Norwegian Airmen in Canada
(reprinted from the December 1942 issue of The Paulson Post)
I have been asked, on behalf of myself and the small group of Norwegian lads now at Number Seven, to write a little piece for the Paulson Post and I do this in the hope that the reader will be satisfied with some general accounts. More definite or personal accounts can not be given for reasons which the reader will understand better after having read this.
We have been here for some weeks, a small group of Norwegians, studying at this Bombing and Gunnery School as part of the training of Navigator-Bombers. Besides the partial training we receive at R.N.A.F. stations we are sent out to R.C.A.F. Stations, and we consider ourselves happy to have come to this school on our way.
These boys all come from their homeland after having taken part in its defence when the Germans invaded Norway in April, 1940. Some were at that time too young for conscription but joined up as volunteers. How long they stayed in Norway after the occupation (the invasion finally was successful after two months of fighting) varies. Some left at once, taking no chance of German mercy. The wisdom of their action is evident as in the case of a couple of Jewish boys who, knowing what their fate would be after witnessing the treatment the Germans had inflicted on the Jewish population in Germany and the occupied countries, left their homes ahead of the arrival of the oncoming Germans. Time has proved their decision was the right one. Others stayed longer but finally learned from what they saw and heard that the only thing to do was to get out of Norway and help from the outside.
Life at home after the occupation grew worse and worse. Everything was upset — officers discharged from their posts at the disarmament of the army and navy, lawyers deprived of their commissions, Jewish merchants completely robbed of every means of existence and whose living conditions we better not think of, engineers forced to build houses, bridges, railways, airfields for the Germans (however the amount of sand in the concrete is more than it should be to make good buildings!) Universities were deprived of their most outstanding intellectual leaders, schools were made into barracks for German soldiers and police. Haughty officers moved into the private homes when they could not find other suitable accommodations. Concentration camps were established all over the country into which the outstanding leaders of the Norwegian opposition were put under living conditions which are indescribable.
Here you will find, if they have not been sent to Germany to be “forgotten’’ professors, — ministers, teachers, officers, engineers, writers, sport front leaders, labour leaders, farmers, representatives of every occupation — all there because they will not “co-operate.” The Germans take the most cultured of the people thus thinking they can crush the opposition, not realizing that the best man can longest resist oppression and that the people outside the fence take their example and continue.
All this while food became more and more scarce. It takes a lot to feed a half a million soldiers (we have to pay for it too, they are our “protectors” you know) clothing also disappeared — southbound. This particularly for a small nation of hardly three millions is hard, Eleven months after the occupation sometimes two or three weeks elapsed between. a meal with meat and fish is not very easy to catch when the fishermen do not get oil for their boats.
Besides the physical pressure of undernourishment, came the psychic strain of never being sure of the safety of one’s life. Law and justice has become an old and nice fairy tale, nothing remains of the thousand year old legal system built on a democratic sense of justice which we had developed. Instead a Gestapo has taken over, doing its work of terror; imprisoning and torturing people because they are patriots and “non co-operative, or just because the Gestapo hopes to press out of them information about hidden arms or about underground organizations. Yes, torture, too! It goes on at this very moment to such an extent that, if a victim is allowed to live, his wife or mother will have difficulties in recognizing him after the “‘treatment.” What a sigh of relief must have gone through Oslo that day in September this year when some British Mosquitoes swept over the Gestapo Headquarters and blasted the whole thing to pieces killing seventy Germans. Seventy is too little, there are seventy millions of them!
This, Canadians, is what an occupation of a country means. These are the reasons why the best of the Norwegian youth decided to get out and help destroy this evil. In spite of the death, punishment which awaited them if caught or to have plans of escape. In spite of the reprisals which might be taken against their families, they managed to make their way out, many without even informing their nearest family about their intentions, because these should not be forced to lie if cross-examined by the Germans.
How many did not manage to succeed we shall not know. But those who came through and among them these boys, did so by means of all kinds of tricks and by the help of persons whose identity shall be a well-kept secret as long as there is a war on. Some “loaned” small fishing crafts, often mere nut shells in which they made their way out in the dead of night so the German patrol ships or planes couldn’t see them, hoping to be well clear of the coast when morning came. Some had fishing nets, which they threw out when a plane or a ship neared, pretending to be fishing. Some made a coup, with revolver in hand forcing a coastal steamer to change course for England. There were some German soldiers on board too. Those were a few lucky ones whom we have managed to send to their ultimate destination.
The “westbound” traffic mostly landed on the Shetlands and Faeroy and Orkney Islands, some even came to Iceland.
Others and among them those who had reason for getting away quickly, sought their way over to Sweden, sneaking through the vast woods on ski, or on foot, and crossing the border on a dark night when the German border patrols had passed. In Sweden they were interned as political refugees, but soon released when their papers were arranged from the Royal Norwegian Legation in Stockholm. From here they proceeded by all kinds of transportation mostly through Russia, Siberia or China. One of these lads visited most honorable Nippon, but wouldn’t stay long, please! He got a ship up to the Aleutians, down via Alaska to the West Coast. Others took the way through Russia, Turkey, Middle East, India and from there by Norwegian ships either over the Pacific or around Capetown to England, or to South America and Canada. It usually took four to six months to travel the route from Norway to England. The adventures many had while proceeding through all the strange parts of the world and over war-torn oceans are numerous.
And, here, we are are now hoping that the completion of the training won’t take too long. Don’t misunderstand this, even if we are having a fine time here, we have a task to perform, and those who are remaining at home are expecting every man to do his duty quickly.
I would not be doing my duty if I did not use this opportunity to express the feelings we all have towards the Canadian people and particularly to the R.C.A.F. We have, at all stations, been ‘received with the most friendly hospitality, and the good will we have been shown has been stimulating. We have been guests in private homes as well as at public gatherings and we appreciate the opportunity to attend your training schools. We hope that the training we have received here will prove successful by the results in the common cause.
Don’t mind us not giving any names here and don’t bother whether the names you have heard are the true or not. If anyone has taken a temporary name, he will have reasons for so doing.
Finally, there is no doubt in any man’s mind either of those who are abroad or of the Norwegian people at home, that the good forces shall win this war; we have seen too much of the evil forces to know that they can not win, nor maintain a peace. In that respect we join in the R.C.A.F. motto: “Per Ardua Ad Astra.”
NORSEMAN. ,
(Editor’s Note: This article was written by one of the members of the Norwegian Air Force stationed at Number Seven B. & G. School, Paulson. )