Wilhelm Mohr

Wilhelm Mohr. On World War II
some flying – with German aircraft constantly over and around us. With
the benefit of hindsight, I would have to characterize the usefulness of
our flying as doubtful. On top of that, we had problems with our supply
of petrol and our aircraft sinking into the rotten snow. Everything did
not go exactly as planned, but our motivation at least could hardly have
been better.
I will not go deeper into the war in South Norway as I experienced
it, other than to say that there was a series of events and we
did the best we could. The result was a group of us in a fishing boat
on our way to Scotland, and the city of Molde was burning as we
left.
We know that the war went better in North Norway. They had
had more time and to some extent had managed to gather forces. The
situation showed that the Norwegian soldier in his own territory was
far from inferior. Also at sea, and even our Fokkers up there made
useful contributions. However, our fate was sealed when the Germans
managed to bring their airpower into the area. It made the supply
situation intolerable for the British, even though another priority surfaced.
Namely, Norwegian volunteer labour helped the Germans to
expand the airfield at Værnes for this purpose – while fighting was
still ongoing. This, too, was an element of Norway at war. Incidentally,
more British than Norwegian troops fell on Norwegian soil during
the war in Norway. The French and Polish also had their figures.
How could it have happened that we allowed ourselves to be conquered
by approximately 11,000 troops, brought forward in the first
phase This was a disgrace, and a self-inflicted disgrace too, because it
should not have happened and it did not need to have happened. In his
book, General Ruge claims that if we had been prepared we could have
thrown the enemy back to sea. Ruge is clear and to the point in arguing
that we were not prepared. We now know that in their attack plan
the Germans were ready to abort their attack if they were to lose their
element of surprise, yet we provided no such grounds.
We do not escape history even though it might be familiar enough.
It has so many lessons to provide that we have to live with a certain
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