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World War II -- Norway liberation Allied arrival
World War II Norwegian Liberation--Allied Arrival (May 1945)
Figure 1.--Here we see Norwegian children excited about the srrival of a Norwegian soldier after the long NAZIn occupation (May 1945). Notice the boy's Norwegian flag. Norway was liberated by the British 1st Airborn Division immediately after the German surrender. This soldier is Norwegian. We thought he may have come with the British. But the helmet and machine gun look Swedish. We think the gun may be the Carl Gustaf m/45. A CIH contributor is unsure about that so we are not positive. The Swedes assisted a small Norwegian unit to train and prepare for the German surrender.
The major problem for the Germans was finding someone to whom they could surrender. As part of Operation Doomsday, the British 1st Airborne Division acted as an interim police and military force during the Allied libration of Norway (May 1945). Advanced elements of the Division was rushed ton Oslo to maintain law and order until the arrival of the remainder of Force 134--the designated Allied liberation force. The Division was still recovering from the heavy losses at Arnhem when it was ordered to Norway. Parts of the Division had been detached to oversee the German surrender in Denmark. Liberating occupied Denmark was easy because British forces were close to the Danish border when the Germans surrendered. Getting to Norway was more of a problem. Advanced units flew into Oslo (May 9). They were assigned to oversee the surrender of the German troops. The main part of the Division was delayed by bad weather. Their responsibility was to maintain law and order, secure the needed airfields, and oversee the German surrender. The division consisted of 6,000 men to disarm the 350,000 Germans in Norway. The Division proceeded to repatriate POWs held by the Germans as well as find and arrest war criminals. We notive some Norwegian troops. We are not sure if they came with the Briish. Norwegians
trained in both Britain and Sweden during the War. Small Norwegian forces were trained from refugees.
After the surrender, the Germans were put to work disable their extensive minefields laid in anticipation of an Allied invasion. .
