READER'S SUMMARY:

The Norwegian army in exile
1940 - 1945

When the Norwegian forces in Northern Norway capitulated after two months of fighting in June 1940, the king, prime minister and government evacuated to Great Britain. Throughout the war years, Norway retained a operating government in exile. And as the years passed by, the number of Norwegian refugees abroad grew to some 80.000.   Norway still contributed to the Allied cause after the German occupation. The exile navy operated 118 vessels. The airforce counted four squadrons. More than 1.000 Norwegian merchant ships and 27.000 sailors sailed in the convoys. But there was also a small army in exile, even if priority for manpower went to the other branches. The aim of the articles on these pages is to give a short summary of the history of the Norwegian army and the police troops during those years, and to provide pointers to relevant litterature.

OVERVIEW

The Norwegian army in exile underwent several reorganisations during the war years. The table below gives an outline of the organisation in 1942, which gives the best overview of the army's separate units. For more information on organisational matters and history notes, see the article on The Norwegian Brigade.

The army after the 1942 reorganisation

1. The Norwegian Brigade
2. Norwegian Independent Company No 1 ("Company Linge")
3. No 5 Troop 10 Interallied Commando
4. Norwegian Comapany Iceland
5. The Svalbard Garrison
6. The Jan Mayen Garrison
7. The South Georgia Garrison
8. The Coastal Artillery Group
9. Liaisons
10. Logistics
11. One hospital
12. The London guard platoon

For political reasons, the largest exile-Norwegian infantry units - the 13.000 men strong brigades raised in Sweden - was not officially part of the Norwegian Army. They were  nominally just "police brigades". For more information, see the article on   Norwegian Infantry in Sweden 1943 - 1945.

The commandos were under British command, but fought in Norwegian uniform and as a Norwegian unit.

Company Linge - NORIC1 - was initially a British SOE operation, but beginning in 1942 their activities were filtered through the British - Norwegian cooperation comitee, ANCC. By the end of 1942, command of Company Linge was transfered to Norwegian High Command, department 4 (FO-4).

Also worthf mention is The Royal Norwegian Military College ("Krigsskolen") in London 1942-1943.

Priority for personnell being given to the merchant marine, the navy and to some degree the airforce, the Norwegian army in exile never attained much more than symbolic strength. Some units - NORIC1, the commandos, 2nd Mountain Company (of the Brigade),the Svalbard Garrison and the liaisons - saw combat, but the main force was kept in reserve for a possible invasion of Norway. If the invasion had happened, the Norwegian land forces would have been split up in smaller units and attached to British or American divisions or brigades.

The table below shows the army's manpower by half-year 1940-1945:

FURTHER READING / SOURCES

See the separate articles.

Last updated: 21st December 2001