Oct
18
The Heroes of Norway
October 18, 2007 |
I read something in the news from Norway today that makes me a little bit sad. Since most of you that reads this have no roots in Norway and knows very little about my country or it’s history, i’ll try to explain it.
What has happened is that a club has disbanded itself, as it’s members are now to old to really run the club anymore. The Linge Club consisted of a group of men that played a significant part in achiving victory for the Allies during World War II. They where all members of the Linge Company, or more correctly Norwegian Independent Company no 1, (NOR. I. C. 1), a commando unit formed by the British Operations Executive (SOE) in March 1941 with the purpose of performing commando raids in occupied Norway.
Their initial raids in Lofoten (Operation Claymore) and Måløy (Operation Archery) in 1941 where highly sucessfull. But their Commander, Captain Martin Linge fell at Måløy, and they where since known as Company Linge in Norway.
Their most famous exploit was the heavy water sabotage at Vemork in Telemark in 1943-44. The operation dubbed by the British SOE as the most successfull act of sabotage in World War II effectivley ended the German nuclear energy projects research to obtain nuclear weapons for Germany. You can read more about these actions here.
In all the company sent 542 men to Norway during World War II, 51 sacrificed their lives during operations and 4 more lost their lives during training and in accidents. The unit recived 144 Norwegian and 51 Brittish decorations for it’s efforts during the war.
The Norwegian Minister of Deffence said yesterday when she honorored the aging veterans:
“You would not allow formalities on a diplomatic level to stop you; you wanted to go back to your home country to fight for a free Norway. The courage and the iron will that Company Linge showed in many actions during the war, will for ever stand as an example for what it means to dare to fight for your nations freedom. And even if the Linge Club is disbanded, the Norwegian people will forever be in your debt for risking your lives for Norway.”
I think this will be the first time ever that I agree with a politician. I must have read every book there is to read abaout these true heroes when I was a boy growing up in a free Norway. All I can say is “Tusen takk” - a thousand thanks…
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Comments
3 Comments so far
Hey Rune.
It’s sad that we all have get old and the same is happening with the war veterans of Australia.
From World War 1 out of the 350,000 who served overseas there is only one veteran left who actually never saw active service.
The last Australian veteran who fought in WW1, died Monday 17 October 2005. “Evan Allan died at the age of 106, leaving only one living connection with the ‘war to end all wars’ - Jack Ross, 106, who enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1918, but who never saw a shot fired in anger.”
I am too like you and have read so many amazing stories from both World Wars and the bravery of our countrymen and what they sacrificed for us, so we can be where we are today.
I am going to do a little reading about Linge Company.
Yeah. Even old Kirk Douglas did the movie “The heroes from Telemark” in ‘65, which wasn’t indeed very documentary even if it pretended to be some semi-documentary. A preliminary to this movie, the 1948 movie “Krigen om tungtvannet” (the war of the heavy water) was more faithful to the original events and even starred several of the Norwegian commandos themselves.
Ditto, from me Rune, will do some more reading on these Norwegian heroes As long as there are people like us in the world, their sacrifice and heroism that contributed to the options we Europeans have today will never be underestimated or forgotten. God bless every one of them, alive or resting in peace.