Norway

Operation Archery, Brit Commandos Raid Vaagso, Norway Dec. 27, 1941

After the forces of Hitler’s Nazi Germany overran most of Europe in the summer of 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered that the military create a force that could carry out raids against Nazi-occupied Europe. “Enterprises must be prepared, with specially-trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down these coasts, first of all on the “butcher and bolt” policy…” Thus the Commandos were born.

The Commandos were an all-volunteer outfit that would eventually encompass all services of the British military as well as foreign volunteers from the occupied countries. Their training was hard and nearly always was conducted with live ammunition. Eventually, they would consist of 30 individual units and four assault brigades.

Although they would serve with distinction in every theater it was in Norway where the Commandos would first earn their fame by conducting various raids on German installations and try to get the Germans to divert more troops to defending Norway that may have been used on the Eastern Front.

The raid on the Norwegian islands of Vaagso and Maaloy, codenamed Operation Archery, was conducted to destroy the German fish-oil production facilities there as well as the glycerine production which was used in the manufacture of explosives.

This operation also broke new ground for combined operations. It was the first time air support was integrated into the raiding plans from the outset. So this was a true Special Operations Forces combined organization using air, land, and sea forces.

In overall charge of the operation was Brigadier Charles Haydon, while the raid on the ground was led by John Durnford-Slater and conducted by his troops of No. 3 Commando, two troops of No.2 Commando, a medical detachment of No.4 Commando, a demolition party from 101 Troop (canoe) of No. 6 Commando and a dozen Norwegians from Norwegian Independent Company 1. His raiding force would number 570 officers and men.

The Royal Navy provided offshore gunfire, by the light cruiser HMS Kenya, and the destroyers HMS Onslow, Oribi, Offa, and Chiddingfold. The submarine HMS Tuna was in support as the force navigational check. HMS Prince Charles and Prince Leopold were used to ferry troops into and out of the area. The Royal Air Force (RAF) provided bombers and fighter-bombers for close air support.

Durnford-Slater trained his troops hard. Every morning, they would rehearse 25-30 landings until 30 men could sprint from their landing craft with all of their weapons and equipment, 25 meters to cover and do it within 10 seconds. His second-in-command or 2IC in Brit parlance was Major J.M.T.F. Churchill, MC. Known to his close friends as Jack, Churchill was both a character and a fantastic, fearless leader. He would go into combat with his Scottish Claymore broadsword and play his own bagpipes.

Preparations for the Raid:

At the end of October 1941, Lord Louis Mountbatten took over the British Combined Operations and he alerted Durnford-Slater that they had the most daring plan yet in Norway. Their target was the small port of South Vaagso, about 350 miles north of Norway’s southern coast and about halfway between Bergen and Trondheim. And similarly to earlier raids, the port produced substantial quantities of fish oil that was vital for the German war machine.

Intelligence specialists in London had in a painstakingly detailed effort in building an exact model of the town. Durnford-Slater carried it back to Scotland with him in a suitcase. His officers made briefings to the troops off of this model although only the senior officers knew of the exact location.

They carried out successful rehearsals at the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow. They set sail in heavy seas on Christmas Eve. The men from 12 Commando would make a diversionary raid on the Lofotens (site of an earlier Commando raid) to distract the Germans. 12 Commando during the diversion stayed ashore for two days destroying German installations without suffering a single casualty and returned with 29 prisoners and about 200 new recruits for the forces of Free Norway.

The raiding force arrived perfectly on time and exactly where they were supposed to be. The troops were on the landing craft at precisely 0700, having been fed at 0500 and checked their weapons and equipment for the final time before the raid.

The Germans, unaware of what was close to their shore, were yawning thru lectures on military courtesy, no differently than soldiers of every army do. That was about to change quickly.

One alert German soldier in South Vaagso spotted the British ships sailing into the fjord and called it in. His superiors told him that it was probably German ships. When he persisted, he was told he probably celebrated Christmas a bit too much. He should have been rewarded. The German at the other end of the phone, however, decided to alert the German naval commander and took a rowboat to alert him, neglecting to alert the Army units in town.

The Battle Begins:

It was then, that the German troops first became aware of the Commandos presence was when the HMS Kenya’s dozen 6-inch guns began shelling the nearby German coastal batteries at Maaloy. With the destroyers, Offa and Onslow’s 4-inch guns joining in, the Germans were ducking into defensive positions having 400-450 shells rain down on them in less than 10 minutes. The Commandos, in US-made Higgins assault boats, were racing toward shore.

RAF medium twin-engine Hampden bombers flew over the landing sites and dropped smoke bombs to cover the assault troops. At Maaloy Island, Jack Churchill played his bagpipes as they approached shore and led his 105 men, 5 and 6 Troops, against the German defenders. Their objective was the big herring oil factory, the shore batteries, an antiaircraft position, and any other German troops.

R. Clement’s Group 1 had the mission to clear the village of Hollevik, then reform and become the onshore reserve. Durnford-Slater would lead Group 2’s, 200 men of 1, 2, 3, and 4 Troops, into Vaagso, while CPT. D. Birney’s 30 men of Group 5 would deploy into blocking positions on the road south into Vaagso from Rodberg. Group 4, CPT. R.H. Hooper’s 65 troops, would remain as a floating reserve on HMS Kenya.

Tragedy and Disaster:

One of the Hampden bombers was flying toward the shore when it was hit by German flak guns onboard the armed trawler Foehn. The bomber was hit and reeling when one of its phosphorous bombs inadvertently hit one of the landing craft. Nearly half of the troop were either killed or badly burned by the unfortunate accident. After offloading whatever ammunition and equipment that they could salvage, the surviving Commandos pushed the craft out into the water to sink.

But the rest of Durnford-Slater’s men surged ashore and immediately set about clearing the town which was long and narrow. The fighting was vicious and house-to-house. The Germans were reinforced by 50 men of a Gebirgsjäger (Alpine, mountain) troops on leave from the Russian front. They barricaded themselves in one large building to use as a strongpoint. The Commandos had to clear each room with hand grenades. CPT Johnny Giles was shot down at the door of the strongpoint but his men took it and his younger brother, Lt. Bruce Giles assumed command.

The Germans had also barricaded themselves in the Ulvesund hotel and they flung back the first two attempts to take it. CPT Algy Forester was killed and then so was Norwegian CPT Martin Linge was also killed trying to assault the front door.

As the Brits were readying for a third assault under the command now of a CPL ‘Knocker’ White, another Captain appeared with a 3-inch mortar, which was unauthorized by had been appropriated. They expertly dropped the first shells straight down the chimney of the hotel, setting fire to it and causing a large number of German casualties. The third assault carried the hotel. White would earn a Distinguished Service Medal for his actions later.

There was chaos in the narrow streets. The Germans used to the no-quarter-given in Russia refused to move out of the buildings they were defending and had to be burned out using hand grenades. Norwegian civilians were streaming down the street heading for the landing craft, anxious to get away from their occupiers.

The British committed their floating reserves and then Durnford-Slater was also reinforced by Churchill’s men who had quickly overrun the guns on Maaloy Island and captured several prisoners, including two “comfort” women who the Germans held there for their troops. Churchill, broadsword in hand, led his men ashore.

As they cleared the town house-by-house, the Commandos encountered several snipers. So they’d just burn them out one-by-one. Durnford-Slater observed two such Commandos who set about their task with a vengeance. He wrote that the men “appeared to be enjoying themselves.” One sniper wounded CPT O’Flaherty thru the eye. He would eventually return to duty with a black eye patch and finish the war as a Brigadier.

CPT O’Flaherty is led to the rear after being wounded in the eye by a German sniper

After the British battered the armed trawler Foehn, the ship ran aground and the crew deserted it. An armed British party found the captain’s codebooks when it was discovered he’d been killed by shellfire. The codebooks contained a wealth of signs, countersigns, and code words, and the radio call-signs of every German vessel in northern Europe. It was a huge intelligence boon for the raiding party.

By noon the town had been secured, the troops, however, continued in town until 1400 when Durnford-Slater ordered his men back to the boats. By 1500 all of the Commandos had been safely transported back to the ships.

The result of the raid was a tremendous success for the Commandos. They sank 10 vessels, 18,000 tons of shipping, and the Commandos had burned or blown up four oil factories and a number of warehouses, fuel tanks, vehicles, the Seternes lighthouse, the telephone exchanges, the steamship wharf, and the German barracks inside of town.

The Maaloy coastal artillery batteries were destroyed along with a tank, while much of the garrison had been killed, wounded, or captured. About 130 Germans were killed, without counting the crews of the eight ships destroyed. Another 98 were captured. The two “comfort” women were guarded by two sailors on board ship. But later reports read that on checking later, one British officer found the hallway empty and “the rifles leaning on the wall outside the doors.” Of the Norwegian population, one was killed and five wounded; 70 more returned to England with the Commandos to volunteer for the forces of Free Norway.

British casualties among the Commandos were 20 dead (which included three Norwegians) and 53 wounded. The RAF lost eight aircraft along with their crews.

The Germans assumed the British would make a major push to retake Norway and thus threaten the German hold on Finland and Sweden. They moved their battleships into Norwegian waters and put additional troops there while beefing up their coastal defenses. By the time of D-Day, there were 400,000 German troops in Norway that weren’t fighting in either Normandy or Russia.

Photos: Imperial War Museum

Russian Northern Fleet Sails 36 Ships in No-Notice Exercise

Russia’s Northern Fleet has released a statement that they’ve departed the port in their largest exercise in the past 10 years. The purpose of this large unplanned, no-notice exercise was to counter a large enemy attack.

A total of 36 warships and support vessels are currently on their way out to the Barents Sea. Also, about 20 aircraft are in the air. Along the coast of the Kola Peninsula, more than 150 different rocket- and artillery weapon systems and special equipment are deployed.

Larger areas in the Barents Sea are now closed off for civilian shipping and overflights by civilian passenger aircraft. The drill will last until the end of next week.
The press-service of the Northern Fleet explains the exercise to be a full-range defensive-aimed drill to combat a massive enemy attack. The fleet will carry out shootings with different naval weapons, including launching of cruise-missiles, mines and torpedoes and other missiles.
Among the warships are the missile cruiser «Marshal Ustinov,» anti-submarine ship «Severomorsk», the destroyer «Admiral Ushakov», the large landing ships «Kondapoga», «Georgy Pobedonosets» and «Aleksandr Obrakovsky».
Without specifying classes or names, the Northern Fleet says both nuclear-powered and diesel submarines participate.
Press-spokesman at Norway’s military Joint Head Quarters, Major Brynjar Stordal, says to the Barents Observer that Norway was not informed about the naval drill.
Russian forces in the north has over time had a relatively high level of activities in different fields, something they have all rights to do within own territory and in international waters and airspace

The Norwegians have an understanding with the Russians that any large exercises outside of each nation’s territorial waters is normally shared as to keep the other side abreast and understanding of the current situation.

Russia’s Northern Fleet, headquartered in Severomorsk north of Murmansk, is the largest of Russia’s four fleets.

To read the entire article from the Barents Observer, click here:

Photo courtesy Wikipedia

OSS Dons Chutes and Skis for a Dangerous Norway Mission

The CIA and the US Army Special Forces’ heritage is linked directly from the World War II OSS (Office of Strategic Services). Many of the operators who pulled classified missions for the OSS later became intelligence professionals or the original Special Forces troops. One such operator was William Colby who commanded Jedburgh teams in France and later would join the CIA, rising through the ranks to become the DCI (Director of Central Intelligence).

Colby later during World War II would be tasked to head an Operational Team to go into Norway to blow a key bridge, the Grana, on the Nordland railway during “Operation Rype.” The Norwegian Special Operations Group which was part of the OSS was tasked with the mission with Colby as the commander. In Colby’s narrative released after the war, he said it was the only mission that the US Army ran in WWII that the men used both parachutes and skis.

Near the end of 1944, the Soviets had overrun Finland and the German survivors from that campaign, some 150,000 ski and mountain troops were streaming into Norway. Colby and the Norwegian SOG’s mission was to blow the bridge between Narvik and Trondheim carrying thousands of troops back into Germany each day. The roads were frozen and impassable and Royal Navy was blocking the sea routes. Stopping the Germans from getting down from Finland was left to the OSS.

Colby’s men were bundled into eight B-24 Liberator bombers, specially configured to drop parachutists behind enemy lines. The team numbered 35 men. They were an eclectic lot, their expertise each ranged into different life paths that all led them this mission.

Things began to go wrong immediately. Of the eight aircraft taking off from Scotland, only four made their air drops. One group of a SSG and four CPLs was dropped in Sweden and were picked up by Swedish authorities and interned.

The transports that succeeded in dropping material at the frozen Jaevsjo Lake also succeeded in spreading the party and material over a 36-square-mile area, with some of the bundles landing kilometers into the surrounding woods. Colby reported that “many packages had no static cords attached and plummeted to Earth without chutes, burying themselves in the snow.”

Colby needed at least 35 men to do take out the bridge at Grana, but he only had 20 OSS men plus four more from the Norwegian underground who met them on the drop zones. They gathered the equipment that was dropped and waited for more men to be dropped.

Six days later, three planes appeared. The lake was shrouded in mist and the planes were unable to drop. Two of the aircraft got back and a third, with six more OSS commandos crashed in the Orkney Islands killing all 13 on board.

Another six days passed and the Air Corps tried again with four more planes, again in heavy bad weather. A plane with a Lt. and three noncoms crashed and exploded, again killing all onboard.

Colby had lost valuable time as more and more Germans were streaming down the railway each day. He decided to scrap the original plan and improvise. His plan from his notebook was the stuff of legend.

“Our plan was lifted bodily from the history of the West. We would seize a train, board it, throw her into reverse and blow up every tunnel and bridge we could until ammunition had run out; then drive the train into a ditch. We hoped to succeed by sheer bravado. Farnsworth, the demolition expert, was in seventh heaven. The others smiled again–this was the kind of direct American action they’d heard about, read about, knew went on all the time.”

Colby’s group set out on cross-country skis and in two days despite bad weather had made 40 miles. They finally arrived at the peaks overlooking the Tangen bridge, somewhere north of Tangen, where the railroad skirts Oiingen Lake. The terrain was extremely hazardous.

The men had to reach the bottom and were loaded down with Tommy guns (Thompson Submachine guns), M-1 Garand rifles, Bren MGs, 180 pounds of TNT plus other equipment on a big sled. They made it, none the worse for wear and were waiting for the train while another group of five men went north snipping wires and smashing telephones.

Changing their plans again after learning that they missed the train, the OSS men decided to blow the bridge immediately. The men set the charges under the long, I-girder bridge. The 180 pounds of explosives were enough to blow four bridges of the same size.

The bridge vanished in a deafening explosion that was so large, the ice-covered lake leaped briefly and cracked. The railway for the Germans was cut. Now Colby and his men had to reach their base, another 30-mile ski trip away. The Germans were looking for the raiders both with ground troops and in the air with spotter aircraft.

But immediately upon arriving, one of the men reported that a 50-man German patrol was hot on their heels. The OSS men had to keep going. Colby aimed for Sweden which was 40 miles ahead. Fresh of a 30-mile hike, they hiked and skied the next 40 in 56 hours, with Germans behind them, overhead in spotter aircraft and patrolling the terrain in front.

The men took Benzedrine, the little white tablets that kept them going, the pharmaceutical speed issued for just such an emergency. But they made it, and collapsed exhausted in the huts on top of a huge steep hill, that Colby nicknamed “Sugar Top” because of the tablets. The men finally rested after being on the move for over 72 hours.

Four days later, a Liberator appeared low over Jaevsjo Lake and dropped the supplies needed for the team: food, K-rations, cigarettes, soap, one-pound rail bombs, noncom’s outfits for five, lieutenant’s bars–and a case of canned Hawaiian pineapple which one of the group had specifically requested.

The team’s morale was sky-high after the successful operation. They rested, refitted, and planned follow-on operations. Their plan, after consulting with high-level members of the Norse underground was to seize the county of Lierne and form guerrilla units from the men inside the area.

All of Colby’s men had the OSS operational experience of doing the same thing in France, either with the Jedburgh teams or the Operational Groups. Normally a unit such as OSS or Special Forces would have to prove their worth militarily before the resistance groups would trust them enough to place their lives in OSS hands.

But the word in Norway was spreading like wildfire and the Norwegians, anxious to rid themselves of the oppressive Nazi yoke after five years were eager to join the fight. But with few spare arms and not enough equipment, those plans would have to wait. They skied back to the railway on the Swedish border and despite heavy German patrols in the area, blew the railway in four different spots.

They had a 50-mile trip back to their hut where all of the Norwegians were ordered elsewhere. With their food running out and the German noose tightening, one five-man enemy patrol stumbled on the camp. They were armed with MP-40s. Colby tried to talk them into surrendering, but all hell broke loose. The Germans were eliminated but one Norwegian courier was wounded. The OSS men improvised a litter and skied and dragged him 50 miles into Sweden.

Colby’s men then began recruiting a guerrilla force to conduct the Lierne operation and to protect the OSS men. The Germans were hot after them, especially as a result of the rail line blowing mission. But before Colby and the OSS men were able to put their plan into operation, the war ended. Everywhere the men went, they were treated like heroes and in each town, bands would play the Star Spangled Banner, which deeply touched the Americans. Colby’s after-action report reflected how quickly things changed.

“But the rest of this story is routine. We supervised the surrender and policed 10,000 Germans at Namsos, and we acted as honor guard for Crown Prince Olaf on his return to Trondheim and accompanied him in the parade in his honor on 10 June.”

Colby’s men were decorated for their valor on the mission and went on about their lives. He would leave the service briefly working as a lawyer for William Donovan’s (Commander and founder of the OSS), firm before getting bored with it and joining the CIA. He quickly rose through the ranks and was the Station Chief in Saigon during the Vietnam conflict and ran the controversial Phoenix Program. He eventually became the DCI as head of the agency under President Nixon.

Photo courtesy of US Army

Norway’s “Hunter Troop” All-Women Special Operations Unit Breaking Barriers

Norway is breaking down barriers by creating their own Jegertroppen or “Hunter Troop”, a Special Operations unit comprised completely of women soldiers.

Norwegian military leaders saw that the war in Afghanistan showed an operational need for highly-trained female soldiers who could gather intelligence and interact with women and children during deployments in conservative societies. If this sounds like the Cultural Support Teams (CST) programs that the US fielded, you would be correct.

But the Norwegians took it a step farther and created a Selection Course for the women troopers that is very tough, demanding and has a very high failure rate.

What began as a kind of experimental programme is now seen as a major success. More than 300 women applied in the first year, and about a dozen recruits are now passing the gruelling training annually, providing a pipeline of elite women soldiers that can be deployed at home or abroad.
The hardest part so far has been “hell week”, says Jannike, a test of mental and physical strength involving long marches over several days with little time for rest, and minimum amounts of food and water.
“They just see if you can handle the pressure when you’re down,” she says.
The young women are today practising fighting their way out of an urban ambush. They work in teams of two: taking cover behind burned-out tanks, providing suppressive fire with their H&K MP7 sub-machine guns and throwing smoke grenades so the team can get out safely.
Every time they hit one of the metal targets in the snow-covered expanse ahead, a clear “ding” rings out, to the approval of Captain Ole Vidar Krogsaeter, who oversees their training.
“To prepare them we try to give them the best training possible, as realistic as possible,” the veteran special forces operator says. “We have them go through the exercises so many times that they are comfortable with it.”

The women haven’t been deployed yet but the Norwegian’s thought process is to prepare them to handle the rigors of combat operations on their own when the time comes for them to be used.

While US soldiers were adamantly against women being allowed in Special Operations Units, the Norwegians, who have stationed men and women together in their military, don’t have that issue. But the real issue will come down to when the women deploy to combat. Currently, Norway has troops in Jordan, training troops to fight in Syria.

To read the entire article from the BBC, click here:

Photo courtesy Norwegian Armed Forces