We can now relate to this story.


On the morning of April 9, 1940, Norwegians woke up to a changed world: German troops were landing, by air and ship in Norway's major port cities, early in the morning, without any warning.
German 'cargo' ships, already tied up alongside port facilities, ready to unload their 'cargoes', spewed forth armed troops and weaponry to facilitate occupation.
It all happened within a few morning hours, and only spurious resistance was encountered by the German occupiers initially.
Leading up to this point, Norwegian society was a divided one, between two opposed ideologies, communism from the east in Soviet Russia and National Socialism from the south in Germany.
Europe was divided into two camps brought about by the ravages of the Great Depression during the 1930ies.
The outcome of the invasion for Norwegians was a 280,000 strong German occupation force, the presence of which had to be endured for five long years that seemed like an eternity to most.
I am personally a child of that period, born in 1943, and have been able to transport myself into that time by watching weekly archived "Movitone" news describing life in occupied Norway as presented by the 'authorities' of the day: 'Prime Minister' (Minister President) Vidkun Quisling and his cohorts prancing around in the King's palace, issuing directives to the population.
Because of severe food rationing, people were desperately trying to access food for their families during the occupation and I remember my mother telling me about a train trip she took at the time:
She went to visit relatives on a farm south of the town of Stavanger where she lived. They gave her some eggs to bring home which she strapped to her body inside her coat on the train back to the city, for fear of being caught by roaming inspectors on the train.
She told me she was really scared.
It was five long years but we all came out of it after the Germans were stripped of their weapons and sent back to where they came from.
As a matter if interest, as a young recruit in the Norwegian Air Force, I was issued with a 7.92 mm German Mauser rifle that once belonged to a German soldier.

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