Introduction to the Norwegian Resistance Movement during WW2, Part V

Operation Archery - the Måløy & Vaagso Raid

Introduction

The Western Allies made a total of 57 commando raids during the Second World War against the Atlantic Wall, which the Germans had built from the Arctic Circle in Norway right down to the French-Spanish border. This was the stretch of coastline they occupied, and all the countries behind it.

These Allied raids took place before the famous 1944 D-Day landings in Normandy. Little pinpricks, but often very successful.

The raids were conducted by the armed forces of Britain, the Commonwealth and commando groups from the occupied territories serving with No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando. Most of the ‘foreign’ commandos were trained for combat in the UK.

The raids became so effective that by October 1942 Adolf Hitler issued the Commando Order, which required the execution of all commandos captured. And many suffered the consequences. Alas! Incredibly brave men, each and every one of them.

The raids took place between 1940 and 1944, and were mostly against targets in France (36). There were 12 raids in Norway, 7 in the Channel Islands, 1 in Belgium and 1 in the Netherlands. They met with a mixture of fortunes.

The raids ended in mid-1944 on the orders of Major-General Robert Laycock, the chief of Combined Operations Headquarters. He suggested that they were no longer as effective, and only resulted in the Germans strengthening their beach defenses, which could be detrimental to Allied plans for the upcoming invasion.

Operation Claymore - Raid on the Lofoten

The commando raids on ‘Festung Norwegen’

Norway was of vital importance to the Germans, as they needed its rich supply of iron, coal, and heavy water.

The defense of the long Norwegian coastline - Festung Norwegen as the Atlantic Wall was called here - was an immense and costly operation for the Nazis, but Hitler wanted to keep Norway under his command at any price. Not just for its raw materials, which he needed for his water machine, but also because it was strongly believed, by both the occupiers and the Norwegians themselves, that the Allied invasion would take place here.

When no invasion had happened by 1943, chances became slimmer, but, yes, there had been plans for an Nordic invasion at some point. There just was never a good moment, and conquering the rest of Europe from the North downwards wasn’t very strategic.

The most important Norwegian raids

Operation Claymore

Some 800 men, among them Norwegians, raided the Lofoten Islands on 4 March 1941. Their objective was to hit the industry. About 800,000 gallons of fish oil and glycerin were set on fire; factories were destroyed, and 228 prisoners of war were captured.  

Through naval gunfire and demolition parties, 18,000 tons of shipping were sunk. Perhaps the most significant outcome of the raid was the capture of a set of rotor wheels for an Enigma machine and its code books from the German armed trawler Krebs. German naval codes could now be read at Bletchley Park, providing the intelligence needed to allow Allied convoys to avoid U-boat concentrations.

In the aftermath, the evaluation of the operation differed, with the British, especially Winston Churchill and the Special Operations Executive (SOE), deeming it a success. In the eyes of the British the main value of such actions was to tie up large German forces on occupation duties in Norway.

Martin Linge* and the other Norwegians involved, were more doubtful of the value of such raids against the Norwegian coast, but were not told of the value of the seized cryptographic information.

Following Operation Claymore, the Norwegian special operations unit Norwegian Independent Company 1, was established for operations in Norway. Later renamed the Linge Company in honor of their killed-in-combat commander, the actor Martin Linge.

* Note by Hannah Byron:

Martin Linge is one of the heroes in my upcoming book The Norwegian Assassin. He is the commander of the first mission in which Esther Weiss takes part: Operation Archery (see below). I changed his name to Magnus Linge for fictional purposes.

Captain Martin Linge

Operation Gauntlet - Raid on Spitsbergen

Operation Gauntlet

This was an Allied Combined Operation from 25 August until 3 September 1941. Canadian, British and Free Norwegian Forces landed on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 650 mi south of the North Pole.

The objective of Gauntlet was to deny Germany the coal, mining and shipping infrastructure, equipment and stores on Spitsbergen and suppress the wireless stations on the archipelago, to prevent the Germans receiving weather reports.

Gauntlet was a success; the Germans were taken by surprise, the raiders suffered no casualties, the civilians were repatriated, several ships were taken as prizes and a German warship was sunk on the return journey.

Operation Archery

This raid is also known as the Måløy Raid and was a British Combined Operations raid against German positions on the island of Vågsøy, Norway, on 27 December 1941.

British Commandos, a demolition party and a dozen Norwegians from Norwegian Independent Company 1 conducted the raid. The Royal Navy, led with a cruiser and destroyers, provided fire support. Also in support were Royal Air Force bombers and fighter-bombers and a submarine. Four fish oil factories and stored were destroyed and German and Quislings (traitors) were taken prisoner.

Sadly, the Norwegian commander Martin Linge* (see above) was killed in this raid, which later led to the Norwegian Independent Company being renamed the Linge Company.

Operation Freshman

Operation Freshman - Raid on the Vemork heavy water plant

Operation Freshman, which consisted of at least 3 successive raids, is considered by many historians to be the most famous sabotage action by commandos in Norway, and possibly the greatest of the entire Second World War. It was certainly spectacular, but didn’t start off successfully.

All through WW2, the Allies feared Hitler would be able to create an atomic bomb and wipe out the City of London, or worse. One of the ingredients he needed for his bomb was the heavy water of the Vemork plant in Telemark in Norway. It seemed a race against the clock to destroy the factory, that was positioned in a valley, unable to reach over ground, or be bombed from the air, and heavily guarded by the Nazis.

Operation Grouse was the first part of the action, in which a team of 4 Norwegian commandos were parachuted into the area on 18 October 1942. They were all from the area of Telemark, where the plant situated so knew the area well. They were do to preparatory work.

The first attempt at back-up for the team in the night of 19 to 20 November 1942 failed miserable. All 32 Royal Engineers were killed either when their gliders crashed on the way to their landing zone, or survived the crash but were executed by the Germans.

But the Allies didn’t give up although on 11 December London received a message from an SOE agent explaining that the second glider's occupants had also all been shot.

Finally, in February 1943, SOE's Operation Gunnerside parachuted another six Norwegian agents into the area, to join forces with the four from 'Grouse'. They successfully attacked the Rjukan electrolysis plant on the night of 28 February-1 March 1943, with the loss of 500 kg of heavy water and destruction of the heavy-water section of the plant.*

This sabotage act was incredibly spectacular and heroic. I highly recommend watching this YouTube series from 2009, in which the raid was re-enacted with a team of British and Norwegian commandos, including interviews with the Real Heroes of Telemark and directed by Ray Mears.

*A brief and fictional version of this raid is described in The Norwegian Assassin

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