XPost: aalt.war.world-war-two, sci.military.naval, soc.history.war.misc

Håvard Holand
Generally interested in history.7y
What is the coolest line in history?
Date: 9 April 1940.

Without any declaration of war, Nazi Germany has launched an invasion of Norway. Different parts of the country are attacked simultaneously; in
the south, a fleet of German warships is heading towards the capital Oslo.

This fleet had to move through the narrow Drøbak Sound, a part of the Oslofjord. Located nearby is the old Oscarsborg Fortress, a coastal
defense installation. Its commander was Colonel Birger Eriksen, age 64.

When the ships were spotted from the fortress, Eriksen had no knowledge
of whether the ships were Allied or German. Norway was still officially neutral. Moreover, according to Norwegian rules of engagement, warning
shots were to be fired first.

Eriksen gave the order to open fire at the lead ship, the heavy cruiser Blücher. Adding to his order, he uttered the famous words:

"Either I will be decorated or I will be court martialled. Fire!"

But my personal favorite is what he said when questioned about what type
of ammunition to be used:

“Damn straight we're firing live ammunition!”

The ship Blücher was sunk, thwarting the seaborne invasion, and allowing
the royal family and government to escape from the capital. After the
war, Eriksen was awarded the War Cross with sword, the Croix de guerre
and the Légion d’honneur.

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Kenneth Fulmore
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Robert Side
Once There Was A War is also worth a read.
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Jonathan Henshaw
· Nov 9
The Kriegsmarine never fully recovered from their ship losses incurred
during the Norwegian campaign in May/June 1940 and would never have been
able to support the invasion of the UK (Operation Sea Lion) in the summer/autumn of 1940 in any significant way.

As well as the Heavy Cruiser Blucher and a couple of Light Cruisers
lost, they also lost half of their total number of Fleet Destroyers at
the Battle of Narvik (1st & 2nd)

Additionally, the Battle Cruisers Scharnhorst (suicidal defence of the
Aircraft Carrier HMS Glorious by HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta) and
Gneisenau were both knocked out of the war for 12 months, whilst the
Heavy Cruiser Hipper was similarly damaged by HMS Glowworm ramming her.

By summer 1941 Germany had turned east and invaded Russia and the rest,
as they say, is history

May/June 1940 was where it all started to go wrong for Germany.


Brent McKee
· Nov 9
It was the torpedoes fired from part of the Fort that sank the Blucher. Oskarborg had multiple pre-World War I guns, made by Krupp in Germany,
and a pair of submerged torpedo tubes launched from a cave in an
adjacent island. The torpedo tubes fired Austria-Hungarian designed
Whitehead torpedoes also dating from before World War I. The torpedo
tubes were one of the few Norwegian (not Danish as I originally wrote)
defences that the Germans didn’t know about.


Ramon Ribas Casasayas
· Nov 10
Norwegian, not Danish.
And yeah, they had no damn idea of these. And if they knew, probably
would scoffed at.

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