To my understanding, many sailors did not only drown in cold water but was actually fried in the fjord due to leaking oil that catched fire. According to old relatives living nearby Dröbak there were dreadful scenes played up. Typically, locals took their boats and did their best to save as many as possible. That's the spirit of a nation of seafares.
My grandfather was on the mountains overlooking Narvik when he saw a civilian boat burning and sinking after the German attack there. At first he heard screaming and waving in the cold waters, then it died down. The last thing he saw, was the Norwegian flag sinking at the stern of the ship. I was only a little child, so when I asked him if he couldn't find a boat and row out to help them, he sighed and said, "No, son, there was no way to do that." Of course he was far up on the mountain side, defending against German paratroopers, and it was far too dangerous to go down into the harbour that day. He only spoke about those things a couple of times during his life. I think it must have been heart breaking to win the battle so early, yet lose the war and be forced to return home while disgraced by the German occupiers.
My grandfather told me that scenes like that was almost common in the convoys he was on, and it haunted him every night. Some ship up ahead got struck by a torpedo, all the jet fuel they carried leaked out and caught on fire, and when they caught up to that sinking ship people where drifting into the flames screaming for their lives. All while they could not stop to help. He told me it made him try to commit suicide when his ship was hit 7 months later, because he couldn't bare the thought of dying like that. His mates stopped him and dragged him to the life boat, luckily. Grusome and horrible way to die, for sure.
My grandfather also ended up in the merchant marine and was wuite traumatised. He once said that if war broke out again je would rather kill himself than join up again.
The fact that Eriksen decided to open fire was very brave and decisive. Many Danish and Norwegian units that day were plagued by indecision and offered no resistance. Denmark, Norway and Sweden had all been warned in the days prior that a German invasion might be about to happen, but took very little action in order to not provoke Germany.
Funny story. When German forces landed in fast boats outside Stavanger, they were ordered to commandeer a phone and call HQ in Berlin. They didn't consider that Norway had a different phone system however, so they dialled the wrong number and got to a Swedish count early in the morning. When he heard German voices, he asked them what they were doing as he spoke German perfectly. When he was told that the invasion of Stavanger was successful, he immediately hung up and dialled the Norwegian embassy in Sweden - who didn't believe him when he told them that Norway was under attack.
@@kebman Funny story. Long distance calls were manually connected in those days. The German officer had to speak with the local operator and ask for a specific number in Germany.
This is very underrated when I first learned about this and how you guys kick some serious ass oh man and also a lot of people don’t mention that those torpedoes that were launched were so old and they still were great job Norway!
Brilliantly told, both verbally and graphically. Commander Birger Eriksen was later quoted having said, when asked if they should fire at the intruders; "Visst fanden skal der skytes med skarpt!"/Hell yes, we will fire live ammunition!"
Corrected me if im wrong.. Before the Bunker open fire.. The Gun crew ask for confirmation and I think he also said and i quote: "EITHER I WILL BE DECORATED OR I WILL BE COURT MARSHAL/FACE THE FIRING SQUAD.. OPEN FIRE!!"
Thank you for a great animation! The title of Birger Eriksen, "Oberst", is equivalent to the English "Colonel". His words remain famous: "Either I will be court martialled, or I will be a war hero. Fire!" He was decorated with the War Cross, the highest military medal in Norway. A bronze bust was erected in Drøbak.
In Badeparken (the “Beach-park”) from were he for ever will oversee the first hitting point on Blücher 950 m from the Hovedbatteriet (Main battery). A statue is also to be seen at old fortress at South Kaholmen.
I was educated Lieutenant at the Coast Artillery Academy on Oscarsborg in the beginning of the eighties, very proud of our fortress war effort. This was quite an accurate presentation of the events of April 9th 1940. Thank you !!
I'll never understand why documentaries concerning WWII feel the need to skip over the Soviet invasion of Poland; In this film, the narrator confines his remarks to: "Both the German and Soviet armies gained full control of Poland." But at least he mentions it.
It was also a relatively short invasion with it only taking a few months and Poland not really being able to put up a good fight. Not saying that they didn’t try but overall the invasion was very one sided
i get what you mean, but ultimatly it was germany who intiated the first attack on poland. Russia then followed up. i think the reason is simply that the event that kicked of WW2 was the attack from germany. thats why it easy to forget about russia. i always hate the fact that most historians practicly legitimised the Russian war efforts because they were on the "good side" Stalin was no better than Hitler killing political opposition and dissidents in the tens of thousands in camps as bad as Auschwitz. but you know the saying.. the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Also because Soviet Union "invaded" the territories that were occupied by Poland during 1920s Soviet-Polish war, basically retaking its own up to Curzon line. And only after Poland ceased to exist as a state. Given that it wasn't Polish land to begin with and no Poland around, it'd be monumentally stupid to allow Germans to take it too.
@@tatianapreobrazhenskaya9777 Thats a lie! Poland was still fighting, the polish goverment was moved to Brześć and was preparing for long term defense. Poland will be able to defend at least for a month or two if the Russian troops didnt attacked from the east on 17 september 1939. Even after soviet invasion, attacked from every side, Warsaw was able to defend till 28 september, and Polish soldiers were fighting till 6 october. So if the Poland was gone when Russian invaded as you say, why it took over 3 weeks for combined german and soviet-russian armies fighting together to fully conquer it?
Another minor detail is that blucher was named after Gérard von blucher. The leading general of the prussian army at Waterloo and was vital in collapsing napoleon's flank while welington absorbed his attacks and holding him in place.
He WAS LATE, they'd been beaten by the french the previous day, didn't think the British would stand alone , and marched their furtherest east troops first, The Prussian arrival broke the french, But the British stood alone untill 5pm British men died for Prussian command cowardice
@@farmerned6 Utter twaddle. The Prussians suffered 24,000 casualties at Ligny (including Blücher who was wounded in the battle) and a further 7,000 at Waterloo and then were the main force pursuing the defeated French. They also suffered a further 2,500 casualties at Wavre where the Prussian rearguard fought Grouchy and ensured he would not be present at Waterloo. I fail to see any Prussian cowardice there.
Very well presented. David vs Goliath. 👏 The things I take away from the context or prelude is that the Norwegian and Danish government didn't want to mobilise or modernise its forces, because they didn't want to give Hitler a casus belli - A reason for war. They taught they could reason with madness. Luckily for them, this commander and his few men had a different idea. I think the cascading effect of this moment had a huge impact. Retaining the king away from the Axis, meant that most of the Norwegian merchant fleet chose to side with the allied war effort. The reason for this was because the sailors were quite loyal to the king. This was critical, because at this point it was the second largest merchant fleet in the world. The fleets contribution represented a majority of all the resources that were transported in the first half of the war from the colonies to the western front. This seemingly little moment thus had a substantial impact on the less sexy parts of the second world war, the logistics that kept it going.
Norwegians and Danish governments of these days had forgotten that neutrality stands only when well defended. Maybe, maybe they should have sought to ally and modernize together. Edit: or even sought an alliance with Poland and the Baltic states. I have zilch idea about how feasible thos would have been, but I still think it is an interesting idea for an alternate history.
Dunno if you could really call it a David v Goliath since it just was a bad decision and possibly the best odds for the fortress but ig this was still a good achivement for a "smaller" nation in ww2.
@@Briselance Alliance isn't always feasible. Back in those days we relied on the nordic region being in the periphery of Europe and generally not considered too important to European affaires...
@@mastermariner490 Norway is a NATO member and spends more then average on the military by NATO standards. Sweden and Finland are both in the process of applying for membership, although Turkey is currently blocking their bid to join...
I was onboard the ship which helped remove the coal oil fuel which was leaking, the seabed was littered with german jackboots, our divers recovered the ships seaplane, some of the control systems still worked, stainless steel wires and bronze pulleys were perfect. I have a small bottle of the coal oil, given as a souveneir to all who helped.
You should post a video detailing your experience and story so long as it won’t stir up too many bad emotions, the world may be lost your account and that’s a world we don’t want!
Somewhat distressingly it should be noted most of those boots were likely either kicked off by Germans sailors swimming from the ship, or still worn by drowned sailors and soldiers whose bodies have since dissolved in the seawater.
That's quite a story! How old are you? I would suggest one or more of the following: * Write a text (or some notes) detailing your story * Have someone interview you * Talk about your experiences with a relative and have the conversation be recorded
Well done! While on a trip to Norway last year I took a trip to Oscarsburg fortress and the Kopas battery. It's an amazing place and you can walk around those guns and look out over the fjord and realize just how close they were to the Blucher when a cruise ship sails by. They also have an incredible set of dioramas in the fortress itself (now a museum) and an outstanding video of how everything unfolded. Worth the bus trip from Oslo, I highly recommend it as a day's excursion. To be honest, when you look out over the water you can see that it was point blank range, and at that distance no armor would protect a ship from those shells. And once the 11' guns fired Kopas unleashed its own fury with their 6 inch guns that could (and were) reloaded. When they switched their firing to the Hipper and started trashing it, the Germans knew they had seriously "blown it". Moral: Never try to take a warship past a fully operational fortress.... Thank you for this video.
Yeah 1000 yards for an 11 inch gun is the oft used "point blank". Contact range. If you opened the breech looked thru at the target and fired, it would hit.
@@williamkoppos7039 True, and I didn't realize it at first, but they deliberately fired high to give the people on it that last chance to turn around and go. Hitting the spots they did crippled the boat but shooting lower into the hull at that range..... It would have probably have blown a magazine and sunk her outright then and there.
I passed by the fort many times, while working on a cruise ship going to Oslo. It has a ridiculously perfect view of anything entering those waters, with outlying terrain vs water making it easy for them to aim & couple small islands that can act as a distance marker. Those guns were starring directly at the ship menacingly. Germans were clearly just hopium trying to pass by it ninja, that was their only chance for a surprise attack. That or have to capture it with paras or other alarming methods. Basically that fort countered the surprise element, agroing anything it gets eyes on. Events chose the latter.
As a matter of fact: the problem with wintertime shipping from Luleå to Germany was definitely not the snow, but the Ice - not the smooth friendly hockey-rink ice but the metre-thick pack-ice, totally preventing shipping to and from the Bothnian sea and Bothnian bay. Even further south, in the Baltic Sea proper, ice-conditions more often than not in winter-time were a severe hindrance to shipping, often needing ice-breaker assistance. Hans Strömberg, Stockholm, Sweden
That is also partly the reason why Norway were competetive to world trade compared to Sweden, Finland and Russia. Shipping is cheaper from Norway and the products' price in general are competetive even though Sweden, Finland and Russia had more natural resources. Same the USs triangle; Lake District, Mississippi and Hudson River + free passage West and North of Cuba respectively to the Pacific - and Atlantic Ocean. USAs world trade were threathen by USSRs precens in Cuba.
Oberst Eriksen received reports at 03:38 (Norwegian time) from patrole vessel that German speech was heard onboard the intruders. So, at opening of fire at 04:21 he that they were German. The first 28 cm shot was a near miss, only doing some harm to the FLAK command post in the main mast. The second 28 cm hit near the third 10,5cm on port side, rendering this useless. Punched a whole in the armoured deck below destroying one of the generators. Interrupted stem to the center turbine and ignited a fire in the hangar. It is not likely that the German Deutschlandlied (First stanza: Deutschland über alles…) was sung onboard in the middle of the battle. Most of the soldiers and sailors was under the decks. The rest manning their battle stations returning fire and standing ready for orders. No officer would allow a disturbing choir. There are report though that Deutschlandlied was heard at about 06:21 as the wreck of the went under. Number of hits by 15 cm from Kopås battery is often reported as up to about 20 hits. A more correct number seems to be 9-12 hits on . The first torpedo hit was i little forward of the bridge in the boiler rooms. No gun turret was hit or disturbed. The second torpedo hit a little aft of midship into Turbinenraum 2/3, turbines for the side propellers. The second 28 cm had already taken out the mid turbine, so the ship lost all its propulsion and most of the generators greatly hampering firefighting due to lack of water and later evacuation from the ship. Funfact. The torpedosight that Kommandørkaptein Andreas Anderssen had to his disposal is so primitive that he had to guess the speed of the target.
What's even better about the guns and torpedo battery that Admiral Lutjens managed to completely ignore is that they had been installed 40 years earlier by Germans and Austrians. If ANYONE should have known that battery was there, it was the Germans. 🤣
Fun fact: The primitive torpedo used was the last use of the Whitehead torpedo -The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed.[a] It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead ~ Wikipedia
It is just amazing that he sunk the vessel with 2 Austro-Hungarian built Whitehead torpedos. The Whitehead torpedo factory was in the city port of Fiume in the Kvarner gulf (now Rijeka, Croatia) during the Great War.
@@SamCogley Whitehead torpedo factory was in the austro-hungarian city port of Fiume, in the Kvarner gulf (now Rijeka, Croatia). The germans had probably just no notice of those torpedos still active after over 20 years.
@@RDeckardN6 Old? The Argentinian ARA General Belgrano was sunk in May 1982 with old British mk 8 torpedos. Mk 8 entered service in 1927, 55 years earlier! The captain of British submarine HMS Conqueror, had chosen the older mk 8 over the more modern Tigerfish guided torpedo as he deemed those less reliable.
i cant get enough of hearing about this incident. not just because im norwegian and very interested in history, but also that my great grand father was at oscarsborg fortress at that time. on the torpedo battery. so this history is closer to me than anything else. as far as i know there were no military losses on the norwegian side. only a civilian woman getting hit by one of the shells from the ships
@@MariusJT I think that is typical of many combat veterans. I've always been fascinated about this battle since reading about it as a child 50 years ago. Thanks.
@@elijahfreeman5299 oh trust me, he was trough a lot more than just this battle for sure. i know, ive most of the available information in my collection confirming most of the histories he actually told
Birger Eriksen had no orders from higher up. The 2 in command wanted to fire a warning shot ,and they only had two guns manned and ready, with all the untrained personnel they could find on the island. Commander Eriksen answered firmly: Either I will be court-martialed, or I will become a war hero. fire!. He undoubtedly saved the Norwegian king and useless government, so they were allowed to escape to England
Yeah i was for sure this was going to be included in the video, it's an interesting detail how one commander took a risk and thankfully it was for the better
@@HenningAndersen He never received any honor after the war, quite the opposite. After the war, he was dishonored by the Norwegian authorities. They didn't want to make him known, because then they would also have to take responsibility for the lack of preparation and the mistakes made in 1940
@@HenningAndersen Yes, especially in the last 25 years it has become more popular to do research / talk about the war. People were in a rush to get moste out of the time witnesses, before they all died of old age.
This battle is very well depicted in the movie The King's Choice (2016), there are some vids of that part, I discovered that historical episode thanks to them, is a really epic face off!
The battle of Drøbak Sound is an amazing example of David vs Goliath and how you shouldn’t underestimate your disadvantaged but determined enemies. In a single night two of Germanys best ships of the line were sunk and put out of action respectfully, while also failing to capture the primary objective on time leading to further consequences.
Until now, I've never heard of this battle. I was a huge WW2 buff as a kid and I researched many battles of the war. This was not mentioned in my searches. Thank you for bringing this presentation. Very informative and well done.
then you better look up the Battle of Narvik, yes the battle of Norway and the occupation of Norway is not much spoken of, yet it had great impact on how the war went, like the experience the Allied got from the Battle of Narvik was used and build uppon when they draw the plans for the invasion of Normandie.
@@crisespinoza1979 If you ever find alliert og alene with subtitles its absolutely worth watching. Its called allied and alone because it kind of represents the situation at the time, we ended up in the allies, but the allies didn't really take it seriously sending barely trained and equipped troops to norway saving their more experienced and well armed counterparts back home just in case, and when they finally decided that these new units couldnt hold the line it was already kind of too late, they still sent some better troops but they were running out of ground to hold, and then the norwegian southern forces were abandoned over night. However, in the north the war continued until narvik was taken back. However once again the allies decided to abandon norway to focus on other objectives. It was the first major allied victory on land in the war. Also, fun fact, the british intended to invade norway first, and they would've if it wasnt for the finnish surrendering, instead they decided to commence the invasion if it looked like the germans were to invade and they were caught off guard by the germans actually invading, if they hadn't the british would've made sure they would eventually through its other plans. Plan r4 is really interesting.
Finally! Thank you, Jens for pointing this out. Besides the pronounviation mishaps with Blücher, Weserübung and a few others this was a great video. Thumbs up! 👍😊👍
I gotta say, growing up and living in Filtvet this is great story telling. I went to Oscarsborg a couple of years ago on a school trip, and it was awesome. I'm in to history, and we're always told stories about when Blucher drove by, and how I would be able to see it from my house. I'm proud of my country, and I'm proud because I feel like Norway isn't getting the recognition it deserves from our efforts in WWII, but this video told the story so well. It's also special to me because this happened just a few minutes outside of my hometown, even though it happened 80 years ago. I swim in the same water Blucher drove through, which to me is kinda crazy to think about
Some of us in the UK understand and have a lot of respect for what Norway did during the war, and I am one of those. I think it depends on how people get their knowledge of the war. I grew up in the 70's when veterans had just retired from work and had time to talk to "youngsters" also from good documentaries and books. Now, the youth are educated from the internet (like RUclips) and Hollywood, and it is inaccurate, lazy and full of poorly researched "facts". I, for one, take my hat off to you, and to Norway.
@@joewalker2152 The UK, France and Poland recognize Norway's effort during WWII to a larger degree than Norway itselves. It remain a mystery to us why Norway is so reserved. British, French and Polish troops fought in and for Norway and the world in general. The UK has always been a good allied. You guys always take responsibility and protect your allies. Also we're always welcome in the UK. The Brits are very friendly. Personally I am forever grateful to our allies.
Facts, the first German warship sunk was Rio De Janeiro, outside the city of Lillesand on night to 9th of April 1940. Also, our summer house is litteraly 5 min by boat from Oscarsborg fortress. So we always take trips to eat at the restaurant in the summer. They have serious great food, and a hotel if someone want to stay the night. It's really great to visit, and the museum is free, and so is the guided tours. And there is a very nice beach for children to play and swim in the sea from! If ever going to Oslo, I really reccomed this as a travel destination in the summertimes when the weather is nice. Also, a lot of concerts there during the summer season. So a bit of history, good food is really great. Also possible to take a boat directly from Oslo to Oscarsborg.
@@kjellg6532 where you get Stavern from I have no idea, but rest is factual. It was sunk, and the people onboard who survived was taken into Lillesand and custody of Lillesand lensmann. But it may have been hit in the area your ref to first. Also, evening/night to 9th is 8th. But it was the first action of war. In compareson to the belief that Blücher was. Anyway, thanks for feedback.
I live 500m off the factory that produced these torpedos, Rijeka , Croatia. Some years ago Norwegian government sent one remained torpedo to a local Torpedo museum. At the moment museum is homeless, waiting for city new location approval.
King Haakon did not continue to rule over Norway as you say. He was elected by the Norwegian people after Norways breakout from the Norwegia/Swedish union. He was Prince Carl of Denmark, before he took the Norwegian name Haakon.
Oberst Birger Eriksen was questioned when he ordered to open fire if he wanted to shoot with live ammunition. He exclaimed "Visst fanden skal der skytes med skarpt!" which means "We sure as hell will fire live shots!" (it's difficult to translate directly, but some thing to that degree). This quote is rather famous in the Norwegian military, as it symbolizes determination towards a good decision in a difficult situation.
Gee, just think, if the Norwegians had figured out somehow that Hitler was a BAD MAN and had simply ASKED the British to lay mines at their five biggest ports, they WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN INVADED!
Very well done video. I had heard this story before, although not to this detail. Ironic that a state-of-the-art warship was sunk by a chain of old fortresses manned mainly by recruits and using weaponry that were pretty much museum pieces.
This is the 4th or 5th documentary about the invasion of Oslo Fjord what I have seen already but by far this one is the most extensive one. Same story telled as always but with much more detail and probably after more research. The intro and the depiction of the era is basically the same with quite a few details about the Altmark incident and about the possible northern trade routes. But the main difference is in the depiction of the actual confrontation. It shows very extensively the early part of the incident in the outer fjord, about all the confrontations and warning shots and it shows the position of the Norwegian batteries accurately on the Oscarsborg fortress and on the mainland as well. Lovely work and perfect narration.
@@dirkdesnerck8277 There were actually 5 Admiral Hipper-class cruisers: Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Blücher, Seydlitz and Lützow. Not all of them were completed though. It was only the Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen and the Blücher that was commissioned into the German Kriegsmarine. The Seydlitz was almost completed, but when the war broke out, construction was slowed. She would later be chosen for conversion into an auxiliary aircraft carrier. Her conversion was never completed though. The Lützow was similarly to her sister ship, Seydlitz, never completed. She was close to completion when the Soviet Union requested to buy the ship. The Kriegsmarine agreed to sale in February 1940 and she was transferred on the 15th of April. The Admiral Hipper-class ship named Lützow is not to be confused with the other ship with the same name in the video. The Lützow in the video was actually called Deutschland before she got her new name. She was also the lead ship of the Deutschland-class of cruisers. She gained her new name when the Admiral Hipper-class Lützow was transferred to the Soviets. The decision to rename Deutschland came from the German Chancellor himself. He realized it would be a public relations disaster to have a ship sharing the country’s name sink. Hope all of this made sense. English is not my first language.
@@dirkdesnerck8277 there were 5 actually but one sold to the Soviet union(the Lützow) and the other was unfinished and converted to an aircraft Carrier but never finished(the Seydlitz)
Very nice video! I live only a 15-minute drive from Drøbak, so I already knew a lot about the shooting, and I have been to the Oscarsborg castle myself. Great video!
One remark regarding the Altmark insident. Norwegian forces searched the Altmark twice, without result, before the English navy acted. Also, there's a story (don't know if it is correct) that the first reply from the king, when he was told Norway was invaded, was; "by who?". -There was a real possibility to be invaded by England.
@@johnr797 Excactly. If I'm not wrong, the plan regarded the Narvik area, not the whole of Norway. Iceland was in a personal union with Denmark, so when Denmark was occupied, the where left without king or defence. I think the GB did the right thing when they denied the germans this easy picking.
There was more than a possiblity - the invasion came within a hairs breath of being carried out, British Troops were embarked on cruisers and ready to sail from ports in the north east - with a plan to lay mines in the waters being used to supply germany and cover them with a land invasion. However just before they could set sail HMS Glowworm ran into Admiral Hipper, at this point the admiralty realisd that lots of german warships were at sea and they didn't really know where, being unaware of the german troops at sea they concluded that Germany was atempting a surface fleet breakout into the atlantic. The troops were urgently disembarked from the cruisers and the cruisers sortied into the north sea to prevent the breakout. Had things gone slightly differently Norway would first have been invaded by Britain and the German troops coming ashore would have found British Troops waiting for them (having gone through a minefield).
@@sidekickbob7227 before that the British and German diplomats were both trying to entice the Icelandic government to allow their land to be used by the respective nations. That whole situation is fun to read up on.
The invasions of both Denmark and Norway cost the German navy half its capital ships which was one of the factors which meant Sweden did not suffer the same fate.
Germans didn't want to attack the one country supplying them with iron. They were not stupid. Besides, they already had troubles seizing Norway, considering the small size of the Norwegian forces of thr time. So they didn't want to go to war with a country that was possibly a tougher military nut to crack and just as cold and difficult as Norway. In other words, they already had a winter war in Norway and didn't want another one in Sweden. Especially since Sweden was then fully aware and couldn't be surprised anymore.
They never had a reason to invade us. But if the Brits and French would've gotten what they wanted we would've ended up as a major battlefield in the war. I'm glad all three great power's empires ended getting being bankrupt and dissolved at the end :)
@@ItzLucky90 It's an old joke. Sweden was "neutral" but allowed about 1.000.000. german troops and equipment to travel through the country during the war. When Germany was successful, they made it difficult (strictly following the rules) for the Norwegians. When it became obvious the germans would loose, they helped the Norwegians big time. So even when my comment isn't correct, there's some truth in it. The Swedes did follow German instructions after pressure... aka capitulated.
Just yesterday I was in my WW2 class and we were discussing the invasion of Norway. It was really the first time that paratroopers were utilized and was fraught with difficulties and dangers early on.
For years I lived i Vordingborg (DK) and we have an old WW1 fort on Masnedø, close to the newly built Storstrøms Bro from 1937 (3,2 km, and by then the longest in Europe!). The day after the first Parachute attacks in Rotterdam and Antwerpen, the Germans had 200 men being dropped on Masnedø to take control of the bridge and protect it from being destroyed. The Fort had no troops inside, but the Caretaker and his assistant, so a little research may have made this unnecessary?
They were also used against the fortifications in Belgium which were very advanced and gave the Germans quite the headache which sadly is a bit of a less known part of history
@@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188 Better safe than sorry I guess, I am sure the paratroopers must have been overjoyed at being able to safely land, compared to the poor guys sent to Crete
@@INSANESUICIDE, the troops that took Eben Emael were not paratroopers, but airborne assault troops. They landed on the top of the fortress in gliders.
Actually during the night of the 8th of April the Germans had Special Soldiers on Falster to cut the telephone line, so the German troops reached the Garrison in Vordingborg from Gedser, without anyone knowing about the attack! And my uncle worked at the ferry to Gedser and had met a man, who at the 9th arrived in a German Officers uniform!
Norway is certainly one country that Britain has called a good friend for many, many years. Even now they are helping our pitiful power grid keep going.
@@neilAneerGAmAIas a canadian, I say the same thing. Our allies are the british and american. And of course, some other nations in the commonwealth, such as australia, and also phillipines, which was an american territory before. Mainland europe however? They are pretty useless, both for military and economy. I know we can rely on the countries I mentioned above for help if we ever need it. And I will want canada to also do the same for them.
Thanks for showing the boarders correctly on your maps for 1939! Much appreciated and such an improvement to your Pearl Harbour documentation video. 🌟🌟🌟🌟
"Visst fanden skal der skytes med skarpt! Enten blir jeg stilt for krigsrett, eller så blir jeg krigshelt. Fyr!" or "Damn right we're firing with sharp (live ammunition)! Either I'll be court-martialed, or I'll be a war hero. Fire!" And a war hero it made him and he rightfully deserves his bronze bust in the city of Drøbak. His reasoning that he didn't have to to follow the letter of his orders to fire a warning shot, as the defender had heard shots had already been fired earlier more to the south, presumably by other Norwegian units, while not knowing who actually they were opposing, was maybe the most crucial decision in the campaign and led to the encounter in the invasion of Norway that bought enough time to evacuate the royal family, the government and the gold reserve that otherwise would have fallen in German hands. Also important in this encounter was the fact that the conscripts under his command would not have been able to reload the 11 inch guns fast enough to fire a second salvo before the Blücher would have passed them contributed to his decision to use the two shots he had available to the greatest possible effect.
But the target had been given warning shots and certainly it would have been completely implausible that it had gotten this far without it. I have a strong suspicion the quote "Either I'll be court-martialed, or I'll be a war hero. Fire!" is a myth.
As a Norwegian, I do of course know about the sinking of the Blücher. But I didn't know the fort used almost half a century old torpedos and had almost exclusively untrained personell, and I also didn't know the German losses were so high. Btw, fantastic video - simply and straight to the facts, just like I love it. Thanks for making and uploading it :)
Hvilket år er du født? Er født i -84 selv, og vi ble lært om dette på skolen. Utrolig bra video ja. Og den drar fram veldig mange detaljer om rekkefølge osv.
German losses are estimated as low as about 325 men. As for the torpedos. After the war German torpedos G7 invented about 1930 used by the Norwegian costal defence up till about 1995. During the Falkland war ARA General Belgrano was sunk by 55 yrs old british torpedos, so the torpedos at Oscarsborg was almost new. Just returned fron an overhaul at Naval base Horten.
During a lecture by a Danish Naval Officer, it was told that it takes some time/years to train and prepare the crew on a warship, and this was a brand new ship! And if it had been a - trained crew, they most likely would have been able to block the water coming in and could have saved the ship! And for years it had oil coming to the surface, til it was drained by drilling into the fuel deposits and draining them.
I love how this is essentially the same thing as many other RUclips channels except a lot of the animations, artwork and mapping is more detailed. Yet the algorithm gods have decided this channel is not as worthy as others such a shame😢 ✍️ edit included a spelling mistake and also thank you to the creator for pinning the comment
I'm sure that with more videos there will be more of an incentive for RUclips to advertise this channel! This is amazing content and if the creator keeps it up the channel should become successful! I have no doubt!
My mother's uncle was part of the guns that sunk Blücher. He was imprisoned in a prison camp called Grini for the entirety of the war after this. Always a quiet man, he refused to talk about it.
Had I been through something like that, I don't think I would ever have talked about it either. The horror that noone really can fathom at all, unless they themselves have been through it. Had a grandfather who was the same, was a young man part of "Gutta på skauen" / the resistance, but I only heard the stories after he passed away.. he never spoke of those 5 years.
8:27 Didn't the Norwegians had a torpedo battery as well somewhere near Oscarsborg fortress, I remember seeing it in the movie called "The King's Choice"
I have just come across your channel and instantly subscribed. I hate to compare but, this is exactly the quality of Montemayor and The Operations Room, two exceptional channels and I have no doubt you will acheive the same status in time. Looking forward to future content. If you are taking requests, would you look into the British submarines based in Malta between 1941-1944? Although I am certain you have your own list to work through!
Oscarsborg is nice. When i worked in the military, we were having a two day meeting at Oscars Borg as the commander of the fort was one of the 10 bosses where i worked, this was just a couple years ago. Anyway, after the first day of meeting was over, we went to the commander’s house located on top of the hill at the other side of the island from the main cannons and fired up the grills for a BBQ. The commander also opened up the bar and gave us unlimited free drinks, one could only imagine how that ended. It was one hell of a night to say the least! The day after several employees were so hungover that the meeting was cut short and we got a guided tour instead lol, some couldn’t even attend that. Will remember my trip there forever. It was a nice tour, got to see the humongus size of the shell they fired and the torpedo bay underground amongst many other things.
Somewhat unrelated fun fact: several places in the Norwegian military, old wehrmacht fuel drums have been sawn in half lengthwise and a metal mesh put on top and some legs velded to the bottom to be used as coalfired barbeques! They're well suited to this, as the galvanized steel the germans used simply doesnt rust.
A former classmate had his granndfather onboard. He survived by swiming away and fought on the rest of the war only to die at seelöw heights during battle of Berlin
I'm friends with the grandchildren of the guy who fired the two torpedoes. And he did a lot of other things in that war. Some seriously James Bond stuff. And I don't mean similar - I mean a bunch of stories from his service record that line up with James Bond. A LOT.
Like... when working in Toronto, Canada, he worked near the corner of James and Bond. And was a hardcore spy. And if you have a license plate in Norway not related to your geographic region, it starts with Q. And my friends' grandmother was the secretary for the ministry of defence in Ottawa, and he'd flirt with her when he went to visit there for work purposes. And on and on and on.
I think this was good it gave them time to move the gold reserves out of reach of the German's not to mention the Royal Family was able to move to safety well done to the officers and recruit's manning the Norwegian Gun's
One of the sailors who was part of moving the gold to the UK worked for my grandfather after the war, when the war ended he went home to see his wife and 5 year old son he hadn't seen since 1940, then immediately went to sea again.
Two German officers walked up to the road on the right bank (15:55) and hitch hiked into Oslo with an elderly couple. I would highly recommend the book "Vi dro mot Nord". Don't know it it's available translated.
At about 5:00 there's a small mistake. King Haakon, then Prince Carl of Denmark, was elected to be King of Norway, so he statred his reign in 1905, when Norway gained her independence from Sweden. Fun fact: King Charles III was named after King Haakon VII, who also was his godfather....
Yes Moses, Aron, Joshua and the old 30,5 cm front loader Methusalem, but this in show biz, not in the military. Reason for this is that one of the gun barrels fell in the water under reloading in Oslo during transport.
Thanks for the video ! (one little thing though , its calles Weserübung, the damned Ü we Germany use, translated into Weser Exercise :)) keep it up bro :D
Kummetz, kaptain Zur See Woldag, in Oslo, does write few days later that 38 officers and 985 crew got saved. 125 got lost. 528 Soliders got rescued and 122 got lost (some says 195). Totaly 247 to 320 germans died that day. Reference. koop&chmolke "Admiral Hipper Class". So this 1000 men died is just a number norwegians like to throw around. Want to know what a book published in the late 40s says? around 2000 dead! A book published by the norwegian military. in the 50-80 i guess 1500 where the number and now, its common to say around 1000 if you dont care about finding the facts or reading books. I loved the first 16 minutes of this video, but now its just one of them not going deep enough to find out what really happened. and materials like this will only keep the history wrong.
I don't know where you are getting your numbers. Most historians agree that the whole norwegian campaign, that lasted 2 months, costed 1500 wermacht soldiers and 3500 kriegsmarine sailors to the invaders. Which put it as one of the most costly (in proportion) campaigns of WWII for the germans. Blucher was heavily loaded with troops and ammunitions, plus its ordinary crew. It was immediately ablaze after the first 2 salvos, then when the torpedo hit it capsized in a short time. If you add to that the icy freezing waters your 250-300 casualties and over 1500 survivors seems unlikely, to say the less. The numbers you provide do not match, there were more than 2000 people on board between crewmen and wermacht soldiers.
@@RDeckardN6 i dont talk about the whole campain. my numbers are from Koop Gerhard and Schmolke Klaus-Peter book about the "Heavy Cruisers of the Admiral Hipper Class ". its from 2014, everyone interested in history, should take care to read books about the other side. And another thing, i do make maps of ww2, and in my south-Norway map, i did write some lines about the Blücher with the same numbers. maps been sold in thousands and i never heard anyone disagree with the numbers from Koop Gerhard and Schmolke Klaus-Peter.
@@kystfort But your numbers do not match. There were more than 2000 people aboard the Blucher between crewmen and wermacht soldiers. Did you check among your sources the ship manifest ?? And a good historian checks more than 1 source like you did. Of course I always check sources from both sides...and all sources I checked claim the german losses in the Blucher sinking around a 1000 men.
My granddad was one of the raw recruits at Oscarsborg. However, he wasn't involved in the fighting. He said he just woke up to a lot of cannon fire, and he didn't understand what was going on, and eventually the Germans captured the fort.
There was a movie made in Norway in 2016, about the invasion and how King Hákon reacted. The King's choice (Kongens Nei). This battle was show in it, and it is an awesome scene! ruclips.net/video/YZ79i11JSnU/видео.html
Generally accurately and well presented, however, I got rather irritated by the terrible pronunciation of non-English words. The German name of the Invasion of Norway and Denmark was Weserübung, which means “the Weser Exercise”, and is pronounced Weser-Übung, with stress on the Ü, not Weseru-bung... Anybody with even the faintest knowledge of WWII, would know this code name and its pronunciation. And, yes, I am a certified pedant, but I believe UK people would react to foreigners pronouncing, say Leicester “Lay-Chester” instead of “Lester”...
I agree with you. The Brits have this habit of anglophonize (I just invented the verb) all foreign names. I mean the're always trying to translate the name of foreign places and pronounce them as such. The main rail station of Rome is named "Termini" from the latin word which described the tanks placed there at the time of the roman empire. Well the Brits translate it "Terminal" which has a complete different meaning.
Words do not irritate me, what does are lazy and sloppy people who does not do their research, so they horribly mispronounce foreign words, thus diminish the value of an otherwise good clip.
I'd like to know more about this. Appeasement was not the way. I am glad the commander to his own initiative against the enemy. That was a brave move from a man who clearly loved his own country.
About 40 years ago I worked with a carpenter whose ancestor was in command of the first Norwegian patrol vessel the Blucher encountered..It was a converted Whaling chase/harpoon canon chase boat.
To my understanding, many sailors did not only drown in cold water but was actually fried in the fjord due to leaking oil that catched fire. According to old relatives living nearby Dröbak there were dreadful scenes played up. Typically, locals took their boats and did their best to save as many as possible. That's the spirit of a nation of seafares.
My grandfather was on the mountains overlooking Narvik when he saw a civilian boat burning and sinking after the German attack there. At first he heard screaming and waving in the cold waters, then it died down. The last thing he saw, was the Norwegian flag sinking at the stern of the ship. I was only a little child, so when I asked him if he couldn't find a boat and row out to help them, he sighed and said, "No, son, there was no way to do that." Of course he was far up on the mountain side, defending against German paratroopers, and it was far too dangerous to go down into the harbour that day. He only spoke about those things a couple of times during his life. I think it must have been heart breaking to win the battle so early, yet lose the war and be forced to return home while disgraced by the German occupiers.
My grandfather told me that scenes like that was almost common in the convoys he was on, and it haunted him every night. Some ship up ahead got struck by a torpedo, all the jet fuel they carried leaked out and caught on fire, and when they caught up to that sinking ship people where drifting into the flames screaming for their lives. All while they could not stop to help. He told me it made him try to commit suicide when his ship was hit 7 months later, because he couldn't bare the thought of dying like that. His mates stopped him and dragged him to the life boat, luckily. Grusome and horrible way to die, for sure.
My grandfather also ended up in the merchant marine and was wuite traumatised. He once said that if war broke out again je would rather kill himself than join up again.
@@basstrammel1322 Not to be that guy, but jet fuel didnt exist then.
@@TheTuborgen If you put 2 and 2 together you'll understand that I talked about what ever petrrolium product they used in planes.
The fact that Eriksen decided to open fire was very brave and decisive. Many Danish and Norwegian units that day were plagued by indecision and offered no resistance. Denmark, Norway and Sweden had all been warned in the days prior that a German invasion might be about to happen, but took very little action in order to not provoke Germany.
Funny story. When German forces landed in fast boats outside Stavanger, they were ordered to commandeer a phone and call HQ in Berlin. They didn't consider that Norway had a different phone system however, so they dialled the wrong number and got to a Swedish count early in the morning. When he heard German voices, he asked them what they were doing as he spoke German perfectly. When he was told that the invasion of Stavanger was successful, he immediately hung up and dialled the Norwegian embassy in Sweden - who didn't believe him when he told them that Norway was under attack.
But fire was opened in Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen Brettingen (Trondheim). German planes where shot down.
@@kebman Funny story. Long distance calls were manually connected in those days. The German officer had to speak with the local operator and ask for a specific number in Germany.
That's not really true.
@@kebman lmaooooo
As a Norwegian, this is so underrated. Deserves more attention.
This is very underrated when I first learned about this and how you guys kick some serious ass oh man and also a lot of people don’t mention that those torpedoes that were launched were so old and they still were great job Norway!
It took massive balls to fire on that ship, well done Norway.
It took massive balls to fire on that ship, well done Norway.
Norway is under rated
@@loyalpiper Not by me! Norway is one of the finest countries; I've ever been.
Brilliantly told, both verbally and graphically. Commander Birger Eriksen was later quoted having said, when asked if they should fire at the intruders; "Visst fanden skal der skytes med skarpt!"/Hell yes, we will fire live ammunition!"
Corrected me if im wrong..
Before the Bunker open fire..
The Gun crew ask for confirmation and I think he also said and i quote:
"EITHER I WILL BE DECORATED OR I WILL BE COURT MARSHAL/FACE THE FIRING SQUAD..
OPEN FIRE!!"
@@zadzad4353 correct
@@zadzad4353 The most accurate English translation, in terms of intent, is something like "Either I will be decorated, or court-martialed. FIRE!"
@@g-3409 I find your very existence offencive...
Correction, it’s titled “When a hundred year old fort sank a German flag ship”.
Thank you for a great animation!
The title of Birger Eriksen, "Oberst", is equivalent to the English "Colonel". His words remain famous: "Either I will be court martialled, or I will be a war hero. Fire!"
He was decorated with the War Cross, the highest military medal in Norway. A bronze bust was erected in Drøbak.
In Badeparken (the “Beach-park”) from were he for ever will oversee the first hitting point on Blücher 950 m from the Hovedbatteriet (Main battery). A statue is also to be seen at old fortress at South Kaholmen.
I was educated Lieutenant at the Coast Artillery Academy on Oscarsborg in the beginning of the eighties, very proud of our fortress war effort. This was quite an accurate presentation of the events of April 9th 1940. Thank you !!
They were brave soldiers which fully exercised their duties. With respect greetings from Germany.
@Jörg J. as an American I must say I believe you and your county men you have made up for everything,yours truly a random American with a gun fetish
I'll never understand why documentaries concerning WWII feel the need to skip over the Soviet invasion of Poland; In this film, the narrator confines his remarks to: "Both the German and Soviet armies gained full control of Poland." But at least he mentions it.
It was a weird set of actions, at one time GB nearly declared war on Russia because of the Winter War, then Germany invaded Poland.
It was also a relatively short invasion with it only taking a few months and Poland not really being able to put up a good fight. Not saying that they didn’t try but overall the invasion was very one sided
i get what you mean, but ultimatly it was germany who intiated the first attack on poland. Russia then followed up. i think the reason is simply that the event that kicked of WW2 was the attack from germany. thats why it easy to forget about russia. i always hate the fact that most historians practicly legitimised the Russian war efforts because they were on the "good side" Stalin was no better than Hitler killing political opposition and dissidents in the tens of thousands in camps as bad as Auschwitz. but you know the saying.. the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Also because Soviet Union "invaded" the territories that were occupied by Poland during 1920s Soviet-Polish war, basically retaking its own up to Curzon line. And only after Poland ceased to exist as a state. Given that it wasn't Polish land to begin with and no Poland around, it'd be monumentally stupid to allow Germans to take it too.
@@tatianapreobrazhenskaya9777 Thats a lie! Poland was still fighting, the polish goverment was moved to Brześć and was preparing for long term defense. Poland will be able to defend at least for a month or two if the Russian troops didnt attacked from the east on 17 september 1939. Even after soviet invasion, attacked from every side, Warsaw was able to defend till 28 september, and Polish soldiers were fighting till 6 october. So if the Poland was gone when Russian invaded as you say, why it took over 3 weeks for combined german and soviet-russian armies fighting together to fully conquer it?
Another minor detail is that blucher was named after Gérard von blucher. The leading general of the prussian army at Waterloo and was vital in collapsing napoleon's flank while welington absorbed his attacks and holding him in place.
He WAS LATE, they'd been beaten by the french the previous day, didn't think the British would stand alone , and marched their furtherest east troops first,
The Prussian arrival broke the french, But the British stood alone untill 5pm
British men died for Prussian command cowardice
@@farmerned6 Utter twaddle. The Prussians suffered 24,000 casualties at Ligny (including Blücher who was wounded in the battle) and a further 7,000 at Waterloo and then were the main force pursuing the defeated French. They also suffered a further 2,500 casualties at Wavre where the Prussian rearguard fought Grouchy and ensured he would not be present at Waterloo. I fail to see any Prussian cowardice there.
@@farmerned6 If you seriously mean this you are a mix of poorly read and a fool .
@@farmerned6
Prussian cowardice? Don't think so!
No shit sherlock...
Very well presented. David vs Goliath. 👏
The things I take away from the context or prelude is that the Norwegian and Danish government didn't want to mobilise or modernise its forces, because they didn't want to give Hitler a casus belli - A reason for war. They taught they could reason with madness. Luckily for them, this commander and his few men had a different idea.
I think the cascading effect of this moment had a huge impact. Retaining the king away from the Axis, meant that most of the Norwegian merchant fleet chose to side with the allied war effort. The reason for this was because the sailors were quite loyal to the king. This was critical, because at this point it was the second largest merchant fleet in the world. The fleets contribution represented a majority of all the resources that were transported in the first half of the war from the colonies to the western front. This seemingly little moment thus had a substantial impact on the less sexy parts of the second world war, the logistics that kept it going.
Norwegians and Danish governments of these days had forgotten that neutrality stands only when well defended. Maybe, maybe they should have sought to ally and modernize together.
Edit: or even sought an alliance with Poland and the Baltic states. I have zilch idea about how feasible thos would have been, but I still think it is an interesting idea for an alternate history.
Dunno if you could really call it a David v Goliath since it just was a bad decision and possibly the best odds for the fortress but ig this was still a good achivement for a "smaller" nation in ww2.
They are no better today,unfortunately
@@Briselance Alliance isn't always feasible.
Back in those days we relied on the nordic region being in the periphery of Europe and generally not considered too important to European affaires...
@@mastermariner490 Norway is a NATO member and spends more then average on the military by NATO standards.
Sweden and Finland are both in the process of applying for membership, although Turkey is currently blocking their bid to join...
I was onboard the ship which helped remove the coal oil fuel which was leaking, the seabed was littered with german jackboots, our divers recovered the ships seaplane, some of the control systems still worked, stainless steel wires and bronze pulleys were perfect. I have a small bottle of the coal oil, given as a souveneir to all who helped.
You should post a video detailing your experience and story so long as it won’t stir up too many bad emotions, the world may be lost your account and that’s a world we don’t want!
I'd love to hear more
Somewhat distressingly it should be noted most of those boots were likely either kicked off by Germans sailors swimming from the ship, or still worn by drowned sailors and soldiers whose bodies have since dissolved in the seawater.
That's quite a story! How old are you? I would suggest one or more of the following:
* Write a text (or some notes) detailing your story
* Have someone interview you
* Talk about your experiences with a relative and have the conversation be recorded
@@elijahfreeman5299 Luger pistol and the ammunition was still live, pistol was very corroded.
Well done! While on a trip to Norway last year I took a trip to Oscarsburg fortress and the Kopas battery. It's an amazing place and you can walk around those guns and look out over the fjord and realize just how close they were to the Blucher when a cruise ship sails by.
They also have an incredible set of dioramas in the fortress itself (now a museum) and an outstanding video of how everything unfolded. Worth the bus trip from Oslo, I highly recommend it as a day's excursion.
To be honest, when you look out over the water you can see that it was point blank range, and at that distance no armor would protect a ship from those shells. And once the 11' guns fired Kopas unleashed its own fury with their 6 inch guns that could (and were) reloaded. When they switched their firing to the Hipper and started trashing it, the Germans knew they had seriously "blown it".
Moral: Never try to take a warship past a fully operational fortress....
Thank you for this video.
Yeah 1000 yards for an 11 inch gun is the oft used "point blank". Contact range. If you opened the breech looked thru at the target and fired, it would hit.
@@williamkoppos7039 True, and I didn't realize it at first, but they deliberately fired high to give the people on it that last chance to turn around and go.
Hitting the spots they did crippled the boat but shooting lower into the hull at that range..... It would have probably have blown a magazine and sunk her outright then and there.
I passed by the fort many times, while working on a cruise ship going to Oslo. It has a ridiculously perfect view of anything entering those waters, with outlying terrain vs water making it easy for them to aim & couple small islands that can act as a distance marker. Those guns were starring directly at the ship menacingly. Germans were clearly just hopium trying to pass by it ninja, that was their only chance for a surprise attack. That or have to capture it with paras or other alarming methods. Basically that fort countered the surprise element, agroing anything it gets eyes on. Events chose the latter.
As a matter of fact: the problem with wintertime shipping from Luleå to Germany was definitely not the snow, but the Ice - not the smooth friendly hockey-rink ice but the metre-thick pack-ice, totally preventing shipping to and from the Bothnian sea and Bothnian bay. Even further south, in the Baltic Sea proper, ice-conditions more often than not in winter-time were a severe hindrance to shipping, often needing ice-breaker assistance.
Hans Strömberg, Stockholm, Sweden
Yea, it's obvious:)
That is also partly the reason why Norway were competetive to world trade compared to Sweden, Finland and Russia. Shipping is cheaper from Norway and the products' price in general are competetive even though Sweden, Finland and Russia had more natural resources. Same the USs triangle; Lake District, Mississippi and Hudson River + free passage West and North of Cuba respectively to the Pacific - and Atlantic Ocean. USAs world trade were threathen by USSRs precens in Cuba.
Don't forget that Narviks harbour is deeper then the one in Luleå
Oberst Eriksen received reports at 03:38 (Norwegian time) from patrole vessel that German speech was heard onboard the intruders. So, at opening of fire at 04:21 he that they were German. The first 28 cm shot was a near miss, only doing some harm to the FLAK command post in the main mast. The second 28 cm hit near the third 10,5cm on port side, rendering this useless. Punched a whole in the armoured deck below destroying one of the generators. Interrupted stem to the center turbine and ignited a fire in the hangar.
It is not likely that the German Deutschlandlied (First stanza: Deutschland über alles…) was sung onboard in the middle of the battle. Most of the soldiers and sailors was under the decks. The rest manning their battle stations returning fire and standing ready for orders. No officer would allow a disturbing choir. There are report though that Deutschlandlied was heard at about 06:21 as the wreck of the went under.
Number of hits by 15 cm from Kopås battery is often reported as up to about 20 hits. A more correct number seems to be 9-12 hits on .
The first torpedo hit was i little forward of the bridge in the boiler rooms. No gun turret was hit or disturbed. The second torpedo hit a little aft of midship into Turbinenraum 2/3, turbines for the side propellers. The second 28 cm had already taken out the mid turbine, so the ship lost all its propulsion and most of the generators greatly hampering firefighting due to lack of water and later evacuation from the ship.
Funfact. The torpedosight that Kommandørkaptein Andreas Anderssen had to his disposal is so primitive that he had to guess the speed of the target.
What's even better about the guns and torpedo battery that Admiral Lutjens managed to completely ignore is that they had been installed 40 years earlier by Germans and Austrians. If ANYONE should have known that battery was there, it was the Germans. 🤣
Fun fact:
The primitive torpedo used was the last use of the Whitehead torpedo -The Whitehead torpedo was the first self-propelled or "locomotive" torpedo ever developed.[a] It was perfected in 1866 by Robert Whitehead ~ Wikipedia
It is just amazing that he sunk the vessel with 2 Austro-Hungarian built Whitehead torpedos. The Whitehead torpedo factory was in the city port of Fiume in the Kvarner gulf (now Rijeka, Croatia) during the Great War.
@@SamCogley Whitehead torpedo factory was in the austro-hungarian city port of Fiume, in the Kvarner gulf (now Rijeka, Croatia). The germans had probably just no notice of those torpedos still active after over 20 years.
@@RDeckardN6 Old? The Argentinian ARA General Belgrano was sunk in May 1982 with old British mk 8 torpedos. Mk 8 entered service in 1927, 55 years earlier!
The captain of British submarine HMS Conqueror, had chosen the older mk 8 over the more modern Tigerfish guided torpedo as he deemed those less reliable.
As a Norwegian, I’m just gonna say this event should be even more recognized
i cant get enough of hearing about this incident. not just because im norwegian and very interested in history, but also that my great grand father was at oscarsborg fortress at that time. on the torpedo battery. so this history is closer to me than anything else. as far as i know there were no military losses on the norwegian side. only a civilian woman getting hit by one of the shells from the ships
Did he ever talk much about the experience?
@@elijahfreeman5299 not that much, just briefly what he had participated in, not to detailed.
@@MariusJT I think that is typical of many combat veterans. I've always been fascinated about this battle since reading about it as a child 50 years ago. Thanks.
@@elijahfreeman5299 oh trust me, he was trough a lot more than just this battle for sure. i know, ive most of the available information in my collection confirming most of the histories he actually told
@@MariusJT Glad to hear. I think most people outside of Norway are ignorant of what happened there during the war.
Birger Eriksen had no orders from higher up. The 2 in command wanted to fire a warning shot ,and they only had two guns manned and ready, with all the untrained personnel they could find on the island. Commander Eriksen answered firmly: Either I will be court-martialed, or I will become a war hero. fire!. He undoubtedly saved the Norwegian king and useless government, so they were allowed to escape to England
"Visst faen skal det skytes med skarpt!
Yeah i was for sure this was going to be included in the video, it's an interesting detail how one commander took a risk and thankfully it was for the better
@@HenningAndersen He never received any honor after the war, quite the opposite. After the war, he was dishonored by the Norwegian authorities. They didn't want to make him known, because then they would also have to take responsibility for the lack of preparation and the mistakes made in 1940
@@vegarhl oh I didn't know, that's too bad! At least he is very recognized in "the public"
@@HenningAndersen Yes, especially in the last 25 years it has become more popular to do research / talk about the war. People were in a rush to get moste out of the time witnesses, before they all died of old age.
This battle is very well depicted in the movie The King's Choice (2016), there are some vids of that part, I discovered that historical episode thanks to them, is a really epic face off!
The algorithm recommended your channel out of nowhere, enjoyed the video, thanks!
So nice to see new content, it’s been too long
I have tried my best despite the busy schedule at work. 🙂🙂
Good job with this presentation.
This channel is criminally underrated. Keep up the great work!
he is literally stealing bazzbattles videos 😆
I only found this thanks to House of history cant believe how underrated this channel is! looking forward to more content
The battle of Drøbak Sound is an amazing example of David vs Goliath and how you shouldn’t underestimate your disadvantaged but determined enemies.
In a single night two of Germanys best ships of the line were sunk and put out of action respectfully, while also failing to capture the primary objective on time leading to further consequences.
Until now, I've never heard of this battle. I was a huge WW2 buff as a kid and I researched many battles of the war. This was not mentioned in my searches.
Thank you for bringing this presentation. Very informative and well done.
then you better look up the Battle of Narvik, yes the battle of Norway and the occupation of Norway is not much spoken of, yet it had great impact on how the war went, like the experience the Allied got from the Battle of Narvik was used and build uppon when they draw the plans for the invasion of Normandie.
@@jamescooper7878 you got it
@@crisespinoza1979 If you ever find alliert og alene with subtitles its absolutely worth watching. Its called allied and alone because it kind of represents the situation at the time, we ended up in the allies, but the allies didn't really take it seriously sending barely trained and equipped troops to norway saving their more experienced and well armed counterparts back home just in case, and when they finally decided that these new units couldnt hold the line it was already kind of too late, they still sent some better troops but they were running out of ground to hold, and then the norwegian southern forces were abandoned over night. However, in the north the war continued until narvik was taken back. However once again the allies decided to abandon norway to focus on other objectives. It was the first major allied victory on land in the war. Also, fun fact, the british intended to invade norway first, and they would've if it wasnt for the finnish surrendering, instead they decided to commence the invasion if it looked like the germans were to invade and they were caught off guard by the germans actually invading, if they hadn't the british would've made sure they would eventually through its other plans. Plan r4 is really interesting.
Weserübung is pronounced [ve´ser- ybung]. First sylable stressed. Referring to the German river Weser, and the word Übung, meaning maneuver.
Hear, hear.
It's so easy to check a pronunciation too, rather than mangle it !
Same with Norwegian....
Finally! Thank you, Jens for pointing this out. Besides the pronounviation mishaps with Blücher, Weserübung and a few others this was a great video. Thumbs up!
👍😊👍
@@thorbjornlejon4935 calling Colonel Eriksen "Oberst Eriksen", as his name, was also quite lame; since "oberst" is the Norwegian word for colonel
Ahhh sometimes, Nordic related languages are so nasty hard to be learn. 😧😧😧😧
I gotta say, growing up and living in Filtvet this is great story telling. I went to Oscarsborg a couple of years ago on a school trip, and it was awesome. I'm in to history, and we're always told stories about when Blucher drove by, and how I would be able to see it from my house. I'm proud of my country, and I'm proud because I feel like Norway isn't getting the recognition it deserves from our efforts in WWII, but this video told the story so well. It's also special to me because this happened just a few minutes outside of my hometown, even though it happened 80 years ago. I swim in the same water Blucher drove through, which to me is kinda crazy to think about
Some of us in the UK understand and have a lot of respect for what Norway did during the war, and I am one of those. I think it depends on how people get their knowledge of the war. I grew up in the 70's when veterans had just retired from work and had time to talk to "youngsters" also from good documentaries and books. Now, the youth are educated from the internet (like RUclips) and Hollywood, and it is inaccurate, lazy and full of poorly researched "facts".
I, for one, take my hat off to you, and to Norway.
@@joewalker2152 The UK, France and Poland recognize Norway's effort during WWII to a larger degree than Norway itselves. It remain a mystery to us why Norway is so reserved. British, French and Polish troops fought in and for Norway and the world in general. The UK has always been a good allied. You guys always take responsibility and protect your allies. Also we're always welcome in the UK. The Brits are very friendly. Personally I am forever grateful to our allies.
Facts, the first German warship sunk was Rio De Janeiro, outside the city of Lillesand on night to 9th of April 1940. Also, our summer house is litteraly 5 min by boat from Oscarsborg fortress. So we always take trips to eat at the restaurant in the summer. They have serious great food, and a hotel if someone want to stay the night. It's really great to visit, and the museum is free, and so is the guided tours. And there is a very nice beach for children to play and swim in the sea from! If ever going to Oslo, I really reccomed this as a travel destination in the summertimes when the weather is nice. Also, a lot of concerts there during the summer season. So a bit of history, good food is really great. Also possible to take a boat directly from Oslo to Oscarsborg.
Rio De Janeiro was a freighter, not a war ship. On the 8. of April outside Stavern/Larvik a German tanker was torpedoed with a crew of 50 men.
@@kjellg6532 where you get Stavern from I have no idea, but rest is factual. It was sunk, and the people onboard who survived was taken into Lillesand and custody of Lillesand lensmann. But it may have been hit in the area your ref to first. Also, evening/night to 9th is 8th. But it was the first action of war. In compareson to the belief that Blücher was. Anyway, thanks for feedback.
I live 500m off the factory that produced these torpedos, Rijeka , Croatia. Some years ago Norwegian government sent one remained torpedo to a local Torpedo museum. At the moment museum is homeless, waiting for city new location approval.
A bit more details, the ancient torpedoes they launched were THE original torpedoes . Made in Rijeka by Whitehead Company.
The King's choice is a very good Norwegian film that covers this battle very well, its well worth a watch!
I totally agree.
The scene at Oscarsborg fort was the only good thing in that awful movie.
fantastic movie
@Sharkbaitj is it not availible with subtitles on netflix?
Should have made the actor use a Northern Norwegian dialect for Eriksen though...
King Haakon did not continue to rule over Norway as you say.
He was elected by the Norwegian people after Norways breakout from the Norwegia/Swedish union. He was Prince Carl of Denmark, before he took the Norwegian name Haakon.
Oberst Birger Eriksen was questioned when he ordered to open fire if he wanted to shoot with live ammunition. He exclaimed "Visst fanden skal der skytes med skarpt!" which means "We sure as hell will fire live shots!" (it's difficult to translate directly, but some thing to that degree). This quote is rather famous in the Norwegian military, as it symbolizes determination towards a good decision in a difficult situation.
Gee, just think, if the Norwegians had figured out somehow that Hitler was a BAD MAN and had simply ASKED the British to lay mines at their five biggest ports, they WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN INVADED!
Thansk for sharing! Realy nice to follow this historical event.
Very well done video. I had heard this story before, although not to this detail. Ironic that a state-of-the-art warship was sunk by a chain of old fortresses manned mainly by recruits and using weaponry that were pretty much museum pieces.
This is the 4th or 5th documentary about the invasion of Oslo Fjord what I have seen already but by far this one is the most extensive one. Same story telled as always but with much more detail and probably after more research. The intro and the depiction of the era is basically the same with quite a few details about the Altmark incident and about the possible northern trade routes. But the main difference is in the depiction of the actual confrontation. It shows very extensively the early part of the incident in the outer fjord, about all the confrontations and warning shots and it shows the position of the Norwegian batteries accurately on the Oscarsborg fortress and on the mainland as well. Lovely work and perfect narration.
This is Operation Room level quality content. Well done, this video deserves all the attention it gets.
realy, first line : there were only 3 adm hipper class cruisers, i didnt even check the rest of ity...
@@dirkdesnerck8277 There were actually 5 Admiral Hipper-class cruisers: Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Blücher, Seydlitz and Lützow.
Not all of them were completed though.
It was only the Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen and the Blücher that was commissioned into the German Kriegsmarine. The Seydlitz was almost completed, but when the war broke out, construction was slowed. She would later be chosen for conversion into an auxiliary aircraft carrier. Her conversion was never completed though.
The Lützow was similarly to her sister ship, Seydlitz, never completed. She was close to completion when the Soviet Union requested to buy the ship. The Kriegsmarine agreed to sale in February 1940 and she was transferred on the 15th of April.
The Admiral Hipper-class ship named Lützow is not to be confused with the other ship with the same name in the video. The Lützow in the video was actually called Deutschland before she got her new name. She was also the lead ship of the Deutschland-class of cruisers.
She gained her new name when the Admiral Hipper-class Lützow was transferred to the Soviets.
The decision to rename Deutschland came from the German Chancellor himself. He realized it would be a public relations disaster to have a ship sharing the country’s name sink.
Hope all of this made sense. English is not my first language.
@@dirkdesnerck8277 there were 5 actually but one sold to the Soviet union(the Lützow) and the other was unfinished and converted to an aircraft Carrier but never finished(the Seydlitz)
Very nice video! I live only a 15-minute drive from Drøbak, so I already knew a lot about the shooting, and I have been to the Oscarsborg castle myself. Great video!
You guys are doing a great job!
One remark regarding the Altmark insident. Norwegian forces searched the Altmark twice, without result, before the English navy acted. Also, there's a story (don't know if it is correct) that the first reply from the king, when he was told Norway was invaded, was; "by who?". -There was a real possibility to be invaded by England.
They had a plan drawn up for it and were very close to going through with it. Same situation with Iceland, except they just did it.
@@johnr797 Excactly. If I'm not wrong, the plan regarded the Narvik area, not the whole of Norway. Iceland was in a personal union with Denmark, so when Denmark was occupied, the where left without king or defence. I think the GB did the right thing when they denied the germans this easy picking.
There was more than a possiblity - the invasion came within a hairs breath of being carried out, British Troops were embarked on cruisers and ready to sail from ports in the north east - with a plan to lay mines in the waters being used to supply germany and cover them with a land invasion. However just before they could set sail HMS Glowworm ran into Admiral Hipper, at this point the admiralty realisd that lots of german warships were at sea and they didn't really know where, being unaware of the german troops at sea they concluded that Germany was atempting a surface fleet breakout into the atlantic. The troops were urgently disembarked from the cruisers and the cruisers sortied into the north sea to prevent the breakout. Had things gone slightly differently Norway would first have been invaded by Britain and the German troops coming ashore would have found British Troops waiting for them (having gone through a minefield).
@@sidekickbob7227 before that the British and German diplomats were both trying to entice the Icelandic government to allow their land to be used by the respective nations. That whole situation is fun to read up on.
@@johnr797 Will read more about it for sure. Also the german weatherstation in Greenland is a story worth to read!
The invasions of both Denmark and Norway cost the German navy half its capital ships which was one of the factors which meant Sweden did not suffer the same fate.
Germans didn't want to attack the one country supplying them with iron. They were not stupid.
Besides, they already had troubles seizing Norway, considering the small size of the Norwegian forces of thr time. So they didn't want to go to war with a country that was possibly a tougher military nut to crack and just as cold and difficult as Norway.
In other words, they already had a winter war in Norway and didn't want another one in Sweden. Especially since Sweden was then fully aware and couldn't be surprised anymore.
Sweden capitulated after a phonecall....
They never had a reason to invade us. But if the Brits and French would've gotten what they wanted we would've ended up as a major battlefield in the war. I'm glad all three great power's empires ended getting being bankrupt and dissolved at the end :)
@@sidekickbob7227you are mistaking Sweden for Denmark i think, Sweden held its neutrality through the entirety of the war
@@ItzLucky90 It's an old joke. Sweden was "neutral" but allowed about 1.000.000. german troops and equipment to travel through the country during the war. When Germany was successful, they made it difficult (strictly following the rules) for the Norwegians. When it became obvious the germans would loose, they helped the Norwegians big time. So even when my comment isn't correct, there's some truth in it. The Swedes did follow German instructions after pressure... aka capitulated.
The guns mentioned were 57 mm,
The 15 cm guns were mounted higher up, the kopås battery.
Great video!
"The engines could barely pay attention"
"Causing many damage"
"As a magazine flew away"
Who wrote this??
I think subtitles are generated by a software. that's why sometimes they are ridicolous.
I enjoy the unique video editing and visual graphic style! Well done!
Thank you very much!
@@TheWarline did you use inkarnate to make the maps?
@@ghoststrike1 Ys
Just yesterday I was in my WW2 class and we were discussing the invasion of Norway. It was really the first time that paratroopers were utilized and was fraught with difficulties and dangers early on.
For years I lived i Vordingborg (DK) and we have an old WW1 fort on Masnedø, close to the newly built Storstrøms Bro from 1937 (3,2 km, and by then the longest in Europe!). The day after the first Parachute attacks in Rotterdam and Antwerpen, the Germans had 200 men being dropped on Masnedø to take control of the bridge and protect it from being destroyed. The Fort had no troops inside, but the Caretaker and his assistant, so a little research may have made this unnecessary?
They were also used against the fortifications in Belgium which were very advanced and gave the Germans quite the headache which sadly is a bit of a less known part of history
@@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188 Better safe than sorry I guess, I am sure the paratroopers must have been overjoyed at being able to safely land, compared to the poor guys sent to Crete
@@INSANESUICIDE, the troops that took Eben Emael were not paratroopers, but airborne assault troops. They landed on the top of the fortress in gliders.
Actually during the night of the 8th of April the Germans had Special Soldiers on Falster to cut the telephone line, so the German troops reached the Garrison in Vordingborg from Gedser, without anyone knowing about the attack! And my uncle worked at the ferry to Gedser and had met a man, who at the 9th arrived in a German Officers uniform!
No small feat taking on a whole German task force and not only sinking a heavy cruiser, but managing to do so without a single casualty.
This vidéo is remarkable. Thanks for your hard work.
Thank you too!
Norway is certainly one country that Britain has called a good friend for many, many years. Even now they are helping our pitiful power grid keep going.
We Norwegians know that Britain and the US are our true allies, not the EU. Without UK and US we would probably speak Russian right now.
@@neilAneerGAmAIas a canadian, I say the same thing.
Our allies are the british and american.
And of course, some other nations in the commonwealth, such as australia, and also phillipines, which was an american territory before.
Mainland europe however? They are pretty useless, both for military and economy. I know we can rely on the countries I mentioned above for help if we ever need it. And I will want canada to also do the same for them.
Thanks for showing the boarders correctly on your maps for 1939!
Much appreciated and such an improvement to your Pearl Harbour documentation video.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
The Norwegian guard boat in the Oslofjord was named 'Pol III" not'' Paul III'.
this channel needs more content, this is so good to watch
I'm working on it. Thank you.
This is a great video. Keep making more!
Thank you! Will do!
Love the facts about the trade routes as well. Keep it up!
"Visst fanden skal der skytes med skarpt! Enten blir jeg stilt for krigsrett, eller så blir jeg krigshelt. Fyr!" or "Damn right we're firing with sharp (live ammunition)! Either I'll be court-martialed, or I'll be a war hero. Fire!" And a war hero it made him and he rightfully deserves his bronze bust in the city of Drøbak. His reasoning that he didn't have to to follow the letter of his orders to fire a warning shot, as the defender had heard shots had already been fired earlier more to the south, presumably by other Norwegian units, while not knowing who actually they were opposing, was maybe the most crucial decision in the campaign and led to the encounter in the invasion of Norway that bought enough time to evacuate the royal family, the government and the gold reserve that otherwise would have fallen in German hands. Also important in this encounter was the fact that the conscripts under his command would not have been able to reload the 11 inch guns fast enough to fire a second salvo before the Blücher would have passed them contributed to his decision to use the two shots he had available to the greatest possible effect.
But the target had been given warning shots and certainly it would have been completely implausible that it had gotten this far without it.
I have a strong suspicion the quote "Either I'll be court-martialed, or I'll be a war hero. Fire!" is a myth.
Sorry, I missread your comment a "little" bit.
Fascinating watch. Looking forward to more
Frau Blücher?! ... (horses neighing in the background)
Ha ha ha !
@@BMrider75 Oh thank god. Thought I was the only one 🥲 😀
It's 'Fronkensteen'.
Loved the battle maps, made it so much better! good work all around
Glad you enjoyed!
As a Norwegian, I do of course know about the sinking of the Blücher. But I didn't know the fort used almost half a century old torpedos and had almost exclusively untrained personell, and I also didn't know the German losses were so high.
Btw, fantastic video - simply and straight to the facts, just like I love it. Thanks for making and uploading it :)
Hvilket år er du født? Er født i -84 selv, og vi ble lært om dette på skolen. Utrolig bra video ja. Og den drar fram veldig mange detaljer om rekkefølge osv.
@@rakerholm Jeg er 69-modell :)
German losses are estimated as low as about 325 men. As for the torpedos. After the war German torpedos G7 invented about 1930 used by the Norwegian costal defence up till about 1995. During the Falkland war ARA General Belgrano was sunk by 55 yrs old british torpedos, so the torpedos at Oscarsborg was almost new. Just returned fron an overhaul at Naval base Horten.
Nice a new video 🎉 Really like your videos thanks for the effort and the content
the narration, explaination, and animation are greatly done:O
just found your channel, saw whats discussed and immediately subscribed. Great work man
in the film "The Kings choice " there is a excellent scene about this event.
During a lecture by a Danish Naval Officer, it was told that it takes some time/years to train and prepare the crew on a warship, and this was a brand new ship! And if it had been a - trained crew, they most likely would have been able to block the water coming in and could have saved the ship! And for years it had oil coming to the surface, til it was drained by drilling into the fuel deposits and draining them.
I love how this is essentially the same thing as many other RUclips channels except a lot of the animations, artwork and mapping is more detailed. Yet the algorithm gods have decided this channel is not as worthy as others such a shame😢
✍️ edit included a spelling mistake and also thank you to the creator for pinning the comment
I'm sure that with more videos there will be more of an incentive for RUclips to advertise this channel! This is amazing content and if the creator keeps it up the channel should become successful! I have no doubt!
I’m finding all these new channels similar to this one, and I’m subbing them all, including this one. The WW2 genre has never been so well represented
My mother's uncle was part of the guns that sunk Blücher. He was imprisoned in a prison camp called Grini for the entirety of the war after this. Always a quiet man, he refused to talk about it.
Had I been through something like that, I don't think I would ever have talked about it either. The horror that noone really can fathom at all, unless they themselves have been through it. Had a grandfather who was the same, was a young man part of "Gutta på skauen" / the resistance, but I only heard the stories after he passed away.. he never spoke of those 5 years.
@@kheidal Yes. Heard the same about my ex's grandfather. The Gestapo tortured him.
Must be some other reason for his imprisonment. Most of the crew from Oscarsborg were send home after a few days and weeks.
@@kjellg6532 Possibly, yes. I do not know what rank he had, nor much about what happened after.
8:27 Didn't the Norwegians had a torpedo battery as well somewhere near Oscarsborg fortress, I remember seeing it in the movie called "The King's Choice"
See the video. Near Drøbak, torpedoes are fired.
I have just come across your channel and instantly subscribed. I hate to compare but, this is exactly the quality of Montemayor and The Operations Room, two exceptional channels and I have no doubt you will acheive the same status in time. Looking forward to future content.
If you are taking requests, would you look into the British submarines based in Malta between 1941-1944? Although I am certain you have your own list to work through!
Thank you for your feedback,.
Oscarsborg is nice. When i worked in the military, we were having a two day meeting at Oscars Borg as the commander of the fort was one of the 10 bosses where i worked, this was just a couple years ago. Anyway, after the first day of meeting was over, we went to the commander’s house located on top of the hill at the other side of the island from the main cannons and fired up the grills for a BBQ. The commander also opened up the bar and gave us unlimited free drinks, one could only imagine how that ended. It was one hell of a night to say the least! The day after several employees were so hungover that the meeting was cut short and we got a guided tour instead lol, some couldn’t even attend that. Will remember my trip there forever. It was a nice tour, got to see the humongus size of the shell they fired and the torpedo bay underground amongst many other things.
Somewhat unrelated fun fact: several places in the Norwegian military, old wehrmacht fuel drums have been sawn in half lengthwise and a metal mesh put on top and some legs velded to the bottom to be used as coalfired barbeques!
They're well suited to this, as the galvanized steel the germans used simply doesnt rust.
A former classmate had his granndfather onboard. He survived by swiming away and fought on the rest of the war only to die at seelöw heights during battle of Berlin
That man saw a lot or carnage
Good for him.
The attention to detail and the great animations make this education on WW2 unlike anything seen before, many thanks!
I'm friends with the grandchildren of the guy who fired the two torpedoes.
And he did a lot of other things in that war. Some seriously James Bond stuff. And I don't mean similar - I mean a bunch of stories from his service record that line up with James Bond. A LOT.
Like... when working in Toronto, Canada, he worked near the corner of James and Bond. And was a hardcore spy. And if you have a license plate in Norway not related to your geographic region, it starts with Q.
And my friends' grandmother was the secretary for the ministry of defence in Ottawa, and he'd flirt with her when he went to visit there for work purposes. And on and on and on.
Exccelent account. After watching it, I subscribed to this channel.
I think this was good it gave them time to move the gold reserves out of reach of the German's not to mention the Royal Family was able to move to safety well done to the officers and recruit's manning the Norwegian Gun's
One of the sailors who was part of moving the gold to the UK worked for my grandfather after the war, when the war ended he went home to see his wife and 5 year old son he hadn't seen since 1940, then immediately went to sea again.
Excellent content! I´m Norwegian and know this story well enough, or so I thought. You still managed to fill in a few details. Great work!
Thank you very much!
Two German officers walked up to the road on the right bank (15:55) and hitch hiked into Oslo with an elderly couple. I would highly recommend the book "Vi dro mot Nord". Don't know it it's available translated.
Great video!! Keep making them!
nazis "attempting to peacefully occupy oslo" is a crappy euphemism for "hoping they won't shoot back"
Love this story, and enjoyed it before, and this time very much, many thanks!!
At about 5:00 there's a small mistake. King Haakon, then Prince Carl of Denmark, was elected to be King of Norway, so he statred his reign in 1905, when Norway gained her independence from Sweden.
Fun fact: King Charles III was named after King Haakon VII, who also was his godfather....
His* its a fatherland not motherland :)
The three 28 cm guns were called Moses, Aron og Josva. Moses and Aron hit Blucher, sometimes this pops up during quiz in Norway. Great video.
Yes Moses, Aron, Joshua and the old 30,5 cm front loader Methusalem, but this in show biz, not in the military. Reason for this is that one of the gun barrels fell in the water under reloading in Oslo during transport.
Frau Blucher?? Neigheeeeeeeeeeeaaahh, snort. (I just had to!!)
Hint: Mel brooks.
Nei.....🏇
Thanks for the video !
(one little thing though , its calles Weserübung, the damned Ü we Germany use, translated into Weser Exercise :))
keep it up bro :D
“Either I get decorated or I will be court martial. FIRE!!”
I love these types of channels
Like it very much. Thanks for your work💯
Glad you enjoy it!
Kummetz, kaptain Zur See Woldag, in Oslo, does write few days later that 38 officers and 985 crew got saved. 125 got lost. 528 Soliders got rescued and 122 got lost (some says 195). Totaly 247 to 320 germans died that day. Reference. koop&chmolke "Admiral Hipper Class". So this 1000 men died is just a number norwegians like to throw around. Want to know what a book published in the late 40s says? around 2000 dead! A book published by the norwegian military. in the 50-80 i guess 1500 where the number and now, its common to say around 1000 if you dont care about finding the facts or reading books. I loved the first 16 minutes of this video, but now its just one of them not going deep enough to find out what really happened. and materials like this will only keep the history wrong.
I don't know where you are getting your numbers. Most historians agree that the whole norwegian campaign, that lasted 2 months, costed 1500 wermacht soldiers and 3500 kriegsmarine sailors to the invaders. Which put it as one of the most costly (in proportion) campaigns of WWII for the germans.
Blucher was heavily loaded with troops and ammunitions, plus its ordinary crew. It was immediately ablaze after the first 2 salvos, then when the torpedo hit it capsized in a short time. If you add to that the icy freezing waters your 250-300 casualties and over 1500 survivors seems unlikely, to say the less. The numbers you provide do not match, there were more than 2000 people on board between crewmen and wermacht soldiers.
@@RDeckardN6 i dont talk about the whole campain. my numbers are from Koop Gerhard and Schmolke Klaus-Peter book about the "Heavy Cruisers of the Admiral Hipper Class ". its from 2014, everyone interested in history, should take care to read books about the other side. And another thing, i do make maps of ww2, and in my south-Norway map, i did write some lines about the Blücher with the same numbers. maps been sold in thousands and i never heard anyone disagree with the numbers from Koop Gerhard and Schmolke Klaus-Peter.
@@kystfort But your numbers do not match. There were more than 2000 people aboard the Blucher between crewmen and wermacht soldiers. Did you check among your sources the ship manifest ??
And a good historian checks more than 1 source like you did. Of course I always check sources from both sides...and all sources I checked claim the german losses in the Blucher sinking around a 1000 men.
My granddad was one of the raw recruits at Oscarsborg.
However, he wasn't involved in the fighting. He said he just woke up to a lot of cannon fire, and he didn't understand what was going on, and eventually the Germans captured the fort.
There was a movie made in Norway in 2016, about the invasion and how King Hákon reacted. The King's choice (Kongens Nei). This battle was show in it, and it is an awesome scene!
ruclips.net/video/YZ79i11JSnU/видео.html
Good detail and graphics.
Generally accurately and well presented, however, I got rather irritated by the terrible pronunciation of non-English words. The German name of the Invasion of Norway and Denmark was Weserübung, which means “the Weser Exercise”, and is pronounced Weser-Übung, with stress on the Ü, not Weseru-bung... Anybody with even the faintest knowledge of WWII, would know this code name and its pronunciation. And, yes, I am a certified pedant, but I believe UK people would react to foreigners pronouncing, say Leicester “Lay-Chester” instead of “Lester”...
I agree with you. The Brits have this habit of anglophonize (I just invented the verb) all foreign names. I mean the're always trying to translate the name of foreign places and pronounce them as such. The main rail station of Rome is named "Termini" from the latin word which described the tanks placed there at the time of the roman empire. Well the Brits translate it "Terminal" which has a complete different meaning.
You need to seek help if words irritate you. That's not healthy at all
Words do not irritate me, what does are lazy and sloppy people who does not do their research, so they horribly mispronounce foreign words, thus diminish the value of an otherwise good clip.
I'd like to know more about this. Appeasement was not the way. I am glad the commander to his own initiative against the enemy. That was a brave move from a man who clearly loved his own country.
I get the chills everytime i see this scene
Hey, thanks for using my picture of the main 28 cm gun!
Thank you
Good video. Well done.
Thank you
VERY INTERESTING - and totally ignored in US world history classes !
Birger Eriksen,"Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed. Fire!"
About 40 years ago I worked with a carpenter whose ancestor was in command of the first Norwegian patrol vessel the Blucher encountered..It was a converted Whaling chase/harpoon canon chase boat.
"Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed. Fire!"
- Birger Kristian Eriksen