How Norway's Army Fought Back - Norway 1940 Documentary 

KMS Blücher: Let's just blindly rush towards their capital, what could go wrong?

Little piece of extra detail. The Oscarsborg fortress defenders had no idea of the identity of the Blücher at first, the fortress commander however had decided that whoever these ships belonged to they were hostile and heading for Oslo so gave the order to open fire. However the crew of Blücher began singing "Deutschland Uber Alles" as they passed by loud enough for the defenders to hear and only then giving away their identity as German. The fortress itself was quite old having been originally intended to defend against possible Swedish aggression after Norway became independent. Oscarsborg was being used for training purposes by 1940 and its torpedoes were British pre-World War I vintage, however Blücher was sailing so close to the fortress they could hardly miss. The Germans were hugely overconfident and not expecting any resistance.

Sure, let's sail an entire fleet with one of our newest heavy cruisers at the head through narrow, hostile coasts with naval batteries on both sides, what could be wrong?

wow your pronounciation of Norwegian words and names is way better than most other history channels. It's clear you've put a lot of effort into making your videos as high-quality as possible. Jævlig bra gjort.

The doomed Blucher was in service for less than six months when she was sunk. The Oscarsborg fortress had guns manufactured by Krupp in 1893 and torpedoes that were nearly 40 years old. The commander of the fortress was Coronel Birger Eriksen. an officer just six months from retirement. Most of the fortress gunners were reservists activated just days before the attack. He had been the fort commander since 1933 and knew the 28 cm guns and torpedoes intimately. The torpedo tubes failed about 50% of the time when they were used infrequently in practice engagements. The 28 cm ammunition was almost 40 years old, and the only practice gunners got was firing very low power blank rounds. They had never fired a full power armor piercing round before that fateful morning of April 9, 1940. To make the battle even more improbable, Eriksen was unable to reach defense headquarters in Oslo and had no orders to open fire. His standing orders were to only fire warning shots. Rather than let the Germans sail past after a few warning shots, Eriksen and his soldiers were determined to stop them, orders or not. The guns worked perfectly that day, as did the torpedo tubes, with the combination of gunfire and torpedoes sending the German Navy's newest cruiser to the bottom in the space of fifteen minutes. The secondary battery of 15 cm and 57 mm guns raked the escorting German destroyers, damaging them and causing the full scale retreat of the rest of the invasion fleet. When the Germans returned in full force four days later, their main target was the fortress. After two hours of heavy shelling, German paratroopers were landed behind the fort. After a brief period of skirmishing that sometimes included hand to hand fighting, Eriksen could see that the 80 soldiers manning the fort were no match for the might of the German army and navy combined and ordered the fort's surrender. To show that no good deeds go unpunished, Eriksen was actually court martialed in 1945 for surrendering the fort too easily! Two military commissions, one in 1945 and the other in 1946, cleared Eriksen of all charges and ruled he had acted according to orders.As you might imagine, this left Eriksen a broken man, and he died in 1958 as a hero that always had a black mark next to his name.

A small team of crack Wehrmacht soldiers landed an attack boat outside Stavanger, Norway for an undercover mission during the start of Operation Weserübung. They were ordered to find a way to contact the German war administration as soon as they landed in Norway. However, because they thought calling abroad from Norway was the same as in Germany, the dialled the wrong number, and ended up at the mansion of a Swedish count. The count, being fluent in German, understood that something had to be terribly wrong if German soldiers called from Norway, so he immediately hung up and called the Norwegian embassy to warn them. Of course by that time it was way too late. I can only imagine the conversation they had, and the confusion on both sides...

Norway: mounts a competent defense, holding back the Germans long enough for ally reinforcements The allies: no

It's so weird being a Norwegian and learning about my country's history from an Englishman. Can't say I dislike it though

If you're ever in Oslo during the spring, summer or early fall, you can board boat B21 or B22 from Aker brygge in the middle of the city and travel down the Oslo fjord to Oscarsborg for the price of a bus ticket. The trip in itself is nice, the island is very picturesque, and the old fortress is open to the public for free, you can sit on the massive Krupp guns and have a beer in the old mess hall. Cozy goats graze there.

Germany: Yeah bro lets send one of our newest ships to Oslo, what could go wrong? Norway: *Sinks the ship* Germany: You were not supposed to do that

Why does it seem like the Allies always manage to do everything wrong at this phase of the war?

Never have I known a better account of the fighting in Norway in 1940. You did an excellent job on this video; incorporating scenes from the Norwegian movie King's Choice was very well done.

The Norwegian king; Haakon VII spoke these famous words during the war: "Alt for Norge" (Eng: "Everything for Norway") this became his motto and has inspired many norwegians later on.

Let's hope I didn't make too big a mess of the pronounciations!

My grandfather Einar Wilhelmsen and Colonel Eriksen where close friends. The Commander of Oscarsborg, borg = "castle", but i this case I think "fortress" is a more accurate description of Oscarsborg. When Blücher arrived Commander Eriksen called my grandfather who lived on the main land further out the fjord so he could see if the ships had flags. My grandfather told him that none of them had flags and then he asked Eriksen what he was going to do. "I'll shoot!" he said. Some minute later my grandfather heard the highest bang he had heard in his life. The fjord are keeping the shock wave from spreading out, but instead compress and keep it in the fjord passing my grandfathers house. Eriksen had only time to shoot one shot from each of two of the canons. This was old canons and it took too long time to reload them, and on top of that they were understaffed and had only crew for two canons. Two rounds and two hits! The first projectile with a weight of 470 kg. hit the bridge and made the ship uncontrollably, the second hit the ammunition magazine. On the east side of Oscarsborg there is a torpedo battery which gave Blücher the final blow. Fun facts: I'm born and raised in the village you can see at the left corner on the map from 00:42 a huge part of the buildings were one of Oscar Nobel's first dynamite factory. The powder that was used in the canons were produced at that factory. A little irony is that the canons that hit Blücher is that they were German produced by Krupp.

>Being Germany in ww2 >Having a sizable fleet but not enough to beat the British one >Sending a hyper class battleship into a nowegian strait where very big guns are positioned >Losing that ship in a matter of minute >Kriegsmarine arguing about the british naval dominance

de Wiart: we need air cover we're being pounded by German aircraft British: OK here's 10 biplanes

These are amazing. Loved the inclusion of scenes from Kongens Nei (english title: The Kings choice). A really good movie. Cant wait for the battles of Narvik!

Do a video on Denmark. Oh wait we didnt fight xd

Fun fact: If you're ever in Oslo and encounter road work, especially where they dig manholes to do work on pipes and such, they cover the holes with big plates of metal so that people won't fall into them. It is said that these plates are all from the hull of Blücher. ;)

Funfact: Eriksen ordered cooks, washers etc. to help arm a second cannon, because they didn’t have enough men to arm all 3 👌🏽 Source: My History Teacher, i wrote an text about it.

Actions like this (often called "minor" by historians) are quite interesting and deserve more attention. THANKS!

Great channel

Thank you for highlighting this part of WW2, the story of Norwegian resistance is often dominated by the focus on partisan movements later in the war. Glad you're shedding light on the early stages as well. Well worth patreon support.

Nice, love you covering Norway during WW2.

do the heavywater sabotage in Rjukan!

This channel needs to be bigger the work that goes in is just so much and the videos are so good

Loving this deep dive into aspects of the war we normally brush over, cheers!

Great content. Loved it since the start. The effort in your maps are not overlooked, and your voice is pleasant. Keep up motivation and there is only one way to go... Up.

Oh, you just made my day. Sipping coffee and watching this, heaven.

Outstanding quality and very informative!

Oscarsburg had ‘only‘ three 11“ guns, not 15“.

Do a video documentary about the Italian Invasion of Greece in 1940

Germany: we have ze greatezt battlezhip ever Norge (Norway): hold øle mitt

Amazing video, thanks for creating it in such detail. Well done.

Your videos are getting much better. Good job!

The amount of research you have put in to this and the work you have put in graphically, to educate us, impresses me. Standing ovation! Sincerely, a Norwegian.

When I was thirteen, my junior high school class went with on a study tour with the White Buses down to Poland and Germany. Even though the Concentration Camps were the main agenda, we rode down the eastern side of Drøbak. Our guide, an old man who I sadly do not remember the name of had apparently served on Oscarborg and knew Colonel Eriksen. He could tell us that when they opened fire on "Blücher", they were guessing the distance to the ship to get the correct degree angle for their guns. One degree off and they would have missed the target.

Another Amazing episode ! Well done dude!

Thank you for detailed description of these little-known battles. Very interesting review with successful animation!

Ahh mah gad. My country, at my birtday by my favourite RU-vidr?!

As a norwegian myself I would say this is a very good video, and I appreciate the pronounciation. It's not perfect by any stretch, but way better than I would have expected from pretty much anyone outside of scandinavia

That was a fascinating tale, thank you the videos are fantastic, and the format is easily understood !!

Wonderfull as always. keep em coming!

No warning, No hesitation! These are enemies!

Great series on the battle of Norway! I would love to see a Historigraph series on the valiant resistance by the Finnish Army, in the Soviet battle for Finland. 👍🏽

Nice job with the maps and the unit markings. Well done.

Thanks for the video, good production, informative.

Could your next Topic be the German Balkan Campaigns against Yugoslavia and Greece? I would appreciate it, as it's an interesting war theater, with not much coverage on RU-vid. Thanks

the good old hoi4 capital rush

Great quality! Keep up the good work!

This was excellent, nice work!

1:13 I don't remember those guns being 15 inches of diameter. I though they were 11 in. Or 283mm guns

12:01. Strange verb tense. The fall of France would be in the future not the past.

Great stuff! absolutely great! and very underrated aswell, which I love--- you and Montemayor both are great, Looking forward to the next one of the series with Narvik!

awesome work love to hear and see more!

Even though Norway got occupied, our resistance after the occupation was badass.

You say that Blücher was hit multplie times. Yes, multiple, as in only 2 times. The fort was manned by fresh recruits, that only managed to fire the 2 shells that was already pre-loaded. Both of these hit, starting fires on the heavy cruiser, but by no means dooming the ship. Torpedo hits (2 or 3 I believe) however, sealed Blüchers faith. The germans was actually totally unaware of the underground torpedo battery, and thought that the Blücher had come upon a mine field, and therefore the Lübeck as well as the rest of the taskforce turned around. It's also worth mentioning that the Blücher was under constant fire from small caliber weapons from the surrounding forts, and that no norwegian soldiers manning the forts lost their lives that night, despite heavy countering fire from the germans.

Great channel, filling the gaps with less well known battles, that are really interesting to long-term history buffs. Thanks!

This is hands down the best documentary about Weserübung you can find on the internet. Keep up the greatwork!

Do the battle for Greece

Even tho we lost, we still sat a record for withstanding the Germans. Denmark 1 Hour, poland 4 weeks, France 6 weeks, Norway 2 Months. It's something

this is so cool! thanks for making this

amazing video!! well done

This is why you dont trust your national defense to "allies". No one will fight harder than the people defending their homes but they must properly trained and equipped and currently maintained.

Norway, my home country

Wow, first time seeing one of your videos and OMG! This is the best battle doc. I've ever seen and I've seen tens of thousands of documentrys.

This is so good!!! Keep it up!

Really looking forward to the second part of this one! :D The first major Allied land victory was attributed to a Norwegian General from Trøndelag! Shame history has chosen to forget him... But we will never forget him!

You can't really blame the germans for being too confident in the beginning, as they were by far the superior force.

Great channel. Good content. Keep up the good work

Thank you for this, its awesome!

Each like means long live the memories of the people that fought for their country even if it was futile for Denmark 🇩🇰 France 🇫🇷 Norway 🇳🇴

Probably brought the Blucher with Free XP, Wallet Warriors that Captain are.

Great work

Great video as always

Watching this should be mandatory in Norwegian High- and Middle Schools

Kongens nei

Nicely informative video

I'm in love with this format of video and your channel. I asked this before but I hope you'll do something on Irish history like the 1916 Rising in the future. All the best.

Norwegians: "the Brits are coming" French: "and theyll be the first to leave!"

Lenge leve kongen

Excellent combination of commentary, visual aids and historic footage!

Yay thanks for uploading again

im norwegian! im so proud. just imagine if we only had better equipment and alittle better training we could have done much more. atleast i think so :)

Make a video about Romania 🇷🇴

Thank u for this. We don’t have any historical youtubers in Norway so it’s hard to find videos like this

Love everything about these vids! Keep it up fam.

so it took the nazis 2 months to take out Norway? France - 6 weeks Poland - 1 month in other words Norway > France > Poland i'm impressed Norwegians, well done

These videos are Great!!! Always looking forward to it..

Your excellent post adds so much to our appreciation of the courageous actions of Norway's defenders. Most histories deal with this entire chapter of the war with a sentence or two. Thank you for creating and posting! And i'm hoping for more!

I was so happy that you used clips from “The Kings Choice”

Just found this channel and after watching just one video had to subscribe. amazing detail

Very good! The way of presentation is both entertaining and informative. Keep up the good work. Sub confirmed :)

Great videos man. I love that you dont make your videos around popular events but if you make some you will get some boost in subscribes but i am really thankful for your production of videos now. Keep up the great work

Great Videos, keep it up!

Amazing video Addaway I have notifications on and clicked on it so fast. I look forward to these videos so much Continue the great work.

You do fantastic narration bro! new sub here!

i just found this channel and man am i glad i did i love these types of videos

A very good collection of interesting videos