Frivilligkompani Benckert

Shortly after the attack on Denmark and Norway, the Swedish government prohibited public meetings and recruitment organizations for Swedish volunteers to Norway. Maybe some 300 Swedes went to Norway, some of them in the Swedish uniforms with Finnish emblem they had used as volunteers for Finland against the Soviet Union …

1940-04-16

AP147

Shortly after the attack on Denmark and Norway, the Swedish government prohibited public meetings and recruitment organizations for Swedish volunteers to Norway. Maybe some 300 Swedes went to Norway, some of them in the Swedish uniforms with Finnish emblem they had used as volunteers for Finland against the Soviet Union attack, and maybe half of them got into fights with Germans. The Swede Gösta Benckert led a company of at the most 219 men, mostly Norwegians who had fought in Finland and some 20 Swedes. On 16 April, they defended Kongsvinger fort for about a day and night, while two German batallions were stopped from advancing. When Benckert tried to find out who of his men later had fired at a Norwegian ambulance, several of the Swedes went back to Sweden. When he learned that the Allies left the south of Norway, he kept 20 men and fought guerilla war until early June 1940 when the fighting in northern Norway also ended.

Kongvinger, Norway

The Norwegian campaign (8 April – 10 June 1940) describes the attempt of the Allies to defend northern Norway coupled with Norwegian forces' resistance to the country's invasion by Nazi Germany in World War II. Planning and 13 British ships setting steam, narrowly preceded the German invasion of the mainland on 8 April 1940. Planned as Operation Wilfred and Plan R 4, while the German attack was feared but had not happened, HMS Renown set out from Scapa Flow for the Vestfjorden with twelve destroyers on 4 April. British and German naval forces met at the first Battle of Narvik on 9 and 10 April, and the first British forces landed at Åndalsnes on the 13th. The main strategic reason for Germany to invade Norway was to seize the port of Narvik and guarantee the iron ore needed for critical production of steel. The campaign was fought until 10 June 1940 and saw the escape of King Haakon VII and his heir apparent Crown Prince Olav to the United Kingdom. A British, French and Polish expeditionary force of 38,000 soldiers, many days in, landed in the north. It had moderate success. A rapid strategic retreat took place after Germany's overwhelmingly quick invasion of France in May. The Norwegian government then sought exile in London. The campaign ended with the occupation of the entirety of Norway by Germany, but exiled Norwegian forces escaped and fought on from overseas.

German

Norwegian / Swedish

Scenario Type = Standard