Norway was under German occupation during the majority of the second world war, and
was the site of a major front prior to the invasion of France.
The government put into place was extremely pro-German, as you'd imagine, and it did everything
that it could to aid the German war effort.
This included pushing Norwegian men to form a military unit, to join the so called crusade
against Bolshivism.
But only 1,900 would take up that call.
These men would form the Norwegian Legion, and in this episode, we will be covering the
history of this unit, and the part it played in the second world war.
Nazism had started to make a rise in many European countries, and the Norwegians were
no exception.
Their largest party was the Nasjonal Samling, or National Rally, and it had been formed
by former defense minister Vidkun Quisling in 1933.
The party largely faltered in gaining public support for some time however.
They never managed to gain broad political appeal, netting only 2% of the vote in the
1933 elections and received even less in the '36 election.
The party modeled itself off of the German Nazi Party, and formed a paramilitary organization
similar to the German SS, or the Slovak Hlinka but would only see a maximum strength of 1,000
prior to 1940.
The Germans would invade Norway and Denmark on April the 9th of 1940.
The same day, Quisling would march in the radio broadcasting studio in Oslo and proclaim
himself as the new Prime Minister, demanding all resistance to the invasion to stand down.
Virtually no one listened to his demands, but the Norwegian army was extremely ill equipped
to deal with the invasion, and even though allied troops would land in Narvik, they did
little more then prolong the inevitable, and the nation would finally capitulate on June
the 10th.
In September, Hitler would appoint Josef Terboven as the Reichskommissar of Norway.
Here, Terboven would appoint 11 other individuals to help him govern the country without forming
a proper government, as the plan was to let Quisling and his party to eventually take
over.
All other political parties were banned, and membership within the NS quickly grew, gaining
15,000 members by the end of the year.
However, Quisling was a very controversial individual within the party, and factions
would fight bitterly for policy decision and control over the movement at large, which
delayed the appointment of a proper government, until February of 1942.
The previously mentioned factions within the party, were in many ways also openly bitter
about co-operation with German fascists, and viewed Quisling as a German puppet, rather
then a Nationalist Norwegian, as Quinsling still answered to Terboven, who in turned,
only answered to Hitler.
Quisling himself, tried to use the co-operation with Hitler, as a means for his own direct
gains.
Firstly to try and remove Terboven, then hoping that one day, Norway would regain her independence,
with Quisling at its helm, and when the call for a unit of Norwegian soldiers came to aid
against the Soviets, he jumped at the opportunity to supply said men.
See, the Norwegian army had been disbanded in June of 1940, and a large section of its
pre-existing army had either fled with the allies, or fled to Sweden.
By giving men for the Germans, Quisling aimed to re-establish a standing Norwegian army,
and use it to re-assert claims to not only independence, but a return to the height of
Norwegian power.
A number of Nords had already been brought into the German army, via either the Nordland
or the Wiking division, even though neither of these were strictly Norwegian in nature.
Terboven announced the creation of a fully Norwegian unit to fight against the USSR in
June of 41, simply dubbed the Norwegian Legion.
The formation of this unit was backed openly by Quisling, with it soon getting thousands
of volunteers, most of them believing that they were to create the core of a new Norwegian
army.
One of the main propaganda tools for recruitment, was playing towards the general sympathy that
many had towards the Finnish from their previous war against the Soviets in 1939.
Many that would sign up, viewed it as an effort to save the Finns against future communist
aggression.
On top of that, a section of the NS, and thus a section of the Norwegian volunteers, were
also interested in restoring Norway to it's territorial height of the 13th century which
included Finnish land.
However, the hopes of establishing a Norwegian core in Finland proved to not come to forituion.
Instead of these men being sent to the Finnish front as their own separate unit, these men
become a part of the German army, which was a massive setback for many that signed up,
one of the many promises not kept.
Originally, they were promised that they would fight in Norwegian uniforms, under the Norwegian
flag, with Norwegian weapons, and in the Finnish front.
However, they were instead given German uniforms, with a Norway flag patch, Integrated in the
German army, and sent to fight in the Eastern Front, away from Finland.
This revelation made many in the legion not renew their enlistment after the original
six months were up, and they would lose two of their main commanders around the same time.
Finn Kjelstrup, and Joergen Bakke, and command would finally fall to former army officer
Arthur Quist.
When the Americans officially entered the war, the re-enlistment rates dropped even
more, and by the start of 1942, Quist was left with little more then 1,200 men at his
command, many of which were disillusioned, leading to low morale, and desertions.
From here, the legion would be sent to the southern end of Leningrad near Gatchina in
February of 42.
As soon as they reached the line, they were peppered by Soviet Snipers, artillery, night
raids, and the harsh winter.
Even though popular media likes to picture Norwegians as shirtless buff men with steroid
pecs, mother winter doesn't soften up for anyone.
They would come under heavy Soviet fire on April the 18th, where they suffered massive
casualties.
They'd get replacements and be transferred to another division along with Latvians, Dutch
and Flemish volunteers in the summer.
In the winter they'd see some of the hardest fighting, losing roughly half of their whole
strength in a Soviet Counterattack, and would see even more action during Operation Iskra,
the operation that broke the Leningrad blockage.
The legion would be sent back home to Norway in March of 43, where they were given two
week leave and informed that their unit was to be disbanded, and they were to join the
new SS division Nordland.
Of the roughly 1,200 men that returned home of the unit, only half of them would join
the Nordland division.
In total around 1,900 men would sign up for the legion, where 4-600 would give up their
lives fighting in the unit.
Many other Norwegian based units would fight alongside the Germans during the rest of the
war, such as within the Division Nordland, or the 6th Mountain Division Nord.
But, those units will be covered in
a future episode.