Sinking the Blücher: How an Outdated Fort Stopped the WWII Invasion of Norway

I'm here at Oscar Borg a fortress located in the middle of the Oslo F essentially the body of water that connects the capital of Norway Oslo with the Open Sea it's a major trade route and for hundreds of years it's been one of the most important places in the country to protect hence the incredible Fortress located here now the Oscar BG and also its massive battery of guns that you can see behind me here were also notable because of the role they played in the opening hours and minutes of the invasion of Norway during the second World War and they were seen to one of the most incredible and overlooked moments the sinking of the German Heavy Cruiser the bler and what would become one of the most incredible engagements of the second world war the old and outdated guns of the oscarsborg opened fire on one of the most advanced ships of the German CS Marine unbeknownst to the men of the fort what they had fired upon was in fact the Spearhead of a huge German invasion Force who intended to seize neutral Norway and its government in a Swift and efficient operation however these plans would soon end up in tatters as morning broke on the osof yard one of Germany's newest and most advanced ships was sunk hundreds were dead or missing and the plan to quickly capture Norway's capital and government had been filed instead Norway would fight a staunch resistance to The Invasion resulting in vast far-reaching ramifications for the rest of the second world war I've always been captivated by this story of the Norwegian resistance during the second world war but also those opening stages of the invasion of Norway and how differently things could have gone had the guns of Oscar BG here not open fire on the invading German force that was making its way down to Oslo it's an incredible story and it's one that completely changed the outcome and the development of the second world war so this is the story of the sinking of the bla but also how the man of the Oscar Borg here helped Win Second World War recounting and researching the story of the oscarsborg and the battle of the durak sound has been one of the largest projects I have ever undertaken in fact I went all the way out to Norway just to visit oscarsborg and none of it would be possible without thanks to you guys without my patrons over on patreon and without thanks to today's sponsor which is exter exter's whole philosophy is about creating better gear for those on the go and their wallets have been my loyal companion as I traveled all over Europe this year I'm very particular about my wallet and it takes a lot for me to switch but I've been using this exter's beautiful Parliament bfold wallet in I think Italian tan for months now and I absolutely love it it's a beautiful design with loads of storage spaces and hidden compartments and best of all space for extra's amazing multitool xra has a range of amazing designs from leather bolds to these aluminium card card holders but I think my favorite item is actually these amazing little tracker cards not only do they slip into your wallet so you can track and locate them it actually acts as a remote shutter for your camera that is the coolest thing ever so use my code Callum in the link below to get up to 55% of your own extra wallet in their Black Friday sale and thanks again for the support now let's get back to the story of the sinking of the Bluer even before the outbreak of the War British military planners had long seen Scandinavia as a potential theater of conflict with Germany whose heavy industry relied on Swedish ore shipped from the Norwegian ice free Port of narvi upon the outbreak of war in September 1939 this issue became all the more pertinent to figures such as Winston Churchill at that point still only the first Lord of the admiralty who argued for intervention against the narvik exports by December the Allies had gone as far as to plan Landings in Norway on paper as part of an expeditionary Force to assist Finland in their war against the Soviet Union but in reality to act as cover for an occupation of Norway and Sweden the plan was only aborted after Finland sued for peace but now the German High command who had entered the war with no plans for an attack on Scandinavia began to worry these fears were all but confirmed during the dramatic altmark incident in which the British Destroyer HMS CAC sailed into Norwegian territorial Waters and SE SE the German Supply ship the altmark which was transporting Allied prisoners of War back to Germany you know the inspiring story how the Destroyer grappled herself to the altmark and boarded her the hand to hand struggle developed into a sort of rat hunt with the Germans deserting the ship all our men were rescued and brought home to a northern Port aboard the CET the incident incensed both the Norwegian government desperate to protect their neutrality but also Hitler who now saw that Britain would never respect Norwegian neutrality and that Norway's lack of action to stop the KAC proved that their allegiance lay with the Allies already having ordered tentative plans for an intervention against Norway the alark incident so infuriated Hitler that he now ordered planning for a full-blown Invasion Norway and Denmark would now be captured in a quick and overwhelming coordinated Invasion over land sea and air code named Operation vesser bong the date was set 5:15 a.m. on the 9th of April 1940 on the morning of the 5th of April in preparation for operation vesser bong dozens upon dozens of German ships began to quietly slip out of ports along the Baltic and North Sea coasts many having just unsealed their top secret orders The Invasion and occupation of Norway and Denmark for Norway The Invasion Force formed several groups among them Destroyer support ships torpedo boats battleships submarines and almost 9,000 troops and Equipment all with delegated targets and landings and all aimed at important strategic locations along the Norwegian Coast perhaps most critical however was group five codenamed group aldenberg and tasked with the capture of Norway's capital Oslo and most critically its government including the monarch king hacken iith this force was made up of eight M sweepers three torpedo boats two armed auxiliary trollers the Aging light Cruiser the Amden the newly renamed Heavy Cruiser luto and the leader of the group the brand new Heavy Cruiser the bler the bler had been commissioned on the 20th of September 1939 but had only just been released as fit for service in combat days before The Invasion with an overall length of 25.9 M she was the second of the Admiral Hippa class Cruisers and was packed with the the latest German Navy technology of the day bristling her deck were eight large 8in guns spread between four heavily armored turrets a range between them was her secondary Armament of 12 4.1 in guns as well as a potent array of anti-aircraft battery of 12 37 mm and 8 20 mm anti-aircraft guns completing her impressive Armament were two triple mounted torpedo tubes located on either side of the ship and controlling all of these was a vast complex interconnected network of rangefinders calculators directors and local control stations with multiple redundancies while not as heavily armored as her British or American contemporaries a thick 80 mm armored belt surrounded the ship extending above and below the waterline her deck turrets and conning Tower were also heavily armored and three steam turbines gave her a top speed of 32 knots the bler was no doubt a large capable and heavily armed Cruiser but she was new and her crew on untested the ship had only spent 20 days at Sea doing Simple trials and testing before leaving for Norway and the young crew had little experience at Sea let alone War her officers were inexperienced and emergency drills including damage control and action station training had barely taken place all three Cruisers of group five were packed with troops for The Invasion but the bler especially would be complemented with hundreds of troops and officials in charge of taking over Oslo in the immediate aftermath of the invasion Army and Air Force officers and their staff Personnel to run Norwegian mail and broadcasting Services War correspondents and propaganda staff as well as civilian Dock Workers still working on the ship in total over 880 on top of the bler regular complement of over 1,300 men were packed below decks before the ship departed on board were also tons of Munitions and equipment needed for the disembarking troops which was hastily stored in magazines corridors and on the bler unprotected deck leaving from and passing North through the Danish belts in the morning of the 8th group orenberg moved stealthily out of sight of the coastline and then turned now heading for the entrance to the Oslo Fjord Battle Stations were called lights on the ships were extinguished and Port holes sealed it was a cal night with a little wind and further north the oso Fjord was obscured by fog operation vesser bong was about to begin and there would be no going back now German Intelligence on the defenses that were to be expected within the Oso y were patchy and inaccurate but the planners of operation vesser bong felt confident in what they perceived to be a weak Norwegian military and an unwillingness to fight heavy resistance wasn't expected and it was hoped that the Swift capture of Oslo and its government would result in a rapid capitulation as the ships of group five passed the opening of the Oslo Fjord these assumptions were further reinforced amazingly despite multiple sightings and suspicious activity at Sea neither the allies nor the Norwegians had fully deduced that the Germans were about to invade by the time more serious reports had arrived and been disseminated to the Norwegian government all that could be mustered were muddled and ineffective alerts in the oso F orders were given to extinguish all lighthouses to slow down any potential Intruders and the guard ships patrolling the entrance to the Fjord were put on high alert Admiral Oscar kumit leading group five from the bridge of the bler and intercepting these Norwegian orders took it as a sign that the Norwegians knew an invasion was coming but their lack of response made him confident that they were not planning to mount a defense however they were about to encounter their first sign that the resistance would not be so passive Paul III was a small requisitioned whaleboat captained by Leaf wling Olsen and was one of the Guard chips patrolling the Oslo Fjord that night having heard the call for alert the crew of the pole watched in amazement and horror as several huge darkened warships suddenly emerged from the Mist in front of them the tiny Paul with with its single 76 mm gun was now facing down an entire Invasion Force the albatross one of the group's torpedo boats immediately ordered the Paul to stop and turn off its radio the Paul managed to get out a desperate signal foreign ships incoming at high speed to the nearby headquarters in tburg in the ensuing confusion the two ships then collided with the Paul's strengthened Hull opening a hole in the albatross but disabling the Paul's radio Mast Captain welding Olson ordered flares to be fired to war nearby ships and forts the albatross's captain demanded that all signalings stop or else they would open fire welding Allon shouting back in German from the small lightly armed Paul refused to back down these were Norwegian Waters and whoever they were it was they who must stop or else he would open fire however the albatross's captain was done negotiating machine gun fire raked the small Guard ship mortally wounding welding Olson the poller crew surrendered but the captain having attempted to evacuate to a life raft with his men and bleeding heavily from from multiple gunshot wounds was too far gone with his men hauled aboard the albatross he drifted off alone aboard the life raft never to be seen again and the first casualty of the invasion thanks to the brave actions of the Paul III by now the surrounding forts had realized something was a Miss but a lack of clear orders communication and trained Personnel meant what response did come was too late in the confusion and fog the mysterious darkened ship slipped past the guns of the outer osof Fjord with Little Resistance the the Germans shrugging off the poorly aimed fire from the outer forts assumed it was simply warning shots from the bridge of the bler leading the pack Admiral Kitz must have felt like Oso was in his sights only one last obstacle lay in their way the old and outdated guns of the oscarsborg fortifications on the two main islands of the drawback narrow SRE colan and nordre Coleman with its strategically important position guarding the entrance to Oso date back as far as the 1600s in the the 1840s its defensive capabilities were greatly expanded with a huge defensive Fort two batteries covering the eastern and western passes and a large retunda built to protect the Island's Harbor as the decades went on further batteries and armaments were added to the extensive fortifications most notably in the 1890s when a new main battery of three crop 28 CM model 1889 guns were added and a state of the art torpedo battery built into the Eastern side of the northern Island this combined with the other batteries and M fields located on and around the drawback sound made the Oscars Borg one of the most sophisticated fortifications found anywhere in Europe by the turn of the century however by the 1930s the Oscars BG had been neglected with a priority shifting to Forts closer to the entrance of the osof Fjord and leaving the fort with little in the way of modernization for her guns or defenses especially against the growing threat of aial attacks the Oscars BG's General neglect and lack of preparedness had been highlighted many times by its Commander beerer Ericson who had been in charge to The Fortress since 1933 and had argued repeatedly for funds to modernize it now near midnight on the night of the 8th of April 1940 and only 6 months from retirement edxon had just received news that an unknown number of ships had slipped past these more advanced outer Forts and defenses of the Oslo Fjord and all that stood in their way was now his undermanned and unprepared Garrison at oscarsborg it was bad timing many of the men under his command were merely trainees who' only arrived days previously and were still to make space for the recruits many trained soldiers at the batteries on the mainland had been sent home now the Oscar BG's main battery was these huge 28 CM guns ironically made by kup in Germany and while these things were relatively old they' be installed in the 1890s they were no less deadly the problem was Manpower there wasn't enough men to man all the guns and the men that were there were not very experienced in Manning the guns themselves now edxon knew that there was probably not going to be enough time to reload and fire the guns again he probably had at best one or two or three shots and each one had to hit so instead of spreading his men out he focused them on two of the main guns and had them loaded and ready to fire so the only thing that needed to be done was aiming them when those ships did appear Now by half 3 in the morning still no ships had appeared at any of the search posts in the immediate area so Erikson ordered half the men to go onr only 8 minutes later an Urgent Message would suddenly reach the fort ships had been cited at oscarsborg the picture was beginning to become more clear at 2 minutes past 4 in the morning a signal station at the outer reaches of the oscarsborg defense has reported three Cruisers and two small ships passing the station 15 minutes later the search light of a Guard ship in drobach Harbor illuminated the first darkened ship moving towards them now it signaled five ships one large in front four following in their darkened positions around drobach and oscarsborg the Norwegian men many of them recruits train their guns on the darkened ships and waited nervously it must have been a somewhat terrifying sight suddenly seeing the illuminated shape of a massive Battleship out there in the water and possibly more following up behind it now the men of the fort here didn't really know if these were German or British or French battleships but they did know if they opened fire on them there would be no going back edxon however was firm in his resolve there would be no warning shots the ships had been given ample time to turn back they had already forced their way past the fort further up the oso fard edxon checked his watch it was 21 minutes past 4 in the morning and he ordered the guns to open fire standing on the bler bridge there was an ominous silence in the gathered officers Dawn was beginning to break but little could still be seen in the darkness and fog other than the single eedie search light from the throwback Harbor that had illuminated them the Narrows seemed quiet the Germans must have wondered if this would be all that the Norwegians could muster in resistance suddenly L an eruption of flame exploded on the bler port side a 250 kg high explosive shell fired from one of the Oscar BG's 28 CM guns shot past only meters above the bridge slamming into the ship's fortop had the gun been aimed even a few meters lower it would have eviscerated the entire command of the invasion group huddled on the bridge seconds later another high explosive shell crashed into the ship's port side obliterating the bler hangar Bay and aircraft before they could register what was happening the batteries of copass and husvik on the mainland now open fire on the bler starboard high on the hills and firing down on the ship from close range many of the shells passed straight through the bler hull exploding on the far side on board the chaos was immediate and overwhelming the middle section of the ship was in flames and ammunition for The Landing parties which had been so carelessly stacked upon the open deck was now detonating alongside incoming noring shells the ship flickered and sparked as electrical systems failed and her guns fired wildly and in a desperate attempt to hit back at the concealed Norwegian batteries her main guns never had a chance to open fire some of the earliest hits severed the engine room and steering telegraphs leaving the commanders on the bridge unable to communicate poorly trained and inexperienced Fire Control teams and medics mustered in a desperate attempt to stem the chaos but they were quickly overwhelmed all the while deadly close range and accurate fire from the Norwegians continued to pour down upon the ship if it wasn't obvious before it was now War had come to in Norway what had started as a peaceful night on the oso Fjord just like any other had now descended into a scene of abject chaos a German battleship was moving down the Fjord covered in Flames firing wildly into the hillsides as both the Oscar Borg and the surrounding batteries rained down gunfire upon her decks however she was still doggedly determined to move north past the Oscar Borg and up to Oso where they plan to capture the capital however unknown to those on board the Oscar Borg's most potent and deadly trick still lay up its sleeve that of its Torpedoes expertly concealed from view on the north of the two islands lay the Oscar Borg's torpedo battery installed at the turn of the century and cut sheer into the Rock itself deep under the ground lay a loading Hall and three firing channels for the complement of 45 cm wh head Torpedoes much like the rest of the Oscars Borg it was an old and outdated system but despite being over 40 years old the weapons each fitted with a charge of 100 18 kg of TNT were no less lethal especially in the hands of experienced operators in charge of the battery that night was Andreas Anderson who only a couple of months before and at the age of 60 had been called out of retirement to take charge of the torpedo battery when the regular Commander fell sick Anderson had previously commanded the battery for decades and on that night was well prepared with his fellow officers and men just before 4:30 a.m. from his position in the torpedo batteries observation bunker Anderson saw the shape of the bler still moving North smoke and Flames billowing around her Anderson who had tested and drilled each torpedo hundreds of times in his career but never expected to ever fire them in Anger camly watched the ship enter his sights he turned his fighting key and the two aging Torpedoes shot towards the brand new German Cruiser on the bler fires were burning all across the deck flat guns still fired wildly looking for targets and damage control teams desperately tried to repair vital systems but just as the ship had managed to move past the worst of the gunfire two more massive explosions tore into her port side the Torpedoes had hit close together instantly flooding large sections of her turbine and boiler rooms and killing scores of men yet more pumps and electrical systems failed lights went out and communication systems were severed within seconds thousands of liters of water had flooded into her Hull lurching the bler to Port however even as she began to slow engulfed in flames and drifting North North listless and without power the commanders on bridge had yet to truly grasp just how serious the situation was kumit seemingly in a State of Shock about what had just happened deferred to the ship's Captain hinry vag vag ordered the ship anchored but the rapidly developing list made even releasing the anchor difficult the bler which only minutes earlier had been leading the Vanguard of group oldenberg one of the newest and most powerful ships of the German CS Marine was now a burning mortally wounded Hulk mean while the Norwegians turned their attention to the other invading ships the luto was struck first with shells from the kopas and hust batteries smashing into her main gun turret in crane her medical Bay was obliterated a machine gun fire raked her deck it was just as the luto had ordered fola St that the two Torpedoes had struck the bler and assuming they were mines the remaining ships of group aldenberg shocked at the horror that had played out in front of them saw that the passage to Oso was blocked as they retreated the burning silhouette of the bler remained ahead of them now isolated and alone not even an hour had passed since the first shots from the Oscar BG's outdated guns had fired but on board the bler the end was nigh by 5:00 a.m. the boiler and turbine rooms had been abandoned poorly trained Crews were unable to bring the various fires under control Power was gone and extreme list had developed and various explosions rocked the ship the soldiers and other staff confused and scared and still confined down below decks having been given no information as to the danger of the ship was in realized too late what was going on now they swarmed the deck in a desperate attempt to escape but many found themselves trapped deep within the listing ship for those lucky enough to make it on Deck the structure of command had long since collapsed and few had been trained or drilled on evacuation procedures there wasn't enough life jackets or rafts and most men were barely able to swim Captain vda gave the order to Abandon Ship by 6:00 a.m. but the prospect of diving into the black freezing Waters of the Norwegian Fjord was not an easy one for those trapped on on board some attempted to reach the small sh of islands in the middle of the Fjord others to the mainland but both were hundreds of meters away as soldiers Sailors and officers alike desperately struggled to get to shore save friends or help wounded the cold water soon overcame many the last known photo of the ship shows her Stern high in the air as it slips under the waves with hundreds of men still in the water and burning oil igniting on the surface soon the bler was gone but not long after a massive underwater explosion erupted from the ship killing yet more survivors in the water local Norwegians soon came to the rescue of the survivors but spread along the coastline and stranded in the narrows it would be a long time before accurate numbers could be made of who was dead or missing by the time the sun had risen some 326 men were dead hours earlier Germany's Diplomat to Norway Kurt brya had been shocked to open an envelope revealing plans for an invasion due to take place in a mere matter of hours he was to hand over an ultimatum to the Norwegian government by around 4: in the morning backed up by the warships of group aldenberg who would be by then positioned in Oslo Harbor just as airborne troops landed at nearby airfields however by now brya nervously eyed an empty Harbor the ships had not appeared and the actions of the men of the Oscars Borg had thrown the Germans carefully planned operation into chaos by now the alarm had been well and truly raised and the Norwegian government the royal family and the country's crucial gold reserves were being evacuated just ahead of German invasion forces which were now landing at oslo's airports Luft wafa bombers accompanying the troops to Oslo now spotted the burning wreck of the bler the planes had only intended to fly over the city as a show of force but now realizing the invasion was not going to plan began to swoop down upon the Oscars Borg this incredible footage captured for German propaganda films shows an aial view of the Oscars Borg on the morning of the nth just north of the two islands is the straight of water where only hours earlier the bler had sunk and what could possibly still be the remains of fuel and oil sitting on the surface the same film then shows the dramatic bombing of the Oscars Borg with huge plumes of smoke being thrown into the sky with little in the way of anti-aircraft defenses the various wooden buildings and structures in the islands were soon Ablaze but the Deep bunkers and fortifications of the Oscars Borg meant the Garrison were all but unharmed surveying the damage between the brief in the bombings edxon now weighed his options telephone communication with the mainland had been cut off and radio reports indicated that Oslo had already been captured the Oscars Borg was isolated and with few men and little hope of reinforcements or even communication with the higher chain of command there seemed to be little more that they could do eventually the German ships tentatively returned and by 5:00 in the afternoon negotiations had begun not wishing to cause further pointless Bloodshed and hearing little in the way of orders from command Erikson agreed to surrender the old Old Fort manned by a skeleton crew of fresh recruits had managed to sink one of the Cs Marin's newest and most fearsome warships but more importantly it would have far-reaching ramifications for the rest of the invasion the Germans failure to capture oslo's government and Monarch allowed them to escape to Britain where they would vehemently refuse to recognize any German installed leadership this all but solidified the Norwegian public staunch resistance towards the occupation an occupation that would drain German Resources with some 300,000 th000 troops tied up throughout the country for the duration of the war the Allies had within hours launched their own counter operation in Norway but a combination of poor coordination and the subsequent invasion of France in the low countries only Weeks Later eventually forced their Retreat German Victory had come at a high cost however while Norway's Coastline vastly expanded the Cs marinees ability to operate at Sea and threaten Britain their surface Fleet had been all but crippled during The Invasion giving them a vastly diminished Force unable to take advantage of nor Way's access to the North Sea and effectively ruling out any Prospect of a possible Seaborn invasion of the British Isles perhaps most critically however the Fallout from operation vesser bang and Britain's failure to stop the invasion of Norway would lead to the collapse of Neville Chamberlain's government in a dramatic confrontation in the British Houses of Parliament an event that would become known as the Norway or narvic debate it was here that the conservative liberal and labor parties now turn to one of the greatest critics of German aggression and the failed policy of appeasement the man who had long argued for Action in Norway and had now been seemingly proven right Winston Churchill at the critical moment and out of Crisis Britain gets the war prime minister of her desire behind Mr Churchill the country rallies solidly and resolutely to the task of defeating the most Sinister madman that ever aspired to World Conquest the man to beat Hitler is Winston Church well thank you very much for watching what is a big subject it took me a while to pull together together I mentioned at the start this is definitely one of the most involved projects um I have undertaken this year not least of which because we actually went to Norway to visit the oscarsborg in person I wanted to get a better understanding of the place and I thought it would be good to to film around the island as well too in the end I actually ended up making a lot more of the animated battle maps that you might have seen um rather than using footage that I filmed on the island but what an experience it was to actually go there of course it's not far from Oso you can get the fatti out there it's like a big open air museum Park now there's a marina in the summer I imagine it's a lot busier than when we went there we went there in October and the best thing of all is they have a hotel on the island with a restaurant and we stayed the night there and there was no one else there it was just us it was just us in the restaurant just us there in the morning I think it was just us staying in the hotel absolutely incredible experience and we basically had the whole island to ourselves to explore and for me to research and film all my little bits to camera in front of as well too um I've always thought the invasion of Norway I think you know a lot of us would agree if you're into the second world war it tends to be the most overlooked element or one of the most El overlooked elements of the war in Europe shall we say and of course it's the place where British and German troops fought for the first time since the first world war um the ramifications of the the narvik debate um completely changed the makeup of the British government it installed Winston Churchill and of course the ramifications of that are you know hard probably for us to comprehend so I've always thought it's an amazing subject to cover and I always thought as well you know when you really zoom in on the invasion of Norway what could have gone differently had the guns of the Oscar Borg not opened fire had the um the Germans essentially captured the Norwegian government the king they had then a legitimized um you know government in place there it might have completely changed the way that Norway was utilized during the war it's one of the things that I mentioned is is that the Germans really underutilized the fact that they had all of these Naval bases and air bases that they could use to attack Britain they they were used but of course the amount of losses that the Cs Marine took basically broke its back um and made it basically unviable for them to operate at Sea so it was sort of a well a fic Victory I suppose as they would call it um but yeah an amazing subject it's actually one that's covered really well in one of my favorite war films there's an amazing film called at the king's choice The King's Speech came out around the same time so I think it probably confuses people but it's a Norwegian War Drama All About basically King hackin and his family trying to escape from Oso um during the the German invasion of course the Germans were desperate to capture these guys it was there was basically a special task force set up to kill or capture uh the Norwegian government and the Monarch um to help again legitimize a a puppet government installed by um Norway and of course it didn't work the Norwegians refused to basically to accept um the quizzing regime that was installed afterwards and it it's an amazing film that tells that story in the trials and tribulations of King hacken as he kind of wrestles with this idea of abandoning the country or should he give in to the German demands one of the most fascinating elements of this whole story is that Kurt Brer the the Norwegian H or the German Diplomat to Norway basically chased King hacken down as they were fleeing the country basically to beg him to stay or legitimize the the German occupation it was it's a bizarre story and that film has probably the best depiction of the battle of um well it's the only depiction I imagine on film of the the battle of the drawback sound it's in my opinion if not the best naval battle committed to film one of the best battles committed to film it's incredibly accurate it captures perfectly the atmosphere not just of the actual night there but that idea of who are we fighting on what are we doing there's an amazing moment where um Sodom the the the second in command asks Erikson like you know what what if we're wrong you know what what do we do and ericon has this great kind of stoic thing of he just kind of looks at him and goes like don't worry about it but that's that's kind of it it really captures that element of um of of what they were dealing with on that night and uh it's an amazing film I'd recommend watching it I'd like to have talked about it more in the actual video I didn't really get a chance to I will say I might make another video just on that film scene you guys might not know but I actually have another Channel called film things now I've only uploaded like one video to that channel but um I I like to talk more about film and I'd like to make a video about the king's choice so if you're interested in this subject and hearing me talk more um you can maybe go to that channel as well and I'll try and get something made up at some time about that I don't I don't know when I'm going to do that but just it may it may happen at some point in the future before I go couple of recommendations if you're interested in this subject I cannot recommend this book enough it's called the sinking of the bler the battle of the drawback sound I believe this book only came out maybe this year or or late last year it's a very new publication Incredible Book really really tells you a lot about the different elements um of the invasion and what led to the invasion I think one of the most fascinating elements of all this is that you know contrary to popular belief I think the Germans didn't have a plan to invade um Norway it it was never part of their plan um was done because basically Hitler became convinced that the British were going to invade and what's funny is the British were planning to do that or at the very least Winston Churchill was desperate to do it you know so the the story of all of that and the kind of um the conflicting uh kind of ideas and and and paranoia that led to the The Invasion is is truly um amazing and this book tells it fantastically the other one is called um doomed before the start uh the Allied intervention in Norway 1940 volume one the road to Invasion and early moves it's it's a bit of a mouthful that one but it's it's very good as well too um as the the setup and um just giving you a wider idea rather than just the the kind of elements in the Oslo Fjord that night on the April 9th but yeah that's about it h big video I'm glad it's over because I've been wanting to tell this story for a while and I've never done so many animations um uh you may have noticed in this video it's been really good fun but it it was bit of a learning curve it was a lot more than I expected it to be but I'm going to try and get this finished now and uploaded um hopefully tonight so if you're if you're watching this on the day that it came up I recorded this about an hour before you watching it probably um but yeah thank you very much for watching and uh yeah bye-bye

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Length: 34min 47sec (2087 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 24 2023