677 Norwegian airmen were trained here under the BCATP. During World War II, the Muskoka Airport, referred to as 'Little Norway', near the town of Gravenhurst in Ontario, was used as a training facility by the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNAF). Throughout the years of WW II (1940-45), hundreds of Norwegians travelled to Canada to train as pilots and aircrew before returning to the battlefields of Europe. The National Historic Sites and Monument Board of Canada has regonized 'Little Norway' in Muskoka as a National Historic Monument. The District Municipality of Muskoka has worked closely with Norwegian authorities, various Canadian authorities and the Royal Canadian Legion to design and construct a memorial building at the Muskoka Airport. The purpose of the memorial building is twofold: To recognize the historical significance of the Royal Norwegian Air Force training program in Muskoka during WW II and to establish a new tourism attraction at the airport. The purpose of the Norwegian-Canadian memorial is also to commemorate the lives and sacrifices of the airmen and women of 'Little Norway', ensuring that their legacy will not be forgotten,- and to provide understanding and appreciation of the long-standing and continuing connections between Norway and Canada. At the opening ceremony, Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said: - The story of Little Norway is a story of courage and sacrifice, of friendships forged, loved ones lost and heroes to remember. Before us are some of the great men of Little Norway, members of a generation that passed history’s test. They grew up during the great depression. Used their youth to fight and win a war. And built peace and prosperity in their mature years. In your senior years, its therefore fitting that my generation pays tribute to those who were tested and who risked so much, and to whom we are indebted. This is an occasion also to commemorate Ole Reistad. The rock upon which Little Norway was built. Throughout the war this Olympic champion was a father figure and an inspiration to the people who served here. It is a great privilege to have Ole Reistad’s son and daughter, Kjell Arne and Ragnhild, present here to day. Canada and Norway are close allies, and we are working together in tackling our common global challenges. Our commitment today remains the same - a life in security and prosperity for all. On this day, I would like to thank Fed Nor, and the District Municipality of Muskoka through its District Chair, Gord Adams for their contributions. I would also like to thank Al Bacon, along with other members of the Royal Canadian Legion, and the veterans and their families in the Norwegian-Canadian community. We are also grateful to Lars Lindgren for curating the collection, and, to the Norwegian Consul General in Toronto Mr. Eivind Hoff. And again, we thank the 3 300 who trained here. We thank them by striving to build a better, more just, more peaceful world. - And with these words, I have the great honour and privilege to officially open the Little Norway Memorial Building, the Norwegian Prime Minister said. The memorial building will host the many artefacts, paintings, articles, books and memorabilia pertaining to the Second World War era of our Muskoka heritage. It also ensures that future generations never forget the contributions made for freedom by the Norwegians who trained and were stationed at “Little Norway” .(NRK/Press release) Rolleiv Solholm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Norway http://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Themes/World-War-II/Norway-in-exile/The-Air-Force
There must be quite a story too about how these pilots managed to escape from occupied Norway to Canada. One of your links says they went via Asia and Africa - a long journey.
"Little Norway" Opens at Toronto Island Airport, November 1940 Fourteen raw Norwegian student pilots, part of the first Norwegian 120 airman arriving for training at "Little Norway". Wearing freshly issued flight suits, gloves, helmets and turtleneck sweaters, and standing with their parachutes, these young men are receiving an orientation briefing. To the right, the tail of a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell peeks in. In the background, we see the outfield wall and lights of Maple Leaf Stadium at left and Canadian Malting's grain elevators at right. In May 1942, the Norwegian training camp was moved to Muskoka airport, 127 km north of Toronto. The island airport remains in operation today and was renamed as Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport.
333 sqd Mosquito-pilot Finn Eriksrud reflects back on his time at Little Norway in 1941 – Norwegian Spitfire Foundation
Much more likely that they caught "the Shetland Bus" a clandestine boat shuttle between Norway and Shetland running agents and arms to and from Norway and Britain. Or they went via Sweden
The Shetland Bus was only used by those involved in clandestine activity or those Norwegians who were known to be in danger.Such a communication path to England was highly secret and lax security ran the risk of it been penetrated and subsequently eliminated by the German occupier. All in all, there were 3300 refugees who were transported clandestinely to England during the war and Shetland was the nearest landing point.Given fair weather and a good wind,the Shetlands were a day away from freedom.300 boats are said to have been used during the war from various exits in Western Norway.160 Norwegians are said to have lost their lives using rowing boats much less safe than the various cutters normally used.These Norwegians were said to be suffering from englandsfeber (England fever) particularly in the coastal areas with the desire to be involved in the fight against Hitler and not sure what the future was.In 1941 the Germans declared that the aiding of refugees to flee the country was punishable by death.Several families were held hostage after members of the families had escaped to England. Any refugee entering Great Britain during the war were regarded as suspicious until security processed and cleared.In Shetland the refugees were held in the internment camp at Lerwick where the Norwegian consulate coordinated transport to London under military guard.As with other war refugees.the Norwegians were processed through security at the Royal Victoria Patriotic School.After clearance the refugees were allotted to one of the three Norwegian armed forces or the Norwegian merchant marine.Women served in Norwegian institutions and offices..taught Norwegian and worked in Norwegian hotels in London.Here Martin Linge of the Norwegian Company Linge with SOE ,singled out some to join his company for special training....converting fishermen to elite soldiers. I would think that the Norwegian airmen u/t in Canada would have come from been security processed in London RVPS. No doubt they would be training in Canada under the flying training schemes set up and finally designated as the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.(The first Canadian run flying training school was established in April 1940) Sweden could only cater for small escape groups such as the Telemark operatives and the likes of Bomber Command pilot, Don Bennett (later to be i/c Pathfinder No 8 Group) and his crew....flights home with the civilian registered BOAC Mosquito aircraft.
Thanks for that Roy,I was looking at the western route from the coast of Norway to Shetland. By "ball bearing boats" do you refer to Swedish cargo boats sailings as a neutral country and evaders then travelling to Britain from any convenient port?
Bit long winded Harry, sorry: One of the more unusual operations involving merchant crews during the war was the transport of ball bearings through enemy controlled waters from neutral Sweden to the UK. The scheme was the brainchild of Frederick George Binney, who in 1939 had been recruited by Iron and Steel Control, Ministry of Supply. As their representative in Sweden his job was to purchase steel, machine tools and ball-bearings essential to the British armament industries. Sir George Binney DSO, as he became, was something of a gentleman adventurer. He was educated at Summer Fields, Eton and Merton College, Oxford. He had organised various Arctic expeditions and had worked for the Hudson Bay Company and United Steel Companies. With the occupation of Denmark and Norway the British found it nigh impossible to ship sufficient amounts of the materials that Binney had bought,i so he conceived a series of daring runs to carry the badly needed cargoes to Britain. The first of these, Operation RUBBLE, took place in January 1941, using five of the Norwegian ships that were detained in Sweden. Binney had contacted the Masters of the British steamers Romanby, Blythmoor, Mersington Court and Riverton, who were interned north of Stockholm, asking for volunteers to man the Norwegian ships Elisabeth Bakke, John Bakke, Tai Shan, Taurus and Ranja. Some of their crews were, understandably, not keen to make the trip. None of the British Masters were willing to go either, but their Chief Officers and various crew members were. The British officers were put in command of the vessels, though the Norwegian Masters remained aboard as representatives of the owners, Nortraship. Many of the crew also remained. The crews were supplemented by Britons from the four ships that had been sunk at Narvik and seamen of other nationalities, including some Swedes. The news of the breakout leaked when the Master of one of the Norwegian ships asked his owners in Norway for instructions. The message fell into the hands of the Gestapo and as a result the Ranja was substituted for the Dicto. Once the fleet was at sea the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau passed them, but neither party became aware of the other. The Ranja was attacked by aircraft and her Swedish 1st Mate, Nils Ryderg, who was shot and later died, was awarded the OBE. The ships arrived safely in Kirkwall. A total of 146 men and one woman (the wife of John Bakke's Chief Engineer Hans Hansen) reached Orkney: fifty eight were British, fifty seven Norwegian, thirty one Swedish and one a Latvianii. Buoyed up by the success of Operation RUBBLE, Binney set to organising a much bigger project that was to become Operation PERFORMANCE. This time the British chartered ten of the Norwegian ships that remained in Sweden and loaded them with more valuable material. The British Masters who had declined to join the first breakout volunteered this time. It was decided that they would take charge of the vessels until the limits of Swedish territorial waters were reached, when their regular masters would resume command. Strangely the Norwegian masters were excluded from the pre-sailing conference. The ships, in the order that they sailed from the still partly frozen Gothenburg harbour were: Charente with twenty three British, five Norwegian, one Polish and two Dutch crew; Buccaneer - five British and forty one Norwegian crew; Lionel - forty one Norwegian and one British crew; Storsten - forty eight Norwegian and one British crew; Dicto (Flag Ship, with Binney on board) - thirty one British and twelve Norwegian crew; Gudvang - twelve British and thirteen Norwegian crew; Rigmor - four British, one Swedish and thirty five Norwegian crew; Skytteren - fifteen British, ninety six Norwegian crew; Lind - two British and eleven Norwegian crew and B P Newton - five British and sixty six Norwegian crew. This time the Germans were waiting. Only two ships, together with the crew of a third, reached the UK, and two made it back to Sweden. The others were sunk or scuttled by their crews to prevent the ships and cargoes falling into German hands. Mrs Lawson has calculated that of the 471 people involved, 234 were taken prisoner, including eight women and children.iii Of those taken prisoner forty three died: most of those were executed. At sea nineteen people died, including seventeen missing in a lifeboat from the Storsten. The ships that returned to Gothenburg, with their cargoes, were the Dicto and Lionel. An effort was made to get them out during the winter darkness on 17 January 1943, but again the Germans were waiting and the ships turned back. Another attempt in February was abandoned for the same reason. The British continued to fly small cargoes out, but it was obvious to Binney that the only way to obtain enough ball bearings was to transport them by sea. His new plan involved using modified fast Motor Launches. After some deliberation the Admiralty made five diesel powered gun boats available for the work. These had been part of an order of eight destined for the Turkish Navy. Three were handed over to Camper and Nicholson for conversion and the other two went to the yard of Amos and Smith in Hull. Everything forward of the engine room was stripped out to make a hold in which forty tons of ball bearings could be stowed, and the bridge structure and accommodation were substantially altered. The boats had a maximum cruise speed of twenty knots, with a range of 1,200 miles at seventeen knots. The Hull based liner company, Ellerman Wilson, managed the boats, which they manned with volunteers from among their crews and with trawler men.iv In accordance with usual Merchant Service practice the Radio Officers were supplied by Marconi or IMR (International Marine Radio?). All five vessels first sailed on 26 October 1943, but four were forced to turn back because of a combination of engine problems and bad weather. The fifth was the Gay Viking, who reached the UK with forty tons of ball bearings. Over the next five months another eight successful trips were completed and cargoes totalled 347.5 tons out of a planned 400 tons. The Germans captured the Master Standfast in November. The Nonsuch only completed one trip, because of engine problems, which plagued all of the vessels. Hopewell completed two trips and Gay Viking and Gay Corsair did three. Later they were used to carry supplies for the Danish resistance, but that was a failure. i Churchill Archives Centre, The Papers of Sir George Binney, BINN ii Much of the material about Operations Rubble and Performance is from Siri Lawson's site Warsailors.com, which contains a great deal more information on this and many other actions at sea, particularly involving Norwegians. iii Mrs Siri Lawson Warsailors. iv These ships could not be under the White Ensign of the Royal Navy, as warships are only permitted to remain in a neutral port for 24 hours.
Germany was short of suitable vessels to blockade exit from the Baltic, the demands of the North Sea absorbing most available fast patrol boats etc. They asked for the transfer of the Danish navy's vessels. The Danish government refused pointing out that under the treaty signed in 1940 Denmark was now neutral. So dependant was Germany on food exports from Denmark and so reluctant to jeopardise these by creating unrest in Denmark that the issue was not forced. This not only made it easier for various runners to get out of the Baltic but it later facilitated the flight of most of Denmark's Jewish population to Sweden. Christian Gerlach, The Extermination of the European Jews, Cambridge University Press, 2016
Air Transport between Sweden and Britain was not limited to BOAC's Mosquitos. Not by a long chalk. In 1942 a regular scheduled service was established by Swedish airline AB Aerotransport initially with DC3s and later converted B17s. Whilst it was supposed to be limited to Swedish nationals it seems that it was not difficult to obtain the necessary (false) papers. I believe that the Polish Home Army's couriers sometimes used this service. BOAC was not limited to Mosquitos and initially operated six fast Lockheed passenger aircraft also later supplemented by Hudsons and Lodestars and a number of other types including Whitley, Dakota and Liberator as well as the Mosquitos. A number of Norwegians operated their own air transport service under cover of being a BOAC affiliate specifically to service the thousands of young Norwegians who had fled to Sweden and any Norwegians wishing to get to Britain would doubtless have been carried by them From !944 all this was supplemented by Americans flying CB-24, C-87 and C-54s ostensibly to repatriate Americans interned in Sweden but they are known to have also carried Norwegians. So whilst numbers would have been limited and flights uncomfortable and far from safe, capacity was way more than one or two guys in a Mosquito bomb bay and even this was not inconsiderable 520 return flights being made with perhaps the most important passenger being the Nuclear Physicist Niels Bohr Nils Mathisrud, The Stockholm Run Air Transport between Sweden and Britain in World War II Vernon Robert Cliff Montgomery, The Dynamics of British Policy towards Sweden 1942 -1945 Jan Jeziorański-Nowak, Courier from Warsaw
The Norwegian Air Force were allocated 5 Squadrons by the Air Ministry.All were transferred to Norwegian control from November 1945.All governments in exile were allocated squadrons.Denmark did not have a squadron allocation but Danes served in many RAF squadrons. No 330 Squadron, Formed at Reykjavik on 25 April 1941 for service in Coastal Command operating out of Oban but chiefly from Sullum Voe. Aircraft on charge ranging from the initial Northrop N3P-B,the Catalina and three Marks of the Sunderland. No 331 Squadron.Formed at Catterick 21 July 1941.Home fighter squadron operating from many UK airfields equipped with two Marks of Hurricanes for a few months,then converted to Spitfires but from October 1942,the Spitfire 1XB for virtually the end of the war. Transferred to the 2nd TAF,it commenced operations in Normandy from 30 August 1944 at Villons les Buissons. No 332 Squadron Formed at Catterick on 15 January 1942 and operated the Spitfire of various Marks but mainly the Spitfire 1XB as a Home fighter squadron Arrived at the same 2nd TAF airfield as No 331 Squadron in Normandy a few days before it. No 333 Squadron.Formed at Woodhaven on 5 May 1943 within Coastal Command and equipped with two Marks of the Catalina and Mosquito during its existence. No 334 Squadron .Formed at Banff from B Flight of No 333 Squadron within Coastal Command on 26 May 1945 when No 333 Squadron was renumbered..only equipment was the Mosquito V1
The occupation of Denmark by the Germans was complex and has to be looked at in depth.A peninsula where the terrain was such that clandestine activities leading to direct military action by irregulars would have been a difficult compared to the activities of the Maquis in France.However from 1943,there was a trend to take action and resist by Danes,sabotage escalated and collaborators were marked men.The Germans responded with their usual action of reprisals...strikes of port labour were conducted and attacks on industrial concerns such as the Globus facility which turned out spares for the Luftwaffe were hit. In late August 1943,the Danish Army and Navy were neutralised as a force and a German state of emergency was broadcast.The Wehrmacht increased their security of important buildings,night curfews were imposed...no gatherings to be held beyond 5 people... mail,telegraph or telephone services shutdown and most importantly all strikes were prohibited and punishable by death....martial law had been established The Danish underground papers were quickly to comment on the new phase in a German struggle to achieve control over Denmark.The Frit Danmark declared it means a state has been reached that has developed since April has been publicly confirmed. SOE and the US OSS dropped weapons from January 1944 and by the summer of 1944,the resistant groups were in a position to initiate widespread sabotage. Liberation only came after the Germans had surrendered all German forces in NW Germany,Denmark and Holland to Montgomery on 4 May.The news of it was broadcast at 2030 that night to the Danes by the BBC Danish service...the Germans still carried on as nothing had happened and still patrolled the streets and main buildings...something had to give and the Danes began to welcome British troops anticipated arrival with sign on the Jutland border."Welcome To Denmark" Denmark was never allowed to be neutral during the war.The country was part of Hitler's expansion into Scandinavia and as Norway,its western coast would serve as an essential part of the Atlantic Wall...it's western shore, thought by the Germans to be ideal for a seaborne invasion was heavily mined.Moreover its airfields were used to intercept RAF air operation routes to and fro the Baltic and importantly, the routes via the Baltic on to the target of Berlin. Denmark's neutrality was breached by the German invasion of 9 April 1940.the reason given was to "forestall a British invasion" A German ultimatum was delivered to the Danish Government on that morning giving assurance that acceptance would not mean submission.It followed: "In accordance with the good spirit which has always prevailed in Danish -German relations,the Reich Government declares to the Danish Government that Germany does not intend now or in the future to interfere with Denmark's territorial integrity or political independence." Germany was anxious to ensure that King Christian X did not follow other monarchs and flee abroad from Nazi occupation which would have developed into a Denmark Government in Exile. On the invasion the Wehrmacht rolled over the border in South Jutland and landed 2000 troops deceptively via coal colliers in Copenhagen,arriving on the streets without much prominence, virtually as tourists.Others in the troopship Hanestadt Danzig landed at a berth which had been selected by a German commander in mufti ,acting as a business man visiting Copenhagen,a short time before...the task was to take the Danish General Staff Headquarters in the Citadel which overlooked the harbour.This was accomplished and a large number of senior Danish officers were captured.It is recorded that members of the DNSAP, the Danish equivalent of the NSDAP welcomed the Wehrmacht on their drive from the German border. Faced with superior German forces crossing the South Jutland border,there was very little resistance,if any, without a shot being fired.There were some units who had lost communication with their commanders as the Wehrmacht drove deeper into Jutland fought on but with no success and as a result there were few casualties.No roads were blocked or bridges mined,the invasion on all fronts was not out of schedule as planned with the concurrent invasion of Norway.The strategic island of Fyn was occupied,again as other Danish territory,easily. The Danish Government saw the best method of accommodating the Germans was by negotiation,the Germans for their part looked on the country as being a future "model protectorate."However what ever that meant, the Danish Army and Navy were not disbanded. Further the Germans in allowing some independence to Denmark had in return.Danish foodstuffs,manufactured goods and Danish support for the German war economy,For Denmark there was a period of "hyggelig" from 1940 to 1943 as contrast to the happenings in the rest of Europe.With the Danes producing more food than it consumed,Germany in October 1941/1942 received 93000 tons of meat, chiefly pig meat and 31000 tons of butter,the next year,takings by the Germans were 100000 tons of meat and 33000 tons of butter. As expected the Germans delivered their ideology of controlling the media and immediately from July 1940,the Danish Government was pressurised to curtail the freedom of the press under the punishment of prison of offending editors.This was a gross violation of the Danish constitution but forced on by the occupier.Ignoring this by editors would lead to a year in prison. To maintain German political influence,Erik Scavenius a pro German politician was brought into the government as head of the Foreign Ministry,a role he had during the Great War.He issued a declaration of policy which marked him down as a collaborator,a charge which he had to face postwar....the policy reads: "Denmark should not under any circumstances come into conflict with its great neighbour to the south.this policy has met with German understanding and support alike during the World War and during the present war.The great German victories which have struck the world with astonishment and admiration have begun a new era in Europe,which will bring it a new order in political and economic spheres under Germany's leadership.It will be Denmark's task herein to find its place in mutual active cooperation with Greater Germany." German influence brought the opportunity to Fritz Clausen,the leader of the DNSAP,the equivalent party to the NSDAP. He had been leader of the party since 1933 but drawn little support from the Danish electorate.While the party approved of Scavenius,the DNSAP denounced the rest of the government including the respected Premier Thorvald Stauning as anti German.The Premier's resignation was demanded since "the Germans prefer a government of loyalists to one of Marxists".When King Christian X refused to allow Danish Nazis into the government the DNSAP took to the streets of Copenhagen with a crowd estimated at 500 strong but fellow Danes forced the DNSAP to disperse.From then on there was little effort by the Germans to place their "men" in the Danish government since the Danish Government cooperated with German officials on most issues or succumbed to pressure on the others. Having said that, do you think that the Germans would accept any refusals to their demands?.....no point on withdrawing food and other commodities required by the Germans,they would merely get tough on their Aryan neighbours, as the Danes were viewed by the Germans, and force quotas on to Danish farming. A look at the alleged refusal to hand over Danish naval vessels,the account is deeply misleading.The Danes were never in a position to take a stand on such a demand and cooperated fully in January 1941.6 new torpedo boats were handed to the German Navy.The response from the British Foreign office was "a lack of guts in the Danish Navy". The maxim being what Germany wanted, it took from occupied countries .However it has to be accepted that in the case of Denmark they were conscious of not interrupting the flow of foodstuffs to Germany.... but the big stick would ultimately follow failure to comply. As regards the ability of pro allied runners to get out of the Baltic,the Baltic was a sealed inland see with the Germans and Russians in conflict in it,plus the Swedish commercial vessels plying to and fro Germany and Denmark.The waters of the Kattegat sealed the outlet to the Skagerrak and the Skagerra and the North See. I have yet to see evidence that any runner made a passage from the Baltic to the North Sea and to an Allied port.Certainly the Danes with the local knowledge of The Sound crossing on the island of Zealand to Sweden created an escape route to a neutral country for resistance operatives and the escape of Danish Jews but the 2-3 mile stretch between Helsingor in Denmark and Halsingborg must have been extremely dangerous. With the German occupation there were numbers who were attracted to the Nazi ideology and were ready to fight for Hitler in the ideological crusade against Russia.These were eager volunteers and were founding members of the Frikorps Danmark to fight on the Eastern Front within the Waffen SS where losing two commanders quickly,they received a bloody nose.(Christian Schalburg the second commander to be killed was discussed, a short time ago on the the forum) Formed on 29 June 1941 the Frikorps Danmark were first deployed at Demyansk in May 1942 but on 20 May 1943,a month after returning from Russia,the Frikorps Danmark were disbanded at Grafenwohr. These Danish volunteers then became the Waffen SS Regiment 24 Danmark. As regards the reference to a Danish-German treaty,this is misleading for there was no treaty,the Danes were forced into an agreement and the relevant position of that was revisited when the Danish Government were reluctant to join the Anti Comintern Pact in November 1941. Scavenius urged Denmark to join the Pact while the 11 other members of the government opposed it.The matter was settled on 23 November 1941 with a demand from Berlin: "Denmark must immediately sign the Pact,if not,Germany will cancel the agreement of 9 April 1940, and Denmark will be regarded as an enemy country and must face the unavoidable consequences" Scavenius travelled to Berlin and signed the Pact on 25 November 1941 along with other German satellites...Finland Bulgaria,Rumania,Croatia and Slovakia. As Richard Petrow declared "The Bitter Years" for his work on the occupation of Norway and Denmark and there are enough publications to reveal the occupation,resistance and liberation of both countries.
........ one of whom died recently on 4 December 2022 - Flt Lt Peter Fischer DFC, at the age of 99. His obituary cited that with 52 missions with Bomber Command, this was the most by a Danish national. That said, Fischer was born in London on 6 July 1923 to Danish parents and largely educated in England, 'going up' to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1941 and being part of the light blue crew for the second (unofficial) wartime Oxbridge boat race in 1943. He volunteered for the RAFVR in 1943, qualified as an air gunner and joined Flt Lt Ken Gooch's crew, being posted to 10 Sqn at RAF Melbourne (Yorkshire) operating Halifax II/IIIs. After two ops, the crew was transferred to 35 Sqn at RAF Graveley, converting to Lancasters and a Pathfinder role against V1 sites (one of 3 Danes involved), Normandy support missions against Caen, St Lo and Falaise area targets, before rejoining the strategic bomber campaign against Germany. After his 52 missions, he had a spell with a bomber training unit, before joining the Mission Research and Enquiry Unit, responsible for searching, identifying and reburying those Missing in Action - a harrowing task. After the War, he emigrated to Canada and then the US, spending his final years on Coronado Island, San Diego.
