Norwegian volunteers on the Eastern Front

Discussions on the foreigners (volunteers as well as conscripts) fighting in the German Wehrmacht, those collaborating with the Axis and other period Far Right organizations. Hosted by George Lepre.
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krimsonglass51
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Norwegian volunteers on the Eastern Front

#1

Post by krimsonglass51 » 29 Aug 2021, 06:57

This was originally asked from a topic from a while back viewtopic.php?f=51&t=147690&hilit=norwe ... tern+front.

Basically, former SS-Untersturmführer Sverre Kjelstrup gave a lecture in the early 90's about Norwegian participation on the Soviet-Finnish sector of the Eastern Front. He stated:
Here you see [probably referring to an overhead projector] that the units that participated in the continuation war are, first and foremost Den Norske Legion - Viken battalion [No idea if this is supposed to be a separate unit or a part of DNL, the dash is a bit confusing], and 1.Politikompani (which never arrived in Finland), further we have Skikompaniet, Skijegerbataljonen and 2., 3. and 4. Politikompani, which arrived in Finland without any trouble. This amounted to a total of 4000 men.

In all, 7000 Norwegians fought on the eastern front during WW2, the other 3000 participated in the various departments of the Waffen SS. These departments were not pure Norwegian departments, they were mixed units which consisted of volunteers from different countries. They were divided into “Germanic volunteers” and “Other volunteers”, and “Germanic volunteers” were organized in the W-SS. The others were sent to the Wehrmacht, making up formations like the Spanish "Blue Division."
Assuming this is correct, more than half of the Norwegian volunteers on the Eastern Front fought on the Finnish front? Can anyone confirm if the above mentioned numbers are correct?

Seppo Koivisto
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Re: Norwegian volunteers on the Eastern Front

#2

Post by Seppo Koivisto » 31 Aug 2021, 20:41

According to Finnish sources about 1000 Norwegians fought on the Finnish front (SS-Skijegerbataljon "Norge", 2. and 3. SS-Polizei-Kompanie).

DNL took part in the siege of Leningrad.


krimsonglass51
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Re: Norwegian volunteers on the Eastern Front

#3

Post by krimsonglass51 » 01 Sep 2021, 04:55

If that was the case, then the total Norwegians on the Eastern Front was less? Assuming that his figure of 7000 was total consisting of the 4000 in Finland and 3000 elsewhere in the Soviet Union that is.

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Semenov
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Re: Norwegian volunteers on the Eastern Front

#4

Post by Semenov » 01 Sep 2021, 19:53

krimsonglass51 wrote:
01 Sep 2021, 04:55
If that was the case, then the total Norwegians on the Eastern Front was less? Assuming that his figure of 7000 was total consisting of the 4000 in Finland and 3000 elsewhere in the Soviet Union that is.
in Finland - 1000 norwegians

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