Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Second World War => Topic started by: Inkpaduta on October 27, 2018, 07:26:39 PM
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Don't know how well known this movie is be I saw it last night and it was really good.
It is a film from Norway that deals with the German invasion of Norway in 1940. It
focuses on the royal family but is also a ton of Norwegian uniforms shown as well as
some combat scenes. Check it out.
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Does it show the infamous Battle of Drøbak Sound? One of my all-time favourite historical events:
Only Get One Shot - The Battle of Drøbak Sound
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/28_cm_gun_at_Oscarsborg_Fortress.jpg)
The narrows at Drøbak, called the Drøbaksundet, is the key natural chokepoint for the naval defence of Oslo, the capital of Norway. Accordingly, in the 1600s fortifications were built at the narrows for that purpose. In the early 1800s the fortress was modernized, upgraded, and in 1855 was named Oscarsborg, in honor of a visit by the King of Sweden (Norway at that time being unified with Sweden).
Of course, as military technology has been wont to do during the era of the Industrial and post-Industrial Revolutions, military realities soon overcame the practical design of the fortress, and the Norwegians upgraded the fortress, adding some nice Krupp products from Germany to the batteries covering the sound, adding an underwater barrier and a torpedo battery to take advantage of that new invention, the Whitehead torpedo, developed by an English engineer Robert Whitehead, working for an Italian company, for the Austro-Hungarian Navy (heh, there's even a Sound of Music tie in there...) The main armament selected were three 280 mm caliber Krupp cannon, and assorted smaller-caliber guns of 150 mm and 57 mm on the mainland across from the fortress. The underwater barrier went from the main islet of Kaholmen southwest to the western side of the fjord, blocking the channel west of the fortress to large vessels.
On April 9, 1940, Oscarsborg received it's first, and only, test by fire. Sometimes you only get one, and if you're a warrior... you better be ready to give it your best. So it was for Oberst (Colonel) Birger Erikson, commander of Oscarsborg. While unable to save Norway from conquest by the Nazis, Oberst Erikson bought the time needed for Norway to evacuate her government and gold reserves to England, the better to continue the fight against the Teuton despoiler from Austria, Herr Corporal Hitler.
I'm sure that Oberst Erikson had some concerns... his guns were all 40+ years old, and while his torpedoes were known to be a sound design, they too were old and had been test-fired a lot over their lifetimes, albeit without their warshot warheads affixed. It was an open question whether or not they would explode when they hit the target.
At 65 years old, with no significant combat experience in his career, and in a chaotic situation out of effective communications with his superiors, Oberst Eriksen knew only that warships were headed his way, and had no knowledge of whether or not they were German or Allied vessels. He was however aware of Norway's official position of neutrality, with the intent of joining the Allies if Norway were attacked.
And his fortress was in a parlous state. His officers were old, with the torpedo battery being commanded by a retired coast artillery officer, Kommandørkaptein Andreas Anderssen, recalled by Eriksen for just that purpose. Most of his garrison troops were new recruits, having started their national service just days before, and he had numbers insufficient to man all his guns.
Up the fjord, large naval units appeared, ghosting out of the morning mists.
After warning shots had been fired and live rounds received in response, resulting in a fatality on his patrol boat, Oberst Eriksen seized his duty with both hands, giving the order to open fire on the approaching vessels at 04:21, and the 280mm Krupp guns, named Aron and Moses, sent rounds downrange at the large vessel 1,800 meters away, joined by the smaller guns on the opposite shore, scoring hits all along the lead vessel, still unidentified as to ship and nationality.
The ship was the German cruiser Blücher. The first hit took out the Blücher's forward fire control station, effectively disabling the ship's forward guns. The second hit took out the aircraft hangar, igniting aviation fuel and infantry munitions stored on deck.
These were the only two rounds Aron and Moses were to ever fire in anger, their inexperienced crews and long reload times effectively taking them out of the battle. If you only get one shot - make it count.
The Blücher's return fire from her secondaries was ineffective. The damage to her fire control station rendered her main guns unusable.
While the fire was raging aboard the Blücher, the smaller Norwegian guns raked her, complicating damage control, as her decks were continually swept by fire. The Blücher was carrying infantry for the attack on Oslo, and the Landsers and crew were undaunted, breaking out into a rousing chorus of "Deutschland über alles" as the Blücher ran the gauntlet of fire.
They would have done better to pay attention to what was just ahead of them.
The Germans' intel was fatally flawed. They were unaware of the commanded by just-recalled-from-retirement Kommandørkaptein Anderssen torpedo battery near the main gun battery, sited to cover the narrowest point of the fjord.
After passing the line of fire of the fortress' gun batteries the cruiser was burning and severely damaged. However, Kapitan Zur See Heinrich Woldag intended to save to save his ship and complete his mission. Too bad for KzS Woldag and the Blücher, she was passing in front of a pissed-off artillery officer and Kommandørkaptein Anderssen had two of his three torpedo tubes ready at a range of only 500m. Like their commander, the torpedoes were old and well-worn 40-year-old Whitehead torpedoes of Austrian manufacture. These torpedoes had been practice-launched well over 200 times before being aimed in earnest - and no-one was certain if they would function or not. Kommandørkaptein Anderssen fired the torperdoes himself, and the torps ran straight, hot, and true. The first torpedo hit near the Blücher's forward turret, and the second in the engine room, which left her drifting out of control.
The torpedoes sealed her fate.
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/German_cruiser_Bl%C3%BCcher_sinking.jpg)
The rest of the flotilla, believing the Blücher had hit mines, reversed back up the narrows, postponing the invasion of Oslo. The Norwegians weren't finished however - as the Germans retreated, the Lützow was hit three times by the Norwegian 150's and her "Anton" and "Bruno" turrets were disabled.
To avoid running aground, the Blücher dropped anchor at Askholmen, south of Oslo. KzS Woldag ordered her torpedoes to be fired into the sides of the fjord to prevent them from exploding aboard the ship. At 06:23, the Blücher capsized and sank, about an hour after she took her first hit. Of the 2,202 crew and troops on board, 830 died. The German Navy, while having failed the soldiers of the invasion force thus far - atoned in a classy way: Blücher's sailors were ordered to give up their life jackets to the troops on board, thus saving the lives of a significant number of soldiers. Kapitan zur See Woldag did not go down with his ship, but died a week or so later in a plane crash.
The Germans weren't finished with Oberst Erikson and Oscarsborg, either. The Lutzow bombarded the fortress with her remaining functional (but damaged) turret, and the fortress was bombed. Oberst Eriksen, being able to keep the German vessels under observation, ordered his gun crews into the tunnels to avoid casualties, knowing he could man the guns in time should the Germans start running down the fjord towards Oslo again. By doing this, Oberst Eriksen suffered no casualties in the fight. The only Norwegian casualties at all were two women killed by stray German rounds and the soldier on the patrol boat.
According to the people who wandered around counting craters, 100 battleship shells and 500 bombs landed in and around the fortress, but no guns were knocked out, nor soldiers killed or wounded.
When he received word that airlanding troops had taken Oslo, but the government was safely away, Oberst Eriksen decided further resistance would be a needless expenditure of lives and surrendered the fortress.
Aside from telling a tale of duty and the old and new soldier's baptism of fire (aside from the excuse of posting the picture of Aron), the other part about this story that intrigued me is the fact that the german-built ships were damaged by german-built guns. And that the pride of the Kriegsmarine, the Blücher, was sunk by Austrian-built torpedoes... since Hitler was Austrian, I just like the symmetry.
And it just goes to show, that most of the time, it's not the gear, it's who mans it that matters.
Update: And one more thing I meant to add... the Blücher was the Kriegsmarine's newest capital ship at the beginning of the war... which just makes the old war dog story even better.
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Interesting, thanks for the detail & for posting.
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Fram,
Yes, it does. Does a nice job with it too.
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It’s a bloody good film actually. Well worth watching. It inspired me to start a Norwegian Army (platoon plus). It’s available on iTunes if you want to rent or buy.
Another Norwegian film worth looking for is Into The White, it’s based on the true story of the survivors of a Heinkel 111 and a Blackburn Skua shot down over the mountains and how they are forced to co-operate to survive the environment. Rupert Grint, from the Harry Pothead films features in it and is a somewhat irritating presence but over all it’s a watchable film. Curiously enough, the film makers created a full size replica of the crashed Heinkel as a prop and it’s become a local tourist attraction. The remains of the original are still up above the town as well.
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Cheers for the Int. just ordered. 👍
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I will look for this film too. I can foresee that Norway 1940 is going to be next years big thing, what with the Chain Of Command scenario book upcoming. I wonder who has the moulds for the Valkyrie Miniatures Norwegians now?
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Interesting, thanks.
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Watched it today. Much more of interest to see than pure war fighting. It’s a great guide to terrain building and uniform details , civvies etc. Not a master piece but wasn’t expecting that. Similar respects The Evacuation is the same but about France 1940.
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Nice read. I'll keep the movie in mind!
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I think one of the more interesting (and lesser-known) aspects of the story is that the damage to the Kreigsmarine (not just to the Blucher but in overall losses and damage during the Oslo invasion and related actions) was so severe that the Norwegians ended up basically shredding Germany's naval plans for all of 1940.
The force supporting the Norwegian invasion was basically the German's main operation medium surface battlegroup at the time, along with more cruisers and destroyers which the German navy was dangerously short on. So when other large German capital ships coming up or completing sea trials (Bizmarck, Tirpitz) became operational in the months afterwards, they were bereft of badly needed fleet support.
Sometimes it's the little things.
In the same way, Mussolini's idiotic invasion of Greece (which the Germans knew would fail if left purely to Italy), resulted in 1) The delay of Barbarossa by 2-3 very crucial months, and 2) the brutal loss of so many Fallschirmjäger in the Invasion of Crete to cause Hitler to hesitate to use them in future.
The latter event also arguably resulted in turn in the loss of Iraq to the Allies, as the question of quickly bringing in experienced Fallschirmjäger support for Rashid Ali was completely off the table, so what German support came was far too late and ineffectual (Rashid Ali's men shooting down the Luftwaffe commander's plane didn't help, of course...)
Who knows how the chips might have fallen had resistance in the smaller allied nations not been so bravely stubborn?
Little things...
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I have details of Valkyrie miniatures and the Norwegian moulds if anybody is interested?
PM for more info.
Tim
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Does anyone have pics of the Valkyrie miniatures in bare metal?
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The photos I’ve seen suggest that the Valkyrie figures are rather crude oddly posed and the weapons are out of whack size-wise.
The postage was crippling but I’m well satisfied with the Mike Owen sculpted Gorgon Studios Norwegians. I emailed the owner and he’s contemplating adding an MMG pack.
With the platoon finished save for final basing work, my next task will be finding my Great War Miniatures 13 pounder gun and mating the carriage with the barrel from their German 77mm to make a Norwegian field gun. Crew are to be head swapped Eureka Victoria Police.
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The photos I’ve seen suggest that the Valkyrie figures are rather crude oddly posed and the weapons are out of whack size-wise.
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One or two of the Valkyrie Miniatures are a little odd looking but overall I like them. They are more casual looking than what I have seen of the Gorgon Norwegians.
Carlos I will be interested to see your Field Gun!
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Does anyone have pics of the Valkyrie miniatures in bare metal?
Give me a few days I will do some photos of the Valkyrie range .
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I have details of Valkyrie miniatures and the Norwegian moulds if anybody is interested?
PM for more info.
Tim
PM incoming!!
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Replied to your PM but it failed apparently.
I have details of Valkyrie miniatures and the Norwegian moulds if anybody is interested?
PM for more info.
Tim
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Give me a few days I will do some photos of the Valkyrie range .
Would like to see these too!
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Would like to see these too!
I better get them out this morning then!
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This is the best I could manage with my phone sorry!
(https://i.postimg.cc/y6n346bq/IMG-20181103-111947.jpg)
Most of the range with sniper and head variants
(https://i.postimg.cc/vHN1Tqy3/IMG-20181103-112044.jpg)
Command figures
(https://i.postimg.cc/bwSZtxN8/IMG-20181103-112233.jpg)
Heavy MG and mortar teams.
(https://i.postimg.cc/FKt7gY7S/IMG-20181103-112634.jpg)
(https://i.postimg.cc/MHGTKRrC/IMG-20181103-112655.jpg)
Comparisons with 28mm Crusader British
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Not keen on the LMG but the rest of them are unique enough in their own way.
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Pretty much as you folks described. Rougher than the Gorgon ones, but with a bit more personality (though some of the basic riflemen seem a bit repetitive in terms of poses). Neither range is a standout, but either could be made serviceable with a bit of work. Could even try mixing the two.