Norwegian government-in-exile

Norwegian Government in Exile

The Norwegian government in exile was the government in exile of Norway following their occupation by Nazi Germany in 1940, this government lasted until 1945 with the surrender of Nazi Germany. The governments main offices were in London, UK, and New York City.

Background

On September 1, 1939, German forces invaded the nation of Poland. This invasion prompted a declaration of war against Germany on September 3, 1939, starting the second world war. On September 16 of the same year, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland, bringing them on the side of Nazi Germany, until the German invasion of the Soviet Union, in which they became an allied nation. In the fall of 1939, the Soviet Union invaded the nation of Finland, the small nation was able to hold off the massive superpower and the allied nations wanted to send troops through neutral Norway and Sweden to help Finland, but what they actually intended to do was cut off Germany's iron ore imports from Sweden. The neutral nation of Norway would not stand for this and wanted to remain neutral, so the allies decided they were going to annex the nation. Germany decided they needed to take Norway before the allies did so they could keep their ore imports. Germany then drew up a plan to invade Norway, in which they decided to annex the neutral nation of Denmark as a vantage point.

Fight for Norway

Unlike Denmark (whose government surrendered in 4 hours), Norway would not surrender, and even after the government did, Norwegian resistance was tough. On April 7, 8 German divisions set sail for Norway after annexing Denmark, on the same day, the Royal Navy was beginning its operations to take Norway. Norway joined the allies when German troops reached Norway, using occupied Denmark as a vantage point.

Norwegian Response

The Norwegian military was small and consisted of only 15,000 troops, as they unwisely put their faith in the fact that they were neutral, and believed the Royal Navy would make a German invasion impossible. Nevertheless, in the Norwegian capital Oslo, resistance was stiff, the outdated guns at the harbor fort sank the German heavy cruiser Blücher. This enabled the Norwegian royal family to escape to Trondheim.

Surrender of Norway

Despite German forces now facing stiff Norwegian resistance and the French and British military, the fight ended in a decisive German victory, in late May allied forces were forced to retreat to the Swedish-Norwegian border, and in early June, the allies made a complete withdrawal of forces. With no more allies helping them in the fight, the German government surrendered on June 10 of the same year, however resistance continued until the end of the war.

Nygaardsvold's Cabinet

Created in 1935, the cabinet later became the Norwegian government in exile during World War II. On June 7, 1940, three days before their official surrender, the Norwegian government left Norway, and the Nygaardsvold's Cabinet-referred to as the London Cabinet-became the official government of Norway in London. Back in Norway, over the course of the war, four cabinets were installed as the de facto governments of Norway. Below are the four governments in Norway which either sympathized with or were appointed by Nazi Soldiers:

First Cabinet Quisling (1940)

Cabinet Christansen (1940)

Cabinet Terboven (1940-42)

Second Cabinet Quisling (1942-45)

Exile in England

When Germany invaded Norway in 1940, members of the Norwegian Government and royalty began to move themselves to London, which at the time was a hub for governments-in-exile and had been dubbed "Little Europe." The King and Government ministers set up their government-in-exile in London. Using Norwegian gold reserves that had been removed for safekeeping, the Norwegian government was able to finance operations (unlike many other governments who weren't so lucky). Norway-along with many other governments-in-exile-were very skeptical about the future, and were prepared to have to move to possibly Canada or the United States as they expected an invasion of London by Germany. When the Royal Air Force was victorious over the German Luftwaffe in the Battle of Berlin allowed for the Norwegians to plan to make a contribution to the war effort. A very small amount of Norwegian military servicemen escaped with the Norwegians to England, they were put back in service in England and armed.

German Attempts to Set up a Government

German authorities over the occupied Norway-headed by Commissioner Josef Treboven-attempted to set up a "legal" occupation government. While the official government of Norway escaped from occupation by the Reich, some members were not able to. The Reich wanted to create a collaborationist government similar to that of Vichy France. However, this required the abdication of the King of Norway, King Haakon of Norway said over a radio broadcast made it clear he would continue to fulfill his duties as King of Norway. He completely refused to collaborate with the German Reich. On September 25th, the German government gave up attempting to set up the collaborationist government. Terboven said the King and the government were deposed. He outlawed all political parties other than the Norwegian National Socialist Party.

References

This article "Norwegian government-in-exile" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Norwegian government-in-exile. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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