LOCK-DOWN: NORWAY 1940
The Norwegian Flag
The World currently is in a Lock-down Mode due to the so-called Chinese Virus. Sometimes, the virus looks a bit like an escapee from a laboratory! Whether accidentally released or whether weaponized, it is worthwhile to compare what is happening now with what happened 80 years ago to the Kingdom of Norway.
There are significant deaths every year from many causes in the United States and elsewhere in the World, including car accidents, "regular flu" strains, diabetes, heart trouble and other popular problems.
However, none of them have resulted in lock-downs!
We don't vaccinate cars to keep them from being involved in accidents, we do not ban cars, and we do not interfere in the lives of everyone else because someone is sick! But now, suddenly, it is fashionable to engage in all kinds of unconstitutionally illegal actions. This includes telling people where they can go, what they can buy and where they can do it, and who is an "essential" business and who is not! Telling people they cannot swim, surf, ski, gather in groups or other forms of restriction is the work of demons and dictators, not actions of so called "Republics," "Democracies," or whatever countries claim to call themselves! To make matters worse, by creating a "panic" situation, governments are literally trying to get away with murder. People are easily panicked!
Adolph Hitler, who is not among the most favored of
WW2 leaders said....
"How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think...."
He also said....
"Life is like a game, there could be many players. If you don't play with them, they'll play with you."
Whether you like or dislike Hitler, is not up for discussion here. All we are concerned with is that his two comments make much sense. Leaders, no matter who they are, don't like independent, thinking people. There is also no question we are being lied to and played with every day by leaders, corporations, the press, schools and a host of others no-gooders!
German Cruiser "Blucher"
It was 9 April 1940 and all was well in Independent and Neutral Norway. On that day the German invasion of the country began with a shock and a bang. NOBODY SAW IT COMING!
From a purely military perspective, it was one of the greatest military moves in history up to that time. Berlin simply made plans without telling more than a couple of top officials, so until the day of the invasion, NOBODY knew!
There was a reason for the secrecy. The British, whose political leaders are famous for arguing everything in the press, even having riots in Parliament, made the mistake of tipping off the Germans that Britain wanted to invade to "save the Norwegians from the Germans!" The Germans, on the other hand, wanted to "save the Norwegians from the British," and in the process, make sure Germany's supply of Iron ore from Sweden was not compromised by the British!
British soldiers were in Norway at the time. They acted like typical British military, full of superiority, did not trust the Norwegian Commander and failed to take his advice. It is always stupid for outsiders to ignore the advice of those who live there! Suffice it to say, the British were forced to leave and were rescued by the Admiralty before becoming prisoners of the Germans.
The German's, on the other hand, also made some bad mistakes. In the North of Norway, they assumed the British were holed up in several towns and ended up destroying the towns. This had the effect of not winning the hearts and minds of Norwegians, instead, it enraged them! Even today Germans are not held in great esteem there.
The Fate of the "Blucher"
While traveling up the Oslo Fjord to seize Oslo, the capital, the German Battleship "Blucher" collided with a couple of well-aimed cannonballs and sank in the fjord with more than a thousand dead. The Germans were unhappy with the resistance, and LOCKED DOWN the country. It did not happen immediately, but gradually. The more the resistance, the greater the restrictions. At first, private business and banking was not bothered, but eventually loss of materials and supplies had an effect and people went to barter and other ways of obtaining needed raw materials.
From our family standpoint, most of our family survived the war intact. However, one member of our extended family lost their home to an errant bomb that demolished their house. The husband, wife and son were not there at the time, but they spent the next five years homeless and scrambling to find housing.
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I have already written a book about all this, so no need to rewrite it here. The point I want to make is that Norway lived under a dictatorship for five long years and into this came the Norwegian Resistance known as "Hjemmefronten," or the "Homefront." My dad, Knut Scharnhorst Hesstvedt became the District Commander in the Gjoevik area of Norway during the war.
Front Cover
Back Cover
This book is in print and currently available.
See Homefront Books on Facebook
for ordering information.
British King George Medal Awarded to
Knut Scharnhorst Hesstvedt in 1950
There were many Norwegian Patriots and Heroes. We do not have enough space here to even begin to list them all. But we can mention two others, the subject of popular books. One was Gunvald Tomstad, who operated a Morse Code transmitter on the south coast of Norway for two years under the noses of the occupiers. He even joined the National Socialists as a member, much to the annoyance of his neighbors who thought of him as a first rate traitor. He even kept his mother in the dark, who was terrified her son was a terrible turncoat. She was hated almost as much in the community as him. Feeling sorry for her one day, he said, "It's not what you think, mother!" From that day on she played the martyred mom and told the world she had no son. The ruse worked! Gunvald Tomstad was able to give London and the British much information about German activities in Norway until he finally was exposed by the Gestapo. He could "smell" it coming, and fled to Sweden, then to England. He sat out the war there, returning a hero, and with a commission as a First Lieutenant in the Norwegian Army.
The Front Cover of THE GREATEST GAME written by Norwegian Journalist Per Hannson. The book is only available in Norwegian, though it was eventually made into a movie.
HELLE GAARD or Helle Farm, a farmstead inherited by Gunvald Tomstad, became headquarters for the local National Socialist Party as well as site of a secret Morse Code Transmitter operated by Tomstad for a period of two years. It was a direct link between Home Station in England and Norway. Here is what the place looked like in 1945:
The upstairs attic in the house contained
the secret Morse Code Key and the Transmitter.
A self portrait of Gunvald Tomstad taken by him.
The film was hidden
and not developed until AFTER the war!
Portrait of Gunvald Tomstad
in Norwegian Lieutenant Uniform 1945.
In an article this writer has not released for publication, I detail the circumstances that led to the sinking of the German ship "The Bismarck":
The
binoculars scanned the Skagerrak intently; a
battleship with three destroyers was headed into the North Sea west
of Kristiansand, Norway! It was the Third Reich’s “Bismarck!”
Quickly, Ships Handler Viggo Axelssen made notes, folds and passes
the paper on. It travels through five hands: the last is a young lady
who sticks it in her stocking, makes her way through Nazi-occupied
Flekkefjord, up the hill to Helle (heh leh) Gaard (goh rd) where she
gives it to a young man. At a glance, he codes the message and uses
his hidden “sender” (a small Morse Code Transmitter) to transmit
under the Code Name “Tom”
to London “Home
Station”
as the Norwegian Section was known. Within six days the “Bismarck”
is sunk by the British. It was late May 1941.
An American writer of Norwegian Cookbooks Astrid Karlsen Scott, penned several books about the Norwegian Underground. One called IN THE SHADOW OF THE GESTAPO, is in English and still is available on the internet. She interviewed Gunvald Tomstad's daughter who provided much interesting information on her famous father.
Source:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002DW2YLG?tag=duckduckgo-brave-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
And our last book featured here is called WE DIE ALONE and is in English, telling the survival story of Jan Baalsrud. In
March of 1943, a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos left England to
invade German occupied Norway. They intended to help and organize
Norwegian Resistance. They were betrayed and ambushed. It was a tragedy that resulted in all killed except Baalsrud. The operation was torpedoed by a traitorous Norwegian who informed the Gestapo. Baalsrud spent more than a year hiding in barns, snow-caves and endured a mind boggling, gripping adventure and incredible hardships before eventually making it to neutral Sweden assisted by the Laps, now called Samis.
Source:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1493023454?tag=duckduckgo-brave-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&psc=1
There were many more heroes of Hjemmefronten, most who are footnotes to history. The three listed here at least have books written about them. There is much to learn from them not only about resistance to tyranny, but also how to survive such periods.
As the years go by, it becomes more and more difficult to keep these stories alive. That is why it is so important to preserve the efforts these men made, sometimes giving their lives in support of what they believed was right......
Just remember that LOCKDOWNS are always initiated by tyrants and NEVER in any way shape or form is for the common good. In all instances, DESTRUCTION is the primary result. Remember also that the pathway to HELL is paved with "good intentions."
The madness created by the German invasion is no different than today's madness about a mythical virus.
It is against the Constitution for the Federal Government to lock down society. The same can be said for the State Governments. Many sheriff's in the US are openly questioning the right of any bureaucrat to interfere in lawful activities of people. A growing number of people are also questioning the very strange circumstances, lies, misleading statistics and the misinformation bandied about concerning this affair. It's time to just say NO!
Published by the Blogger
Photograph Credits
"Blucher" photos from AN IMMIGRANT REMEMBERS,
Gunvald Tomstad pictures from DET STOERSTE SPILLET,
Norwegian Flag picture from a 1938 language book,
and screen captures of Amazon Books by the blogger.
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