Sinking the Blücher: How an Outdated Fort Stopped the WWII Invasion of Norway

"Either I will be decorated or I will be court martialed. Fire!" The last words from Birger Eriksen before firing, after explaining his reasoning for ordering direct fire on the German ships instead of giving a warning shot.

My dad was captain on a small, old destroyer in Horten Harbour when the alarms sounded. But the crew were on shore leave so they had to be fetched back on ship from homes, barracks and cafes in town. They then proceeded to fire at the rest of the German fleet passing by until the ammo ran out. My father then ordered abandon ship as there were nothing more to do. He packed up his uniform and managed later to escape to England in a small boat, where he rejoined the Navy, being stationed in the Mediterranean, commanding a small flotilla of mine sweepers.

I am a reserve officer in the Norwegian Army and I live in Oslo. I have visited Oscarsborg several times, your video still gave me information I didn't actually understand before now, thank you!

My father grew up in Drøbak, the town adjacent to Oscarsborg. An older neighbor had once rescued several drowning Germans, during the sinking of Blücher. Months later, he received a package in the mail, containing an Iron Cross medal. As the story goes, he threw it in the fjord.

The animated battlemaps were very very good! The Operations Room would be proud!

Blucher was unfortunately a ship belonging to a class where one ship absorbs the luck of all the others. Admiral Hipper didn't fare much better than Blucher, whilst Seydlitz and Lutzow where never even completed. Prinz Eugen however managed to survive the war to become a target ship in the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests.

The most important consequence of Eriksen's decision to open fire was that the modern Norwegian merchant fleet, the fourth largest in the world at the time, did not fall in German hands, but joined the Allied war effort. Norway could not contribute many army or navy personnel to bolster Allied ranks, but their merchant sailors were essential to the Allies, especially in the early years. Out of some 33000 sailors, 3734 men perished. The others were told they could not leave their ships for the duration of the war, even though they were civilians. There is a gripping film about the plight of the Norwegain merchant mariners, called War Sailor (Krigsseileren, 2022), which is worth watching.

My father, born 1927, woke up on the 9th of April 1940, by the noise of battle. He lived with his grandmother on the west side of the Oslo fjord. Quite close to the Oscarsborg Sea Fortress. From the glass veranda, he watched how the fortress' cannon fire hit the "Blücher" war ship. They hit the ammo, bulls eye....💥 Dad's eyewitness story is on the net. His name ; Erling Frank Gustavsen. 👦🇧🇻

Huge respect to the commander in charge for realizing what was happening, and taking proper action instead of standing still doing nothing.

As a kid, I learned about the search-and-rescue operations made by Norwegian civillians that night. These were people who lived by and with the sea, and refused to let a little thing like a war stand in the way of rescuing sailors adrift in cold waters. Locals were gathered along the coastline with blankets, brandy and hot coffee all throughout the morning and the next day. Those with boats were combing the waters, ferrying survivors to the shore. There are no reports of violence. There is something sacred about their philosophy of providing aid to any person lost at sea, no matter the cause. The sea is a harsh mistress and all humans are allies in opposing her vicious whims.

It is a well known fact here in Norway that the lifeboat of Captain Leif Olsen sank due to the weight his massive balls.

The battle maps were fantastic, the inclusion of the absurdly expensive video was deeply appreciated. This is a tremendous video Calum and you should be so very proud of your work!!!

Thank you for taken interest in this story. As a Norwegian and born and grew up in the Oslofjord, has Blücher destruction so importance. I am from Horten, where the first Norwegian died when the Germans invaded us on the morning/night of the 9th of April 1940. As you said we were neutral and with a very bad military possibility to defend the country at the time. But we fought back all the 5 years that the Nazi’s occupied Norway, a story that hasn’t been so well documented out there unfortunately. 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴❤️

Your animation is remarkably unique: You use extremely low tempo on the animation that just about allows us to spot the direction the ships move and gives you plenty of time to make your good narration while saving you the necessity to look for time killing material. In total it makes for a very comfortable watching that allows to focus our attention to the narration which is dense but not confusing. Altogether very well done!

Quite well made !! The fortress was academy for education of coast artillery officers until a few decades ago. I attended there as cadet in the first years of the eighties, and served later as an officer training new cadets. Strange to see the fortress open as a museum now, as it used to be a very restricted area in my high-days. Probably the most significant contribution as a result of this battle and the king and governments ability to finally retreat to London, was that the complete Norwegian merchant fleet (the 3rd largest in the world at the time - and by far the most modern tankers), went into allied service, and as such contributed enormously to the all vital supplies to Britain the first two years of war. Especially supplies of oil that kept the Royal Air-force flying,

That "I will be decorated or court martialed" line goes insanely hard.

As a Norwegian, this part of WW2 is of course very interesting and thank you for both a well-told and well-illustrated video. An important premise for the Altmark incident, which is often not made clear enough, was that the Norwegian king's recently deceased wife was Maud of Wales (1869-1938). She was the youngest of King Edward VII's daughters and in 1896 she was married to the then Prince Carl of Denmark. In connection with the dissolution of the Norwegian union with Sweden in 1905, Prince Carl was elected king of Norway in a referendum. He took the more Norwegian-sounding name Haakon and was thus the seventh Haakon to be king of Norway since the year 934. Now, a decisive reason why Prince Carl of Denmark was offered the kingship was that his wife was a British princess. This gave Norway far greater influence in both Great Britain and the United States than the country would otherwise have had. Hitler of course knew this and he also knew where Norwegian sympathy really lay despite the Norwegian desire to establish and maintain neutrality in future conflicts as the country also did in WW1. With this in mind, one can easily see the dilemma the Norwegian authorities faced with the Altmark incident. In practice, Norway chose a side in the conflict by not intervening and an important political obstacle was thus removed for Hitler's ambitions to invade Norway. To this day, the Altmark incident is quite controversial in Norway.

This is easily the best video I've seen on the sinking of the Blucher, really well done and researched! If you're ever back in Oslo I recommend visiting the Norwegian Resistance Museum as it really highlights the bravery and sacrifice of Norwegians during the German occupation.

Also I believe that the torpedoes had just been overhauled and had their internals inspected, serviced, and returned to the fortress the month before. Thus, although they were 40yrs old, they were in top condition, ready to run.

Wow.. as a proud Norwegian and living just 15 mins away from Oscarsborg, I can appreciate the effort and storytelling here! Please continue keeping history alive! <3