War Graves in Norway

Now I have got my act together I wonder if anyone is able to assist with pictures from the below named cemeteries in Norway. Pictures of the headstones and a few general views of each cemetery would be appreciated.

Oslo Western Civil Cemetery

1E11 Juliebo/P C Major Norwegian Army 10/05/1945

Saltdal Main Churchyard

British A3 Kerlogue/L Essex
British C9 Jackson 90231 2/5 Essex att 3 Independent Commando 23/5/1940



Thanks in anticipation

Andy

 

Andy,
See you are after some of the Freshman graves.....realise this may not be much help but pictures of some of the graves are in the After The Battle article and the Airborne Engineers book......also some pictures from the re-internment will be in 'Striking Back'.....I'll have a look to see what I've got but may be a day or three....

 

Last year I was in Stavanger on a conducted tour.The Eiganes cemetery is situated adjacent and behind the Royal Summer Palace but it was only at the end of the visit to the palace did I realise it when we were about to be picked up. Alas it was too late for a close look at the graves related to Operation Freshman which I had been aware of for many years.One of the disadvantages of not being "under your own steam".

The cemetery is a typical Scandinavian cemetery,extremely well cared for and using natural stone in the form of boulders which gives Scandinavian cemeteries their distinctive look.I have seen some north German cemeteries laid out in a similar style.

One of the casualities was a young Salford man,Grundy, whose previous employment was at Metropolitian Vickers at Trafford Park, Manchester and is shown above as in the RE.However his regiment was indicated as REME in the memorial book at MV, a book whose pages were turned each day.I always made a point of looking at the casualties each day as the book revealed them.

Without doubt,a reminder of Operation Freshman and the behaviour of the Germans towards British prisoners captured in uniform.

A point about Norway,a beautiful country with a friendly population and many islands now joined to the mainland with quality bridges.A far different situation from the wartime days.It is not too difficult to understand how relatively easy it was for the Shetland MTBs to work their way into Norway, in many cases under the noses of the German occupation forces. It must have been difficult for courting couples who in some cases could only meet by boat until the islands were stringed together.

Alcohol can only be bought at Government shops with very restrictive "time windows" and at considerable expense.Pubs and the like are more expensive and charge £8 pounds for a pint of Guiness.The average salary is about £40.000 and I was talking to an Italian who had lived 40 years in Norway.As a welder on the North Sea oilfields, he remarked that he preferred to work in the British sector off shore as the tax rate was 16% while in the Norwegian sector, the tax rate was 35%.

A beautiful friendly country to visit.

 

Down as a Sapper and belonging to the RE on the CWGC web site......perhaps the memorial book is wrong.....

 

The main point is that he is remembered by Metropolitan Vickers and their successors.The memorial book must have been made up immediately post war when information was not readily available other than from official sources or next of kin.

Interestingly SAS casualties were officially listed as belonging to their parent unit and recorded as "attached Special Air Services Regiment" at the time of their death.I would imagine that the next of kin were informed as they had died serving with their parent regiment.

 

Just listening to Ray Mears 'Real Heroes of Telemark' and had never heard of Operation Freshman.
The story makes me so angry and sad. Such bravery.

Operation Freshman
Operation Freshman

 

Operation Freshman: Two pilots of the Gliders were Australians.

Norway

Operation Freshman was an attempt to deliver a small force by glider to destroy the hydro-electric power station at Vermork, in Telemark, Norway, where heavy water was being produced for German atomic research. Two gliders containing men of the Royal Engineers towed by two Halifax bombers, set off on the night of 19-20 November 1942. The mission was a disaster. One Halifax and both gliders crashed in southern Norway. The occupants were either killed in the crash or subsequently executed by the Germans in compliance with Adolf Hitler’s notorious ‘commando order’. The order denied members of enemy ‘special forces’ any protection under the terms of the Geneva Convention and Allied commandos were to be executed as soon as they were captured.

Two of the glider pilots were Australians attached to 38 Wing RAF: Pilot Officer Norman Arthur Davies, of Melbourne, Victoria, and Pilot Officer Herbert John Fraser, of Bendigo, Victoria. Davies and Fraser are buried in adjoining graves at Stavanger (Eighanes) Churchyard, Norway. The two Australians are commemorated on a memorial at Skitten Airfield, near Wick in Caithness, Scotland.

 

Hitler's edict was effected by Kietel as a signed order to all German commands. It sealed Kietel's fate along other charges brought against him by the International Tribunal at Nuremberg.

There are many instances when Allied special forces were murdered on capture when in uniform.

 

A further few From Oslo Cemetery I would appreciate!

All obtained!
Regards

 

Regarding Oslo casualties there appears to be a number who lost their lives on 10 May 1945.I'm just wondering if the date was the occasion of the first Allied troops to occupy the Norwegian capital after the surrender of the Germans to the Allies on 8 May 8.

A shipping transport incident or a reluctance of the German occupying forces to obey the terms of the surrender? Is anyone aware of the reason for the deaths.

I believe post German surrender in Scandinavia, the German occupation forces of Norway made their own way through Denmark to Holstein along with those from Denmark.I can imagine that the British forces did not have enough manpower to superintend the movement of what were large German forces, especially in Norway.I think the priority for the British was to quickly establish their presence in the two countries and deny any further westward presence of the Red Army.Hence Monty's dash to get into Copenhagen in the early days of May when chaos reigned.

 

Harry

They were part of 1st Airborne Division who were flown in on Operation Doomsday, the liberation of Norway. As far as I can recall it was an aircrash though the reason for the crash escapes me. It is possible that some were surviviors of the Battle for Arnem (Op Market Garden) which makes their deaths, after hostilities were over even more sad

Andy

 

There are 26 RAAF lads buried in Norway. If you can photograph any of these headstones or know anybody that can, please let me know.

ALL COMPLETED

Cheers

Geoff
ARENDAL HOGEDAL CEMETERY - 2
BERGEN (MOLLENDAL) CHURCH CEMETERY - 2 - Completed
EGERSUND (OR EKERSUND) CHURCHYARD - 2 - Completed
EIKEN CHURCHYARD - 1 - Completed
HAUGESUND (ROSSEBO) VAR FRELSERS CEMETERY - 3
KRISTIANSAND - 1 - COMPLETED
LARVIK CIVIL CEMETERY - 1 - Completed
OSLO WESTERN CIVIL CEMETERY - 2
RISOR CIVIL CEMETERY - 1
SANDE IN VESTFOLD CEMETERY - 2 - Completed
SOLA CHURCHYARD - 1 - Completed
STAVANGER (EIGANES) CHURCHYARD - 2 - Plaque yes / Graves Yes
TRONDHEIM (STAVNE) CEMETERY - 5 - Completed

 

If any member would like info or photos on RAF memorial sites or graves in Agder or Telemark Norway I would be pleased to help as I am resident here. Interestingly for the past 3 weeks the southern Norway newspaper 'Agderposten' has been running 3 and 4 page spreads with photos on all the crash sites involving RAF aircraft. Roger Byrron-Collins

 

Roger

Are any of my requests anywhere near you at all? If so I would be most grateful if you could oblige with any, as would others I am sure.
Also welcome to the Forum, where there is an absolute wealth of knowledge about WW2.

Regards

Andy

 

Operation Freshman: Two pilots of the Gliders were Australians.

Norway

Operation Freshman was an attempt to deliver a small force by glider to destroy the hydro-electric power station at Vermork, in Telemark, Norway, where heavy water was being produced for German atomic research. Two gliders containing men of the Royal Engineers towed by two Halifax bombers, set off on the night of 19-20 November 1942. The mission was a disaster. One Halifax and both gliders crashed in southern Norway. The occupants were either killed in the crash or subsequently executed by the Germans in compliance with Adolf Hitler’s notorious ‘commando order’. The order denied members of enemy ‘special forces’ any protection under the terms of the Geneva Convention and Allied commandos were to be executed as soon as they were captured.

Two of the glider pilots were Australians attached to 38 Wing RAF: Pilot Officer Norman Arthur Davies, of Melbourne, Victoria, and Pilot Officer Herbert John Fraser, of Bendigo, Victoria. Davies and Fraser are buried in adjoining graves at Stavanger (Eighanes) Churchyard, Norway. The two Australians are commemorated on a memorial at Skitten Airfield, near Wick in Caithness, Scotland.

On a visit to Sachsenhausen Concentration camp this summer, I wandered in the prison block.
It was originally a Tee shape with three wings, but now there is only one left standing and was used by the gestapo and SS to house special prisoners.

I was surprised to see two of the cells had memorials to British soldiers.

Unfortunately there was no information as to Name etc, just that a Brirish officer was detained for many days in the small cell shackled to a large block of concrete set in the centre of the cell floor.
He was later executed. Perhaps I believe a member of SOE or the like?

The other cell mentioned commandos captured in Norway, again executed, but no name references.

Does any member have knowledge of these brave souls?

I intend to revisit and perhaps carry out some research in the camps archives as I feel this story requires airing.

Regards

Tom

 

I have just located the photographs that I took inside the cellblock.

The words are clearly visible when you zoom in, unfortunately entry into the cell was not allowed, hence the distance shots.

The British officer was held in the cell for half a year shackled to the concrete!

I cannot hope to even imagine what pain and agony this brave soldier endured before he was executed.

It appears that the other cells memorial is for seven marines from MTB's
and six pilots executed by the SS.

It was a very sad experience seeing this and really brings home the brutality experiences by the Allied forces.

Regards

Tom

 

In relation to the above two posts, after a little searching on the web, I have found the answer to the Commando question.

The commandos were captured after the successful mission to destroy the power station at Glonnfiord, Norway, in 1942.

The mission was called 'Operation Musketoon' and was carried out on ther night of 20-21/9/42 by 12 men.

Capt's Black and Houghton, with 8 other ranks and two Nowegians made the attack and complete surprise was accomplished.

However as the party withdrew and the charges were exploding they encountered Germans.
The party split up, one of the British was killed and one of the Norwegians mortally wounded. Both officers were wounded and they along with four others were captured.

The other Norwegian and three commandos managed to escape to Sweden and eventually make their way back to the UK.

The prisoners were executed by firing squad at station Z in Sachsenhausen concentration Camp.
This was a direct result of an order given by Hitler, that all special forces personnel should not be afforded the rights of the Geneva Convention and were to be executed.

I am saddened by finding this information, but I now know how and why these Heroes died.

Tom

 

Info here from 2004!

Trek down to Beppo Sepone's post's.

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/nw-europe/3555-pow-camps.html#post26206

 

Spidge,

Thanks for the link.

Tom

 

Does anybody know how many SOE/Commando raids there were on Norway during the war? And is there a description of those operations anywhere?
Thanks.