Wilhelm Mohr

Wilhelm Mohr. On World War II
we were able to witness our own growth, and similarly for the Navy.
We were both flexible forces that were provided with room to grow.
The Army became more immobile, but it had its groups operating on
the domestic front. Particularly encouraging were messages of a growing
upsurge in morale back home in Norway, rooted in the population
itself, and also of the physical resistance that was gradually growing.
This gave respect and hope for the future – to the extent that we actually
thought of a future. It gave a growing sense of recognition towards
the leadership of the Home Front and the Government in their common
work for a united liberation process. Everything was fine as long
as we were able to continue our work where we were, and fortunately
we were given the opportunity to participate in the Allied invasion on
the Continent.
The end was crowned with victory. Our homecoming is impossible
to describe – a meeting with forces that in their own way had made their
sacrifices for freedom, a meeting with a society matured in respect and
in confidence in the role of the individual in a common destiny, and so
many, many other things. Yet from this atmosphere of victory we should
also remember that:
– It was not we who gave us our country back. It was the Allied victory
that brought us that, but we participated and should be grateful for
that.
– It was not we who led the liberation process. It was the Allied strategy
that ensured that, but we played our role and should be grateful
for that too.
At this point I must allow myself to go beyond the period of war and
the lessons learned from occupation. What lessons have been learned
It is only reasonable, I guess, that I limit myself to the business of the
Defence Forces.
None of us abroad had thought that the Government would escape
a legal inquiry. This is not to say that we wanted it, but merely that
it was something natural and inevitable. That Nygårdsvold and Koht
would fail court marshals was not an unlikely scenario at the time. As
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