Norway: The Forgotten Battle of WW2
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- čas přidán 3. 05. 2024
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Special thanks to @LazerPig and @HardThrasher for lending me their aid in both their voice talent and in making this glorious thumbnail. I'd also like to give a shoutout to the channel "Epic Scores" who provided the music for this video.
The invasion of Norway is a topic seldom covered in history documentaries, in fact on CZcams there are only two documentaries covering it in detail. One of them is forty minutes long and leaves all the cool parts out while the other only features it for a mere twenty minutes.
However this is something I simply can't understand as the sheer number of GIGA-CHADS who did incredible things during this campaign defies belief and their achievements would be dismissed as unrealistic had they not been documented. Despite Quisling's best efforts.
So I present to you this nearly two hour long documentary on the story of Operation Weserübung and the brave men and women of the Allied forces who inflicted some of the most devastating defeats on the Axis Powers in the entire war. Victories which sadly all but the most die hard WW2 history nerds have forgotten. It will be more captivating than any Mr Beast video.
I hope you enjoy.
Support the Channel on Patreon:
/ animarchy - Zábava
Thanks to Nord VPN for sponsoring this video! Get 4 months extra on a 2 year plan here: nordvpn.com/animarchy It’s risk free with Nord’s 30 day money-back guarantee!
Special thanks to @LazerPig and @HardThrasher for lending me their aid in both their voice talent and in making this glorious thumbnail. I'd also like to give a shoutout to the channel "Epic Scores" who provided the music for this video.
The invasion of Norway is a topic seldom covered in history documentaries, in fact on CZcams there are only two documentaries covering it in detail. One of them is forty minutes long and leaves all the cool parts out while the other only features it for a mere twenty minutes.
However this is something I simply can't understand as the sheer number of GIGA-CHADS who did incredible things during this campaign defies belief and their achievements would be dismissed as unrealistic had they not been documented. Despite Quisling's best efforts.
So I present to you this nearly two hour long documentary on the story of Operation Weserübung and the brave men and women of the Allied forces who inflicted some of the most devastating defeats on the Axis Powers in the entire war. Victories which sadly all but the most die hard WW2 history nerds have forgotten. It will be more captivating than any Mr Beast video.
I hope you enjoy.
Support the Channel on Patreon:
www.patreon.com/Animarchy
Also just some more irony to the Blucher sinking, those 40 year old guns were made by Krupp Steal. Which meant a german ship is cripple by a gun made by german company. Which is incredibly ironic.
When we are going to see history of Russian aviation part 2?
Hey, Your The Dude That Was speaking to LaserPig, I watched a few of your convened Casual military Conferences, Well, I Am glad and grateful you appeared on my feed. You've earned a Staunch subscriber, Really interesting blend of History and humour; A rare commingling. Yes I am still trying to digest your puns, i enjoy corny. anywho, take care looking forward for more outstanding stories
@AnimarchyHistory Thank you for being one of the very few that have spoken about the nordic front of ww2. You should look up the guy Allan Mann, he is a swedish volunteer for the winter war than then at the invasion of Norway volunteered and fought with the Norwegians and after that went into the Norwegian residence, he was as a combat medic in the dieppe raid and the continued as a brittish taught Norwegian commando residence fighter and also fought in the police troops in lappland and survived the war to become THE best known case combat inatruktor of the swedish military without doing his forced war theme conscription because of battle damage sustained from the winter war. Oh and also he got a medal from the French foreign legion called "Croix de Guerre". But that story il let you look up, but in includes hand to hand combat, tunnels, alps, snow and 1000% luck. Allan also being so humble that he downplayed any honor given towards him.
where is lazpig
Oh god the pig and Animarchy in one day! The sun shines on all of us.
And Falcon, too! It's a NAFO Buffet!
33:10 not to mention a wild Lazerpig cameo
I'm trying to eat it all, but there's just so much!
Just need a Lord Hardthrasher video and I'm gonna pop!
@@JamesRT1291 It literally happened right as I was reading this.
"You're locked in here with me" is such a Warspite thing to say
yeah, warspite has 0 chill
@@promptedleek4829 Given the name, I'd be surprised if it DID have any chill.
I have a great mental image if it was from a psychological drama movie. Eyes with a crazy glint, but calculating, crooked smile, head slightly clocked. You just know this guy is gonna enjoy this scene way to much.
Calling the Graff spee an battle cruiser is an insult to battle cruisers.
@Drachinifel , twist his balls NOW
People need to stop calling things that are not battlecruisers battlecruisers
Here is a better question. What is a battlecruiser
@odd-ov4gf *"A little pile of scrap! But enough talk, RAMMING SPEED!"*
@@odd-ov4gfa ship with the guns of a battleship but with less armor and more speed, like Scharnhorst
@@ximiraxelo7375 good definition, bad example. Scharnhorst is an odd ship, like a lot of ww2 German designs-it has good armor and speed, but anemic firepower for its displacement. For reference, scharnhorst is almost as large as HMS Rodney, but has guns which fire shells less than 1/3 the size.
This is just further proof of the rule of thumb: A commander's insanity is inversely proportional to the size of his vessel. If almost all destroyer captains are this mad, then TP boat captains must be absolutely unhinged.
Having a screw or 10 loose must have been a requirement back then
They picked DD commanders because they were aggressive, were quick to act, and liked to fight.
@kyle857 Thomas Cochrane would have made an amazing destroyer captain. Bro was in command of a tiny Brig, and was up against a Xebec Frigate that was more than twice his size and number of guns, and four times his crew and broadside weight, and said "Nah, I'd win." And he won.
I think Drachinifel mentioned something like this in some video (possibly in the one about ship waifus with Animarchy). He said that aggressive naval officers tended to be made destroyer captains whereas more careful officers tended to be sent to work on some larger ship like e.g. a cruiser.
@@seneca983 Why is that? I mean, don't get me wrong, having a squadron of damn near insane little destroyers sounds a bit funny, but why did they make the aggressive captains command the smaller ships? Or is it the obvious answer that command won't want aggressive commanders in charge of cruisers or battleships due to those ship types limited numbers?
The battle of Narvik.
Where HMS Warspite decided it wanted to be a destroyer.
HMS Warspite, too angry to die and has anime level of plot armor
@@danielbrooks732The fact that it didn't get hit by a torpedo during the entire run is impressive.
@@aaroncabatingan5238I think it was U39 fired 4 torps at her at near point blank and all of them prematurely detonated
@@Dexs911The very torpedoes were too scared to approach
reminds me when Vittorio Veneto did the same at the Battle of Cape Spartivento
As a Norwegian I thank you for shining a light on this. I am proud to have served in the Kings Royal Guard and I am still in reserve. The Norwegian fighting spirit is not to be underestimated.
Takk for din tjeneste
"And if rumors are to be believed, a ceremonial cutlass kept aboard for special occasions." Well they certainly found an occasion to break it out of the glass case.
33:09 PERHAPS TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO DIE
As a Norwegian, it warms my heart that this part of WW2 history is getting more attention. For anyone who's interested in more, I highly recommend the Norwegian film *The Kings Choice / AKA Kongens Nei.* It's a well made biographical film from 2016 focusing on King Haakon VII and the Norwegian royal family in the days before and immediately after the German invasion of Norway.
The Blücher battle footage in the video was taken from the film.
my favorite story from WW2 is the absolute giga chad Major Holtermann and the heroes at Hegra fortress.
You should read 'Tusen glemte menn'.
The one nitpick I have about that scene is that they didn't include the commander's famous line: "Either I'll get a medal or a court martial!"
@@ForelliBoy 44:16 :)
Glad to hear it! Pennsylvanian here, I’ve always had a interest in the Norwegian theater, I have an original M/40 helmet taken from a dead German solider from the battle of Norway. His bloodstain is still in the helmet liner
"Hitler hadnt missed the bus, he was driving it" i cant breath anymore
The short bus lol
When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler.
breathe*
breath is a noun
Im bad at english is beathe a verb?@@Jmvars
@@cowboyjohnnyes, you breathe in and breathe out
honestly surprised you didnt give a giga-chad counter to that Norwegian boat that crossed the atlantic. that's some SERIOUS courage and seamanship to pull that off.
Norwegian know how to build boats and ships. ;)
@bongfuhrer was gunna say.. Vikings landed all over NE N America and company..
@@gothamlives4278 i give props for the balls to risk being sunk in the north sea or atlantic ocean by the german navy, on top of just willing to cross the Atlantic ocean.
however the specific boat shown in the picture the Kaare II actually provided assistance to the Norwegian war effort evacuating civilians from various places, including one trip in which the 69ft boat managed to carry 60-70 refugees from Tromso to Petsamo. it also provided some naval assistance but i don't know specifics. They also hadn't originally aimed for Canada. hoping to go to the Faroe islands, being denied, trying England also denied, before making the gambit on Canada where they were welcomed.
Thanks for this Animarchy, we Norwegians appreciate it!❤
YEEESS! everyone always forgets the 15cm battery at Korpås kicked Lützow's ass after Blucher was sunk.
But you forgot the awesome conversation between the two Gigachad's at Oscarsborg.
"Is She to be torpedoed?"
"She is to be Torpedoed!"
I imagine the blucker captain after the ship got hit and lost most of its systems thinking "ok, we still have the engines running, we can maneuver this ship" and then they get torpedoed and he says "ok, screw it, the ship is kaput"
They thought it was mines that's why no other ship tried to force a passage.
Det var planerat att Sverige skulle gå in i norra Norge för att säkra Narvik men tyskarna använde fallskärmjägare och gjorde det innan
"Captain, we've got a German battke cruiser in front of us!"
"Then it's an even fight. "
Liked this a lot but as a former kingsguard have to mention that the soldiers at Midtskogen were recruits not yet full guardsmen(also backed up by the local rifle/marksmen club). Good job and thanks for the vid!!!
I came here to say this, yet I knew in my heart it had already been said.
Sadly, Animarchy cannot consult with Major Egelien. What a collaboration that would have been.
Even more impressive and a testament to the leadership and tactical skill of the officers present
Since you are a guards man and Denmark was briefly mentioned, one could point out that besides the army units posted at the border (footage from the movie 9.April is used here) the Danish Royal Lifeguards also put up a fierce resistance. Defending the Royal Palace until the King himself ordered them to stand down.
As a norwegian, i say many thanks animarchy.
This campaign is well remembered in Poland. Both for loses Polish Navy and Army took and as a first chance to get on Germans since 1939. „For freedom our and yours!”
My uncle fought on the Narvik front (Norwegian Army). He told me the Polish forces fought with fire in their eyes!
Can’t wait to hear about the battle of Drøbak Sound and Oscarsborg Fortress. Who was responsible for the complete drop of the hat the Germans did in preparation by forgetting about her entirely. Remember: “Old, but not unarmed”
Sodem where are the torpedoes!
Visst fanden skal det skytes med skarpt!
Yeah but did Norway win?
@@sigmamale6154 Yeah but did Germany win?
@@panzer_ace_107stankdivisio8 they almost did and put up a great fight while fighting four empires on three fronts
..."forgotten"??... In Poland the Battle for Narvik is still being very well remembered, since the Polish Independent Mountain Rifle Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelcòw Podhalanskich) is still being told during History lessons in every school.
We Norwegians still remember the hole thing kinda good tbh
@@stipy5916 Norwegians are true Warriors! I read the story of your Resistance - among them the deeds of Max Manus! Some of those stories are almost beyond belief. Big Respects.
Best Regards!
@@2serveand2protectthe viking genes can come out in times of need 😂
@@2serveand2protect i mean, in all respect to Max Manus, he was a lying drunk, that took claim for loads of shit he didnt do.
and also two polish destroyers ORP Błyskawica (Lightning) and ORP Grom (Thunder) took part in the fighting, with Grom being sunk by german planes
In fairness, to the guy planning the invasions based on a tour book - that was not uncommon for WWII. The tour books of the era included spectacular road maps, particularly those by Michelin, (which, as an aside, is what led to the Michelin star system that is so coveted in the gourmet food industry today - it was originally a rating system employed in their tour guides and while its top tier was high end gourmet foods, they offered lower tiers of approval for places where the food was good but nothing special - the kind of place you go to while traveling, as opposed to the kind of place you travel specifically to visit.) And these weren't just used for planning - part of every paratrooper's kit during the D-Day invasion of Normandy was a set of maps taken from the Michelin guide to travel in the region.
I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reason why tour books were rather less reliable for a good stretch of time after WWII is the fact that everyone realized that publishing extremely good, up to date and complete maps of the road network for sale internationally was a great boon for invading armies and thus might not actually be the best idea in the world. Of course, with modern satellite imagery so widely available, it's effectively impossible to quietly suppress that kind of information (and many possible invading powers just have their own satellites taking pictures even if you're censoring all of your own data). That said, any plan drawn up in a single day is definitely going to be just a *tad* rushed...
When the Americans invaded Grenada in 1983 the only map they had of the island was in a school text book, and only one ship in the invasion fleet had a photocopier to copy it.
Goggle earth says hellos. That an the company that mapped LA an Miami for GTA5 an 6 could be payed to do so for any location in America at least. Imagine practicing in a VR model of the event location.
@@longhairdontcare122 yeah the modern access to intelligence on the internet precludes a lot of old standards of security through obscurity - as the war in Ukraine has proven time and time again.
israel, south korea, china, all have ways of censoring their satellite maps
You might be too fair on Nazis, they were fed poor quality tourist maps by Garbo as part of intelligence operations, and believed no better ones existed.
You had to end on the anthem? Suddenly it got really dusty in her, and my eyes are acting up...
It appears USS Johnston and USS Samuel b roberts have some friends
Old Ironsides too. She may be an Age of Sail ship, but all of them are on the roster for bravest/most insane afloat
The amount o giga chads, and giga chad moments in this campaign only was incredibly, the Bf 110 pilots taking a air field by themselves was impressive
At 1h36: " Günter, vhy do I hear boss muzik?"
Meanwhile, aboard Warspite: czcams.com/video/b8qZ4qzDICg/video.html
Bro, Animarchy History, LazerPig, _and_ LeMMiNo all in one day? What treat is this!
ikr!
Thanks for being my notifications
CZcams
And Falcon’s video on the F-104
Its a blitz
Try "history of everything" for the quadrella.
If you want some Norwegian movies about the war, covering things like sabotage & politics i can highly reccomend these:
Gulltransporten (the gold transport) How they transported the gold reserves across the country just ahead of the Germans, only being possible due to Oscarsborg fortress sinking the Blutcher and delaying the landing forces meant for Oslo
Max Manus (Lieutenant Milorg, his memoars are also a fantastic read, some crazy things they got up to like home-made "baby" torpedoes used to sink German shipping is nuts )
Kongens Nei ( The kings choice ) Movie about before the war & in the early stages covering the politics & how the king outright refused to cooperate or surrender the nation to the Germans without the support of the government, even if it was in his power to do so *edit this is also the movie the video clips are from where they sink the Blutcher
Kampen om Narvik ( the battle for Narvik) i've yet to watch this, but reviews & what i hear says it's great, it's about as you might figure the fighting in Narvik in 1940
I've seen the battle for Narvik, it's very good.
While not a movie, the short series Kampen Om Tungvannet (The Heavy Water War: Stopping Hitler's Atomic Bomb) is pretty good as well, and well worth the watch.
@@hybelmygg It's on my watch-list, currently working on English subtitles for it though so my friends can also watch with me
As far as I'm aware, the allies didn't manage to send any military aid to Finland during the winter war. You know who did though? Sweden. we sent like 1/3 of our stockpiles...... which became inconvenient when Norway were invaded and the border guards didn't have the proper amount of ammo.
I don't think there were any official military aid from the allies, but there were definetly British volunteers in Finland.
Fun fact: Sir Christopher Lee was one of them (actor that played Dracula, Saruman and Count Dooku)
@@Grautwok the allied plan for more directly intervening was to send troops through the Norwegian port of Narvik through Sweden...... With the interesting side effect of most of those troops occupying northern Norway/Sweden to prevent the iron ore trade, Norway and Sweden saw through that cunning plan though. There were Hungarian volunteers in the winter war, although they arrived a bit late due to having to take the long way round Europe to avoid German territory.
@@Anonymous-zu7dh I think the British and the French sent 30 planes each.
@seneca983 Bizarely fascist Italy also sent Fiat fighters, rifles etc. They had to avoid transitting through Germany due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
@@michealohaodha9351 I don't think it's that bizarre considering fascists and communists often don't like each other.
HMS Warspite’s introduction in the video , was absolutely perfection , song was on point ….A Goddess had arrived on scene, and she despensed her Judgement
It was at that moment the germans, they f**ked up
“Fuck it, we ball!” Captain Roope of the HMS Glowword, 8th of April 1940.
It’s so strange to see AH talking about WW2 warships and not use any Azure Lane art.
Well there's only one: *HMS Glowworm.*
@@ardantop132na6 Yeah should’ve waited till I posted that huh?
This campaign is so full of memetic moments....
Glowworm maneuver. (Unofficial for ramming forevermore).
Blucher sank by 19th century weapons and pure Viking balls.
Narvik: no one expects spanish inquisition and Warspite into narrow fjord.
I'm stoked for the Norwegian movie "Natt Til Niende, BLÜCHER" or "Blücher" (according to IMDB), got to know it through a friend who is one of the historical advisers and also helping out equipping the crew. Norway have started to produce plenty of movies telling their part of the war which I agree on, have been overlooked far too much.
Kinda funny thing:
My dad is a casual collector of postcards, especially old ones from our home city of Gothenburg. Recently, he bought a postcard with writing in Norwegian on the back. Turns out the buyer of the postcard was a guy from Noreay who went on a short trip to Gothenburg right before the invasion, and sent this postcard to their family (their brother if im not mistaken) to inform them that their return would most likely ve significantly delayed due to the "situation" at home.
1:23 regarding Chamberlain. It was so, so much worse than you led on. That was Leo Amery a back bench MP.
"This is what Cromwell said to the long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: 'You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done wither you. In the name of God, go!'".
He is said to have hoarsley whispered the last 6 words whilst angrily pointing at Chamberlain.
David Lloyd George, PM during the First World War and signatory to the Treaty of Versailles , came down from the Lords to watch the debate and said of the speech "It was the the single most devastating delivery I have ever witnessed in my time as a parliamentarian."
Quoting Cromwell in such a way is, like, the nuclear option of parliamentary debate. To my knowledge it wasn't used again until David Davis used them against Boris Johnson in 2022.
Those words are considered a curse to a Prime Minister, none have survived there usage, political careers end when someone invokes Cromwell against you....
sorry but you might have to do a further 2 digits of your timestamp if you want it to go to the right point as currently it leads to minute 1 second 23 but I assume you intend for it to go to hour 1 minute 23 which would be 1:23:00 as a timestamp
Nice bit of history! I love people who know niche stuff like this.
Cromwell hmpp. Give me the rightfull head still on king.
we NEED a HMS warspite video
Same here. I adore the grand old lady.
Both Lazerpig and animarchy uploading on the same day? Amazing
WARSPITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The Big Deleter 🫡
May she never be forgotten!
Imagine sneaking a ship that size, with escort, up on the Germans. The steel balls on Captain Crutchley is a testament to the buoyancy of Warspite itself..!
@@thatdude1435 not that she got a taste for it against the Italian fleet😉
@@firefox3187 oh ooh :D
Sweden was considered for invasion but was ruled out early because the Swedish navy was in the Baltic and was too powerful to contain with all the modern warships in Denmark and Norway.
Personally I just think they feared the let loose of the three interned Polish Submarines in Mariefred
Lots of other Norwegians on here have said it already, but thank you so much for this.
Alt fur Norge.
I'm from the Narvik area, and I have grown up walking around and seen the leftowers from the war.
My grandfather even took a picture of the JU 52s at the frozen lake (Hartvikvatnet/Árajávri)
"quisling" isnt exactly a term of endearment in good old Norway either:)
Also an awesome recounting of the 1940s spring Norwegian campaign:)...oh ...you shouldn't have:P
The germans werent amused when they finally seized Oscarsborg fortress and could read on the cannons "Krupp steel".
I wonder at what point did HMS Glowworm’s crew realise their Captain was a madman? 😂 Best of the Best 🇬🇧
It's a destroyer, they knew the moment they stepped aboard. (¬‿¬)
they all were crazy
The captains of Royal Navy destroyers (and most countries) were specifically chosen for being daring, ballsy and fearless. Caution is for battleship and carrier captains you want your destroyers in a knife fight 😂
@@leodesalis5915 a criminal record for recklessness is required to be a destroyer captain
@@British_navy I've heard if the captain doesnt say "drive closer, I want to hit them with my sword" at least once per battle, the destroyers crew loses confidence in their captain, immedietely mutiny and install the maddest man they can find aboard.
Great video!
The only thing is that, ironically, it forgets the most important contribution to the war: The Norwegian merchant fleet. The biggest in the world and, with the legal government having escaped to exile, now in allied service. The merchant sailors were crucial for keeping the UK supplied and the lend lease convoys to the USSR going. They took heavy losses running the gauntlet of U-boats, Luftwaffe and arctic storms, yet were overlooked after the war.
Absolute fearless backbones! Massive respect to the Norwegian merchant navy ✌️
I think my favorite Norwegian War Hero was Hugo Munthe-Kaas, Norwegian Soldier and British Spy and Commando who served from the Battles of Narvik to the end of the war and was involved in the espionage leading up to the sinking of the Tirpitz
My great grandfather (norwegian) fought in the mountains around narvik. He didnt talk much about it, but he did talk about how incredibly sour it was to have to turn in their weapons and surrender to the germans after beating them and winning the battle.
A feature-length video about the Norway campaign? I remember being riveted by this part of the war from the top-down view of Churchill's war memoirs, and it's a bit crazy that so few sources cover it in depth. Can't wait to sink my teeth into this
As Simon from Biographics once said about the Norwegians during WW2, "They were no push-overs".
Not surprised, have you met Norwegians? They’re bloody massive 😂
But no match for the Nazis in the end though
Well, we lost, and to no ones surprise, but we lost in style.
We fought through the war. Never forget the resistance!
That warspite intro
The DEEP DIVE joke with the Polish submarine isn't too bad. Although, I think giving the Polish submarine more SCREEN time is better.
Great content. Well done, Sir. 🍻👍🏻
The way you can tell a story is just absolutely amazing.
This reminds me of a fun part of my family history, and its ties to the Resistance in Denmark.
The lowest level was a man who owned a workshop and keymaking buissness in a small town. When the Nazis came asking for all his keys, so they could search the town, he told them no. And either they didnt see it as worth it, or knew the town would become a nest for rebels, if they killed this respected man in their town. He might have saved a few dusin people in that one fell swoop.
Next up, is a man who saw faschism, and decided it could go fuck itself. So he joined a rebel newspaper, and plastered towns in pro sabotarge and rebellion propaganda. He was killed trying to crawl out a window, when the Germans came to arrest him. He died, rather than surrendering. The cell was compromised, but not the whole, as a result.
And then we come to the funniest one. A man who heard the Nazis were building an airstrip in Northern Denmark, to fly supplies up for the war effort in Norway. So, he and some of his lads... voulanteered for this construction work. And oh no, was that sugar they poured into the cement mix? Naaah, dont worry about it, its all fine. And then a returning plane landed, crashed, and blew up. Then again. And again. After the Nazis announced to the workers that there were signs of sabotarge, our chad crew went up and politely requested their last paycheck, and said they wish they could work there any longer, but were so afraid to, because of the threat of terrorism...
And so they walked away with Nazi money, for sabotarging the Nazi airfield. Helping the Norwegians in the process. Even if it was just a little.
The struggle to tell tyrrany to take a hike, goes ever onward.
How hard was it to not have *HORSE WHINNY* every time the Blucher was mentioned Animarchy?
"The King's Choice " movie shows the battle between the Blucher and Erickson's Oscarsburg Fortress very well. Guns and bankside Torpedoes.
As a Norwegain, this make me even more proud of my country, very good video, and love the national song to close out the video. This really does do justice to the quite important war fought here.
“Defecation had hit oscillation in a most spectacular fashion” is probably the best way of saying “shit really hit the fan” I’ve ever heard
I can only imagine how this influenced Hitlers later thinking. "It's not paranoia if they are actually after you."
Hey, you probably won't read this, but i finished the High school named after "Heroes of Narvik". Thank you for mentioning this battle, i wish i could send you some polish-norwegian memorabilia that were gifted at my school commemorating the 80th anniversary in 2020. Best of luck to you!
i would love to see a video on the Scandinavian resistance movements as a follow up to this.
British forces sent to Norway 1940. the 146th Infantry Brigade - comprised of the 1/4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, the Hallamshire Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment, and the 1/4th Battalion, King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry they landed at Namsos and the 24th Brigade - comprised of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, 1st Battalion Irish Guards and 2nd Battalion South Wales Borderers they landed at Narvik imperial war museum also has a photo of the 1/6th Battalion, Duke of Wellington's Regiment talking to a polish officer so this is probably not a complete list of British troops deployed.
Given the staggering amount of gigachads featured in this video, I feel the need to add one who's story is the kind of thing movies are made of.
Allan Mann, an eight-teen year old fledgling gigachad from Töreboda, Sweden volunteered in late 1939 for service with the Svenska Frivilligkåren (Swedish Volunteer Corps), a brigade-sized partly merchanised infantry unit created to take part in the Winter War against the Soviets. Allan, despite lacking any military experience at all (he hadn't even gone through basic training at this point), accompanied the roughly ten thousand volunteers from all over Sweden during their battles at the northern front in Salla, Finland. During this time, he made friends with several of the Norwegians also serving with the Corps (a couple hundred Norweigans and Danes fought alongside the Swedes during the war). During the final days of the Winter War, Allan's foot was mangled by Soviet artillery, and he returned to Sweden shortly after the ceasefire came into effect.
But Allan's military days had only just begun, as shortly after returning home, he went to war again, this time in Norway. Crossing the border with a handful of other Swedish volunteers, Allan joined a ragtag Norwegian-Swedish unit comprised of Winter War veterans, conscripts and local sportingshooters tasked with defending the town of Kongsvinger. The unit commander, Lieutenant Einar Gamst ( a gigachad in his own right), forced the local pro-German supply officer at gunpoint to give the unit weapons and gear, before locking said supply officer in the storage room. In the following battle of Kongsvinger, the ad hoc defenders inflicted heavy casualties on the German invaders, despite being outnumbered and outgunned. Allan repeatedly demonstrated both excellent marksmanship and bravery during these skirmishes, and as the Norweigans recieved orders to withdraw North, the young Swede carried out an usually heroic act. A Norwegian soldier who had been wounded in an earlier battle had been left behind and was now trapped behind German lines. Upon hearing of this, Allan snuck his way into enemy territory, found the Norwegian, hoisted him onto his shoulders and carried the wounded man back to friendly lines. When he arrived, the Norwegian officers were shocked and amazed at the act of valour, and half-jokingly informed Allan that another Norwegian, a civilian wounded by crossfire, had also been located behind enemy lines. Without hesitation, Allan went back and rescued him too.
In the following battles of Skarnes, Elverum and Os, the Swede rapidly proved himself to be one of the company's best men.
Later in the campaign, the Norwegian-Swedish unit had made it's way to Narvik, where Allan's most mind boggling feat of heroism would take place. Fighting alongside Norwegians, Brits, Frenchmen and Poles, Allan was tasked with hunting down remaining Gebrigsjäger units still operating in the region. The Germans made extensive use of the various mines and tunnelsystems to hide from Allied forces, and while clearing one of these, Allan was met with a grenade blast, filling his chest with shrapnel. At a local field hospital, Allan met a wounded officer from the French Foreign Legion, who's foot had been seriously injured. By this point, the Allies had abandoned Norway, and the Germans where rapidly approaching, leading the nurses manning the hospital to flee. But Allan wasn't planning on getting captured, nor let his newly made friend do so either. Despite his grevious wounds, Allan construced an improvised sled with the help of a few nurses, layed the French officer on it, strapped the sled to a harness worn by himself, and set out to cross the mountains and the border to Sweden. For nineteen agonising hours with little to no rest and in complete defience off his own injuries, Allan pulled the sled all the way into Swedish territory, where he collapsed from exhaustion and has found be Swedish border troops half-buried in the snow. By some miracle, both Allan and the French officer managed to survive the ordeal, something the Swedish doctor in charge of them thought shouldn't even be possible.
After the Norwegian campaign, Allan was recruited by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and served as a courier and spy along the Swedish-Norweigan border, transporting intelligence and weapons to the Norwegian resistance while rescuing refugees, primarily Jews escaping the Holocaust, on his way back. Later in 1943, Allan joined the famed Norwegian Independent Company No.1, becoming one of three Swedes to serve with the unit. His commando missions are shrowded in mystery, but he was a trusted comrade and close friend of nearly all the big war heroes of the unit, including Knut Haukelid, Max Manus and Gunnar Sonsteby, all of whom claim that Allan carried out several combat operations in occupied Norway. Allan would end the war mopping up German resistance in the northern Norwegian province of Finnmark, leaving the Norweigan army as a full captain in 1952.
After the war Allan joined the Swedish Armed Forces and served as an instructor, teaching commando tactics and hand-to-hand combat techniques as well as serving as a UN peacekeeper on Cyrpus in 1964, before retiring twenty years later in 1984, leaving an immense legacy in his wake. Allan rarely talked about his experiences in the war, didn't consider himself to be a hero and quietly passed away in 2005, eighty-four years old.
Thank you reading this, and I hope you enjoyed the (very abridged) story of Sweden's greatest soldier of the Second World War, the certified gigachad known as Allan Mann.
Holy crap this man is insane. Thank you for giving me a video idea for the back pocket. Good lord.
@@AnimarchyHistory Well damn, didn't expect to be seen by the man himself. Thank you for the incredible work you do and for putting the spotlight on lesser known parts of history.
Animarchy has proven yet again that my history education suuuuucks...and my parents lived through WWII
Awesome vid, will have to watch again to keep all the gigachads in order 👍
Beautiful ending mate
As a Norwegian I must say this was absolutely glorious to watch. I remember most of this from school, but presented in such a concise, entertaining and engaging fashion was expertly done. Playing the national anthem at the end was simply chefs kiss!
Please make a documentary about Battleship Scharnhorst
You know it’s gonna be good when there’s a giga chad counter
And then learning about HMS Courage and her incredible Captain, Commander David Havoc! What a wonderful day!
Such a shame we couldn’t hold Norway, honestly I’d say if ever there could have been a time pre 1941 had we held Norway the war probably would have ended far sooner, and millions would have been spared.
The cut to iron ore would have likely left Germany struggling to meet demand and probably though a long shot maybe even convinced several neutrals to stand with the allies.
Everyone was inexperienced.
But most of the blame for the loss of Norway falls on the Norwegian government for their criminal neglect of the military pre-war and general incompetence on security policy.
@@AdurianJ Norway wasn't the only one guilty of this either, AFAIK Finland was in a similar state when the Winter War broke out as our military forces had been neglected for budgetary and ideological reasons during the early era of independence until at the last moment amid rising tensions it became clear that something needed to be done. So it ended up with having to accept gear such as 19th century French artillery which France had already deemed obsolete before the _First_ World War, telling soldiers to bring their own hunting weapons to war, and also not receiving critical deliveries before the war ended as (Nazi) Germany blockaded them.
No Norway was in much worse shape.
They had not viewed invasion as something that could happen and had been very casual about their defences.
In Finland the Political leadership always knew of the danger of Russia and it focused the mind, also fenland increased defence spending modestly in the 30's.
@@AdurianJ ... when you put it like that. Why the hell did anyone decide it was a good idea to disarm after the soviet union fell. Your standing military and the industry behind it, is an insurance policy. And so many western nations reduced their payments... and are now seeing the consequences.
Seems we never do learn from history, huh.
@@AdurianJwe had the Belgium mindset. Should have been more like the Swiss. Neutrality isn’t like a shield. Neutrality can’t protect you, you must protect your neutrality.
For anyone interested in an account of life and the resistance in Norway during the occupation there’s a short book called They Came As Friends that was written by a Norwegian press attaché in 1943 that is absolutely fascinating. It’s a bit hard to find a copy, but I would definitely recommend it if you can!
Warspite: “Hello, scrap metal!”
Z-unit: “Umm, we’re destroyers.”
Warspite: “Did I stutter?”
Great video… still waiting for part 2 of the Soviet/Russian Aircraft history.
Damn Lazerpig and Animarchy put out a new video, today is definitely a good day
My Ancestors originally came from Norway and I've been wanting to learn more about the history of Norway so thank you lad.
Yeah… delete that anime pic. With love form Norway
Incredible video as always! I knew about the heavy water plant and a bit about the resistance later in the war but this was my first time learning about most of the naval action! Those men were something else, true chads in every respect
Really only tangentially related to the video, but can we all just admire for a moment what a GORGEOUS ship HMS Cossack was?
I gotta appreciate CPT Olsen who, as a field grade officer, lead the way...into the hereafter, as it happens. The hereafter, is a rather significant destination in wartime, after all.
okay I know this isn't something to be focused on but the footage of the Nazi's doing that stupid salute, they all look like they are trying for a high-five but they're both social awkward and inept at it
Undoubtedly your best work to date! Thankx for another amazing history lesson...
"defecation had collided with oscillations" is maybe the most creative way I've ever heard that expressed
Absolutely loved this. You struck the perfect balance of deep historical documentary peppered with jokes and personality. I'm making damn sure to leave this comment purely to give you more engagement. Bravo!
Edit: Day 2 of petitioning for the title" the most incomprehensibly unpronounceable battle of WW2"
Thank you for the most beautiful piece on the most incomprehensibly unpronounceable battle of world war 2 ❤
That ending got me..... is someone cutting onions around here? But seriously, the fact that this is little more than a foot note in History is absurd. There are so many heroic act's that happened in the battle for Norway. Even though the allies had to retreat and reconsolidate the Norwegian spirt still fought on. Makes me proud to have ancestry from that part of the world. Keep doing what you do. We need people to know about the forgotten battles of world war II. Stay awesome.
Wonderful piece of work, always enjoy your storytelling and your attention to detail. The music selections are great too. Really liked the Secret Weapons Over Normandy track from the Norwegian mission if memory serves me right
Thanks for creating this video, and telling it really well. Being a Norwegian, I 've always been interested in the stories of the war that were waged, and in truth, the Norwegian military wasn't ready for a war as they wanted to stay as a neutral country and had mostly outdated equipment that were not up for the task. Also, the Norwegian government were very slow at reacting to the invasion, because there was lots of uncertainty and they didn't want Norway to go to war, even if war came to them. It's great to see that some of these stories from the war is finally coming to the surface and get some deserved attention. The biggest contribution Norway did to the war though, was with the Norwegian trade fleet.
Just before the war, Norway had the 4th biggest merchant fleet, and unlike most of the other big trading nations, they had upgraded 60% of their fleet with modern diesel engines, meaning they could travel faster and take much more cargo. During the war, the Norwegian trading fleet braved all the dangers of u-boats, planes, warships and stormy seas, with little to no defense. There was an inhuman pressure on the sailors on board of these ships, always living in constant danger of getting sunk and drowning in the cold seas.
Of all the losses (in tonnage) the entire allied merchant fleet had during the war, 10% of these were Norwegian ships. Over 3000 of the sailors was lost to the cold seas, and unfortunately in the aftermath of the war these sailors did not get the recognition and support they deserved (from the Norwegian government) after huge losses and both physical and mental health damage. It took 25 years after the war before these seafarers gained the official recognition for their contribution to the war effort, but the fight for economical and psychological support has lasted up to modern times.
It's also sad that these stories haven't gotten much attention during all these years, but in modern times there has been written books (Jon Michelet should be mentioned in particulary for his series "A hero of the sea"), and also a series and movie(s) has been made, making sure that at least some of these stories lives on.
I replayed the HMS Warspite entry a dozen times. Keeps giving me chills. Magnificent & great work. Pure art.
One addendum, 3:43: mass unaliving operations were already in full swing in Poland. Both Germany and the USSR were doing them.
The most unholy alliance ever conceived.
Technically not an alliance, the two nations secretly and not so secretly hated each other, and yet still often acted like brothers in arms. They were ever so coincidentally very cooperative whenever they were committing crimes against humanity.
I love these videos man. The Marseille and the USS Eisenhower story. I really love the long format, they can’t be long enough. Truly unique on youtube
Finally someone talked about my country. Love the video
How could you not site mr Gigachad Welding-Olsens last words: "Dont care about me boys, Im done for. If you get back home, give them my regards." (Before letting go of the boats railings and fall to the sea)
Oh damn. That Warspite intro. CHILLS
The memes are on point and the whole vid is a joy to watch. Good job!
Awesome video so far, I'm about 40 minutes on, but I need to interrupt my viewing experience to congratulate you on your music choice. It SLAPS 🔥
Great video lad! best deep dive into the invasion of Norway I've ever seen. Bravo!
Thank you for covering this. You did an awsome job
This is one of your best videos and probably one of the best video I have seen on this subject. Well done animarchy
This was absolutely fantastic! Well done
Animarchy, Lazer pig, Falcon... will Lord Hard Thasher put out a video tonight too?
Great show mate. Lazerpig and History of Everything yesterday, you and Perun today. Now if only Hardthrasher put out a video the long weekend would be complete!
Thank you, Mr. Animarchy, for shedding light on my beloved country. I would love it if you were to tell more stories about the Norwegian resistance, especially Operation Gunnerside, considering how crucial it may have been.
Fantastic documentary as always
As a norwegian, thank you for this epic video 🙂
Can we all collectively agree that Sabaton is the best history teacher along with making some really good music