Spitfire
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 5,078
- Location
- Copenhagen, Denmark.
I have threatened/promised to do this many times, so I have better do it now. Write about the occupation of Denmark and the resistance, as seen through the eyes of my father.
The reason I can do this, is that he already has written down his memoirs to my two sons – and off course from the tales he has told med through the years.
He was no hero - he did not do any historical, heroic things - he was just an ordinary young man. Dressed in the latest fashion among resitancemembers: The trenchcoat made out of bedsheets (because of clothshortage),the stengun hanging under the coat and the beret or fedora on his head, he went to war.
Because he did not like the thought of Germans - or anybody else for that matter - should rule over his country.
Here is the story of my fathers war.
The 9th of april 1940 – in the early hours of morning – Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. My father was 20 years old and working in a men’s fashion shop at that time.
Strangely enough, the Germans let Denmark keep it’s army, navy and air force (or what was left of it, after the air strikes of the morning) for the time being. And my father was about to be called up to do service in the Royal Guard.
After the 16 months of service he came out again, and more or less slid in to the resistance. In the beginning it was mostly printing and distribution of illegal newspapers, radio transmitting to London and collecting and hiding the very scares weapons they had.
According to my father it was very much like playing cowboys and Indians in the beginning. They did some absolutely stupid things and got away with them, because – as he later said – “the Germans were so highly trained soldiers, that they could not believe anybody would do something as stupid, as we did.”
One insistence that illustrates this perfectly, was the plan to blow up a factory, that produced radio spare parts with a bottle of nitro-glycerine.
They had no explosives at that moment – it was not until later in the war, the allied began dropping weapons and explosives in large numbers.
So the brilliant plan was this:
One in the group had access to some nitro-glycerine. And in order to make it exploded – and be on the safe side themselves, they constructed a device consisting of a metal three-legged foot, where the bottle with nitro-glycerine should be placed under.
On top of the foot a piece of cardboard were placed over a whole and on top of the cardboard they would place a electrical iron.
The plan was simple: After they were inside the factory, they would place the bottle under the device . Plug in the iron and run. At some moment the iron would burn through the cardboard and drop down on the bottle and BUUUUUMMMM!!!
Luckily they never did it – otherwise I would probably not have been born.
Because of the shortage of weapons, they also stole a lot of weapons from the Germans. Either by simply holding them up on the streets and pinch their pistols – or more organized, by raiding dancehalls and restaurants where German officers had left their caps and pistolbelts in the cloakrooms.
They also experimented with making "hangrenades" out of TNT and tin soapboxes. Not the most reliable and highly dangerous - also to themselves.
In the beginning of the war, the resistance was looked upon as troublemakers or communists – and a lot of Danes worked closely together with the Germans.
I have only heard of one insistence where my father was involved in killing a collaborator.
The group he was in needed explosives very badly, and suddenly a man contacted one of them, telling them, that “he could get some”.
Non of them really knew this guy, and they got suspicious. He constantly asked them for a meeting, where they should all come, in order to carry as much explosives and weapons away as possible. They smelled a trap and decided to do something about it.
So they agreed on a meeting in a huge park with a rather large lake. When the evening arrived only my father and another man from the group met this man, he was very nervous and asked where the others were. Suddenly they heard some cars arriving outside the park – which could only be Germans or the police, since nobody else had any petrol. So they shot the man, dumped him in the lake and ran away.
In 1943 the cover for the group my father was in was blown. One of them had left a briefcase in a house, where they had held up the family in order to get some cars. The man in the family worked together with the Germans, so the only felt it was OK to steal his cars. But unfortunately this guy forgot a briefcase in the rush.
In the briefcase were a list of names of everybody connected to the group, cover addresses, safe houses etc. etc.
It was not long before the first one got arrested, and when the Gestapo tortured him, nobody knew what or how much he would say. So they decided to “go underground” hide in different places outside Copenhagen or flee to neutral Sweden.
For 3 months my father lived with some relatives, until he decided the coast was clear and he could return home. At that time he had been married to my mother for a year, and they lived in a house in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
They had agreed on a sign, if the coast was not clear. A window should be left open.
Many times the Gestapo simply waited inside the flats or houses, for the resistance members to return, so this was their sign.
When my father arrived late in night, the window was wide open.
He ran away and hid in some garden shack in the neighbourhood.
Next morning he tried to make a telephone call to my mother, and then he found out about the open window. There were no Gestapo – but instead my mothers sister and her husband had been visiting the night before. My mother thought she would let out all the tobacco smoke (back then everybody smoked) but she forgot to close the window.
For half a year my father could stay home, tend to his work in the daytime and fight the Germans at night. They got more and more weapons, and at some time, they had so many, that they needed to move some of them – among them 25 German Mauserrifles, stolen from the Wehrmacht.
Again they did something extremely naïve and stupid – but again, nobody believed they would do such a thing, so they got away with it. As mentioned, petrol and cars was very scares. So they had to move the weapons, explosives and rifles by hand and foot. And in the daytime because of curfew.
Handgrenades, explosives and ammunition went into some wheelbarrows with dirt on top.
And the rifles were camouflaged as rosetrees with a sack with dirt in the bottom, some brown paper around and a few branches and flower from a rosebush in the barrel.
With that they walked in broad daylight and passed two German patrols under way.
My father was involved with some more sabotages on different factories producing warmaterial for the Germans, until it went wrong one more time.
After a narrow escape, where they had to shoot their way out, one of the members of the group got wounded and were left. He got picked up by the HIPOs – Danes in German service – and they all knew he would be tortured and later shot.
Once again my father had to “go under ground” and this time for a very long time.
In the winter of 1944 he came back and went into a group connected to the former Danish army.
In august 1943 the Germans arrested the Danish police, the army was interned and later sent home and the navy managed to sink many of its ships. Many officers went into the resistance. The group was highly organised, had many weapons and was a socalled “Standby Group” which should be thrown into combat as soon as either the allied arrived or the Germans surrendered.
As everybody knows, the Germans surrendered the 5th of may. But already in the evening the 4th of may it was transmitted by radio from BBC.
That evening the whole family was together at my grandmothers – my fathers mother – who had birthday that day. When half of the party sprinted out the door, my father to meet up with his group and maybe fight the Germans or the HIPOs – my grandmother said the later so famous words:
“Montgomery could very well have waited – after all it is my birthday!”
The occupation was over.
My father said later on, that he could not hate the German soldier, but he hated what they represented. He had very little concern with shooting at - and maybe killing Danes in German service.
On the other hand he also knew, that there was a very thin line between joining the resistance or – as two of his school buddies did - fight communism in the Waffen SS.
He comes from a very conservative home, where Finland’s fight against Russia was looked upon as something great and heroic.
And it was some of the same danis soldiers who volunteered to fight for Finland, who later on volunteered to fight on against the Soviet Union in Waffen SS.
Luckily he decided to fight for liberty in his own country. And I am even happier that he survived and live to this day.
Sorry if this got a bit long – on the other hand, I hope some of you, might find it worth your while.
Here is my father in the gala uniform of the Royal Guard. The only time he ever had it on, was the 10 minutes at the photographer. The rest of the time they wore fielduniforms.
He he is - almost hidden in the background - with his group may 5 1945.
And here to the left - horsing around with one from his group - dressed in danish army uniforms, may 5 1945
The reason I can do this, is that he already has written down his memoirs to my two sons – and off course from the tales he has told med through the years.
He was no hero - he did not do any historical, heroic things - he was just an ordinary young man. Dressed in the latest fashion among resitancemembers: The trenchcoat made out of bedsheets (because of clothshortage),the stengun hanging under the coat and the beret or fedora on his head, he went to war.
Because he did not like the thought of Germans - or anybody else for that matter - should rule over his country.
Here is the story of my fathers war.
The 9th of april 1940 – in the early hours of morning – Nazi Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. My father was 20 years old and working in a men’s fashion shop at that time.
Strangely enough, the Germans let Denmark keep it’s army, navy and air force (or what was left of it, after the air strikes of the morning) for the time being. And my father was about to be called up to do service in the Royal Guard.
After the 16 months of service he came out again, and more or less slid in to the resistance. In the beginning it was mostly printing and distribution of illegal newspapers, radio transmitting to London and collecting and hiding the very scares weapons they had.
According to my father it was very much like playing cowboys and Indians in the beginning. They did some absolutely stupid things and got away with them, because – as he later said – “the Germans were so highly trained soldiers, that they could not believe anybody would do something as stupid, as we did.”
One insistence that illustrates this perfectly, was the plan to blow up a factory, that produced radio spare parts with a bottle of nitro-glycerine.
They had no explosives at that moment – it was not until later in the war, the allied began dropping weapons and explosives in large numbers.
So the brilliant plan was this:
One in the group had access to some nitro-glycerine. And in order to make it exploded – and be on the safe side themselves, they constructed a device consisting of a metal three-legged foot, where the bottle with nitro-glycerine should be placed under.
On top of the foot a piece of cardboard were placed over a whole and on top of the cardboard they would place a electrical iron.
The plan was simple: After they were inside the factory, they would place the bottle under the device . Plug in the iron and run. At some moment the iron would burn through the cardboard and drop down on the bottle and BUUUUUMMMM!!!
Luckily they never did it – otherwise I would probably not have been born.
Because of the shortage of weapons, they also stole a lot of weapons from the Germans. Either by simply holding them up on the streets and pinch their pistols – or more organized, by raiding dancehalls and restaurants where German officers had left their caps and pistolbelts in the cloakrooms.
They also experimented with making "hangrenades" out of TNT and tin soapboxes. Not the most reliable and highly dangerous - also to themselves.
In the beginning of the war, the resistance was looked upon as troublemakers or communists – and a lot of Danes worked closely together with the Germans.
I have only heard of one insistence where my father was involved in killing a collaborator.
The group he was in needed explosives very badly, and suddenly a man contacted one of them, telling them, that “he could get some”.
Non of them really knew this guy, and they got suspicious. He constantly asked them for a meeting, where they should all come, in order to carry as much explosives and weapons away as possible. They smelled a trap and decided to do something about it.
So they agreed on a meeting in a huge park with a rather large lake. When the evening arrived only my father and another man from the group met this man, he was very nervous and asked where the others were. Suddenly they heard some cars arriving outside the park – which could only be Germans or the police, since nobody else had any petrol. So they shot the man, dumped him in the lake and ran away.
In 1943 the cover for the group my father was in was blown. One of them had left a briefcase in a house, where they had held up the family in order to get some cars. The man in the family worked together with the Germans, so the only felt it was OK to steal his cars. But unfortunately this guy forgot a briefcase in the rush.
In the briefcase were a list of names of everybody connected to the group, cover addresses, safe houses etc. etc.
It was not long before the first one got arrested, and when the Gestapo tortured him, nobody knew what or how much he would say. So they decided to “go underground” hide in different places outside Copenhagen or flee to neutral Sweden.
For 3 months my father lived with some relatives, until he decided the coast was clear and he could return home. At that time he had been married to my mother for a year, and they lived in a house in the suburbs of Copenhagen.
They had agreed on a sign, if the coast was not clear. A window should be left open.
Many times the Gestapo simply waited inside the flats or houses, for the resistance members to return, so this was their sign.
When my father arrived late in night, the window was wide open.
He ran away and hid in some garden shack in the neighbourhood.
Next morning he tried to make a telephone call to my mother, and then he found out about the open window. There were no Gestapo – but instead my mothers sister and her husband had been visiting the night before. My mother thought she would let out all the tobacco smoke (back then everybody smoked) but she forgot to close the window.
For half a year my father could stay home, tend to his work in the daytime and fight the Germans at night. They got more and more weapons, and at some time, they had so many, that they needed to move some of them – among them 25 German Mauserrifles, stolen from the Wehrmacht.
Again they did something extremely naïve and stupid – but again, nobody believed they would do such a thing, so they got away with it. As mentioned, petrol and cars was very scares. So they had to move the weapons, explosives and rifles by hand and foot. And in the daytime because of curfew.
Handgrenades, explosives and ammunition went into some wheelbarrows with dirt on top.
And the rifles were camouflaged as rosetrees with a sack with dirt in the bottom, some brown paper around and a few branches and flower from a rosebush in the barrel.
With that they walked in broad daylight and passed two German patrols under way.
My father was involved with some more sabotages on different factories producing warmaterial for the Germans, until it went wrong one more time.
After a narrow escape, where they had to shoot their way out, one of the members of the group got wounded and were left. He got picked up by the HIPOs – Danes in German service – and they all knew he would be tortured and later shot.
Once again my father had to “go under ground” and this time for a very long time.
In the winter of 1944 he came back and went into a group connected to the former Danish army.
In august 1943 the Germans arrested the Danish police, the army was interned and later sent home and the navy managed to sink many of its ships. Many officers went into the resistance. The group was highly organised, had many weapons and was a socalled “Standby Group” which should be thrown into combat as soon as either the allied arrived or the Germans surrendered.
As everybody knows, the Germans surrendered the 5th of may. But already in the evening the 4th of may it was transmitted by radio from BBC.
That evening the whole family was together at my grandmothers – my fathers mother – who had birthday that day. When half of the party sprinted out the door, my father to meet up with his group and maybe fight the Germans or the HIPOs – my grandmother said the later so famous words:
“Montgomery could very well have waited – after all it is my birthday!”
The occupation was over.
My father said later on, that he could not hate the German soldier, but he hated what they represented. He had very little concern with shooting at - and maybe killing Danes in German service.
On the other hand he also knew, that there was a very thin line between joining the resistance or – as two of his school buddies did - fight communism in the Waffen SS.
He comes from a very conservative home, where Finland’s fight against Russia was looked upon as something great and heroic.
And it was some of the same danis soldiers who volunteered to fight for Finland, who later on volunteered to fight on against the Soviet Union in Waffen SS.
Luckily he decided to fight for liberty in his own country. And I am even happier that he survived and live to this day.
Sorry if this got a bit long – on the other hand, I hope some of you, might find it worth your while.
Here is my father in the gala uniform of the Royal Guard. The only time he ever had it on, was the 10 minutes at the photographer. The rest of the time they wore fielduniforms.
He he is - almost hidden in the background - with his group may 5 1945.
And here to the left - horsing around with one from his group - dressed in danish army uniforms, may 5 1945
