by the search light is
I remember reading that when the guns fired houses over 3 miles away had their windows shattered by the force and reverberation of when these guns fired.
07:00
The Norwegians could hear the screams and yells from the German crewmembers and soldiers onboard.
I can barely fathom how terrible it must have felt. Enemy or not, what a gut-wrenching sight.
No mercy; the Norwegians, as the rest of the world, had watched first the Sudetenland, then all of Czechoslovakia, and then Poland, fall to the Nazis. Now the German war machine had turned on Norway; these men had their families, their livelihoods, and their nation to defend, horribly outmatched against the invaders; I cannot imagine there was too much hesitation.
Burning nazi murderers screaming is music. How many innocent hostages would those occupation thugs have shot without any trial, how many innocents would they have had slaughtered in death camps?
That colonel had one job and by god he did it, spectacularly, with children and old men and massively outdated equipment. Balls the size of a small moon.
where is the quote: "Either I will be decorated, or court martialled" (paraphrased)?????
It was left out but it fits his decision.
Yeah wtf, they left out the best part ... Fake news! 🤭
@@slcpunk2740 Maybe the director was unsure of the providence of the quote or thought it was too over the top for a Norwegian.
@@thomasb1889 if the director had done ANY amount of research on the subject he would have found that quote from the commander's testimony recorded during the subsequent investigation by the Norwegian military
@@jim2lane True but the movie is still great.
most of the men had been conscripted 7 days earlier and the torpedo battery commander was brought out of retirement(hours before the battle) because the original commander was sick, he hadnt been in command for 13 years.
the ship also had a special squad whos job was the capture the king.
Great movie. Worth buying
The scene is perfect
I'd sure as hell follow that commander into battle any day
"We are coming to protect you from the British. Do not resist."
You will be assimulated. Please enjoy our kind protection.
If you watch this with full brightness in the dark you can see the hundreds of soldiers and crew on the deck of the Blucher terrifying sight to see them panicing on deck while torpeados are hiting their ship
"thousands" 😆
@@sunnyjim1355 reports say that around 1100 died on the ship idk its alot of people and most were just normal invading soldiers
@@NapoleonBonaparte05 I'm aware... but that's not "thousands", which means at least two thousands. So it's hundreds, like 11 hundred. And I know that not every man aboard died, but no way were there more than 2k+ people on that ship.
Regardless, my comment was directed at the OP who claimed that you could see "thousands" of people on the deck in the movie.. which is utter nonsense. 😆
@@sunnyjim1355 fair point I’ll just change it den🙃
@@NapoleonBonaparte05 Please excuse my autism, but I know I'm right, so I don't care if you change it or not.
The best scene of any war movie I have ever watched.
SO nice of the torpedo battery to try to help that poor burning ship by throwing some water on it!
Blücher went into service on 5 April and served for 4 days.
This movie is almost completely unknown in the states but this is one of the best war scenes i've ever watched. So suspenseful!
(Tell your friends to watch Mr White from Casino Royal play the king of Norway.)
Remarkable scene !
Actor playing Colonel Eriksen not only looks very much like real Eriksen, but he also is the father of Tormund Giantsbane
So "ile" means "fire" in Norwegian, you learn something new every day...
ild*
its the same word in danish
What a tense scene.
this is such a good movie. what a hero the king and his family were. all it takes is for good men to take a stand. well done by the harbor commander firing on those rat bastards.
"Beware the "old man" in a profession where men die young!" -- Col M. Radcliff
since then no other German ship was baptized Blucher
In military terms it was shooting fish in a barrel(hence 2/2 big guns and torpedoes) , but in commanding terms it was immense.
Legend has it the sound from the cannons shattered hundreds civilians of windows in Oslo.
Yes the fortress was originally build with no surrounding civilian structures near it but by the time ww2 came around the city of oslo had expanded to have neighbourhoods directly across the bay parallel to the guns. When the 11 inch guns fired the windows in those neighbourhoods either unseated frim their window mountings or shattered completely depending on how near or far the house was from the guns.
“But sir! What if you’re wrong?”
“I know a Nazi kraut when I smell one.”
Why did the city cut the light at 1:06?
The Germans were entering their port
They knew an air raid was coming in too.
Why are they using candles inside the foreign office?
Blackout. The threat of imminent invasion and air attack led the Norwegian garrison in Oslo to cut power to prevent enemy bombers from targeting government buildings.
the government intentionally shut off all electric power stations to make it very difficult for an "enemy" force to bomb it at night since, at night from the air a completely darkened city is pretty much invisible. The enemy bombers are bombing blind, at best they can hope for vaguely using astronomy and distance traveled/time to determine when they should start bombing. But this never really worked out well for either side.
The king looks like Poirot
Yeah. I'm an US Army vet. And a navy brat. What they did. Yeah. By every theory at the time, that should not have happened. I salute those men. And wish them fair winds and clear skies wherever they roam
05:14
The German crew know they have been spotted, and quite likely identified both as German and hostile.
So why the Hell don't they fire at the search light?
1) They seriously believed that they would not be fired upon by the shore batteries.
2) They were counting on the government to capitulate before they arrived.
3) The German ego also made them believe that their new state of the art war ships could withstand the old outdated guns used by the fortresses.
4) The Germans were also trying to present themselves as the good guys only there to protect from British invasion, if they fired first the ruse would have been exposed and everyone would have immediately known it was a German invasion.
They were stunned according to German intelligence the fortress was no longer operational so they were unsure what was going on therefore in the moment they didn't respond quickly. After the ship was hit as I recall it lost power and started drifting towards shore. As German turrets were all required power to turn they more or less became sitting ducks
Their fiction was that they were coming to "save them from the British" in a "friendly invasion" - it's hard to pretend you're being friendly if you fire first.
Awareness
Man, he working Sodem like a red headed mule!!!
The impressive thing is that he used his time there to study distances and terrain and his old equipment for their most effective usage against a specific opponent. He didn’t just go to retire
Had the Germans went in with 4 faster and smaller boats the old slow guns and torps would be useless. They would shoot him up. Point blank against a big slow target is a different story. I’m sure he thought out the different scenarios
To use a boxing analogy…,the Germans led with their face. Never a good ending
Birger Eriksen var en helt.
the actor who plays the colonel is the father of the actor who plays tormund in GoT
any questions?
interesting
Hm, I wonder... anyone know what sort of torpedos they had?
Austria-Hungarian whitehead torpedoes, ironic how a modern cruiser for that time got sunk by 40 year old guns and torpedoes made from a country that no longer exist.
280mm guns
Surrender or die was not the request from the German Ambassador. How ridiculous.
He sounded like he wanted nothing of this to happen.
@@Briselance And Hitler will punish him resoundingly for that.
Krupp steel. The best
No helmets for the Norwegian gun crews. Interesting.
so this was not a friendly fire?
Nay.
The shore batteries feared firing on friendlies, but what I remember, at least, is that the commander noted that no friendly ship would have all of its lights off while transiting its own fjord
Hey I know what let's do! Let's take a Heavy Cruiser and sail it up an hostile fjord where we will be unable to maneuver. Let's also make sure we sail to within spitball range to fortress guns!
I am informed that the movie DIDN"T USE his words that "Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed. Fire!"
If true, idiotic on the producers' and writers' part.
it is in the movie, not in this short.
Can you please create a movie with that quote with the same quality as in here? Please? Do you really call the writers an idiot for missing a sentence? If not enjoy the fucking movie and stop rambling about historical accuracy.
@@Baconator.pro12 One, they didn't, it is said in another part of the movie. Two, this short isn't the whole movie. Three, I never said the writers were idiotic; I said that had they missed that line, that would have been idiotic. Four, it really would have been idiotic. Five, sometimes historical accuracy doesn't matter, sometimes it does; here, it damn well does matter to put that line in!
@@verilyheld So if it did miss the sentence, it's gonna ruin your movie experience? It's a sentence mate, a choice of words isn't gonna make a movie bad. Also I was just telling you to enjoy the movie and stop trying to pick out the tiniest historical inaccuracies to say. Remember this movie wasn't just about the sinking of Blucher.
@@verilyheld Tbh the movie itself specifically the sinking of the blücher part is pretty historically accurate itself, with the guy vomiting to show that he wasn't really experienced with combat, the torpedo battery firing two torpedo's one at a time and not at the same time because the 1st torpedo was poorly calibrated(there were 3 torpedo's ready but the third one was kept in case of another ship), the fact only 2 guns could be fired, the bluchers anti aircraft guns firing litteraly everywhere, the shore batteries you could see firing in the background.
Drøbak sound
How are European films so much better than American films?
Hollywood and its subsidiaries probably make hundreds of films a year and every film most likely has to go through 50 desks before being approved while being altered constantly.
For us it's a bit simple than that. We make fewer films but they go through fewer changes so the people making it can hold more power over the finished product. In essence your passion project can still be in your hands.
It's just my guess.
oh, wow ... ... how come they lost?
Way too slow, Crew not combat ready etc. Several reasons
@@noname-yo6yn very kind, thanks, but I meant the Norwegians.
Local German ship fucks around, find sout
Why should the German ships enter this narrow channel when everywhere everything were darkest. Is this episode real history ? I cannot believe !
Norway situation was super fucked in WW2 and can only be compared to Polands stuations of being between hammer of 2 major military nations and having no good choice to make
Would like to see an equivalent made for the current conflict in Ukraine, specifically the sinking of the Moskava. THAT would be a great spin off
Also the so called pocket battleship Deutschland was damaged. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dr%C3%B8bak_Sound
No, the ship sunk was the heavy cruiser Blucher.
@@dannyn.6933 He's right. The heavy cruiser Lutzow (ex-Deutshland) was second in line behind Blucher and got plastered by the Kopas Battery as she tried to turn to flee. Her forward main turret was knocked out and she was set on fire as well.
A shame the blücher sunk.
Which was your favourite nazi child murder camp?
@@givenfirstnamefamilyfirstn3935 I liked Eicke, but Baer had a better style tho.
A practiced professional who made all the right decisions at the most important point in his declining military career. As a result, he is (deservedly) a celebrated hero of Norway.
One of the newest, most expensive and most advanced military machines of the Third Reich was taken out by an elderly commander with a good head on his shoulders and a few boy soldiers using obsolescent equipment. It was truly a delicious David vs. Goliath moment. Birger Eriksen wrote his name large in history. Respect!
Balls of steel! As Greeks we would be honoured to fight alongside this Colonel.