The Norwegians Volunteers of the Waffen-SS - Norwegian Legion
190The Norwegian Legion was one of the many volunteer formations that aided Germany against the Soviet Union. These men were Norwegians that volunteered for the German army for a multitude of reasons, whether ideological or otherwise. They are a tale worth telling.
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The Germans would invade Norway and Denmark on April the 9th of 1940. The same day, Quisling would march in the radio broadcasting studio in Oslo and proclaim himself as the new Prime Minister, demanding all resistance to the invasion to stand down. Virtually no one listened to his demands, but the Norwegian army was extremely ill equipped to deal with the invasion, and even though allied troops would land in Narvik, they did little more then prolong the inevitable, and the nation would finally capitulate on June the 10th.
In September, Hitler would appoint Josef Terboven as the Reichskommissar of Norway. Here, Terboven would appoint 11 other individuals to help him govern the country without forming a proper government, as the plan was to let Quisling and his party to eventually take over. All other political parties were banned, and membership within the NS quickly grew, gaining 15,000 members by the end of the year. However, Quisling was a very controversial individual within the party, and factions would fight bitterly for policy decision and control over the movement at large, which delayed the appointment of a proper government, until February of 1942.
The previously mentioned factions within the party, were in many ways also openly bitter about co-operation with German fascists, and viewed Quisling as a German puppet, rather then a Nationalist Norwegian, as Quinsling still answered to Terboven, who in turned, only answered to Hitler. Quisling himself, tried to use the co-operation with Hitler, as a means for his own direct gains. Firstly to try and remove Terboven, then hoping that one day, Norway would regain her independence, with Quisling at its helm, and when the call for a unit of Norwegian soldiers came to aid against the Soviets, he jumped at the opportunity to supply said men. See, the Norwegian army had been disbanded in June of 1940, and a large section of its pre-existing army had either fled with the allies, or fled to Sweden. By giving men for the Germans, Quisling aimed to re-establish a standing Norwegian army, and use it to re-assert claims to not only independence, but a return to the height of Norwegian power.
A number of Nords had already been brought into the German army, via either the Nordland or the Wiking division, even though neither of these were strictly Norwegian in nature. Terboven announced the creation of a fully Norwegian unit to fight against the USSR in June of 41, simply dubbed the Norwegian Legion. The formation of this unit was backed openly by Quisling, with it soon getting thousands of volunteers, most of them believing that they were to create the core of a new Norwegian army. One of the main propaganda tools for recruitment, was playing towards the general sympathy that many had towards the Finnish from their previous war against the Soviets in 1939. Many that would sign up, viewed it as an effort to save the Finns against future communist aggression. On top of that, a section of the NS, and thus a section of the Norwegian volunteers, were also interested in restoring Norway to it's territorial height of the 13th century which included Finnish land.