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Den Norske Legion Frw. Legion Norwegen |
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Den norske Legion (Frw. Leg. Norwegen) was initiated by Norway’s Prime Minister Vidkun Quisling and Reichskommisar to Norway Joseph Terboven after Germany’s attack on Russia June 1941. The initial plan was for a unit 30,000 men strong, but the total numbers eventually ended up falling far short of this goal.
There were many arguments for volunteering. Strongest was most likely the urge many Norwegians felt to help Finland in their war against Russia. But it was also the desire to be a part of the new Norwegian army and help to fight bolshevism before it reached the borders of Norway. Thus, many volunteers had previous military experience and had actually fought against Germany during the invasion of Norway in April 1940.
It was emphasized very early that DNL would be a pure Norwegian unit, set up with Norwegian commanding officers and fighting with Norwegian uniforms. The disappointment among the volunteers was great when they discovered that the unit would be under German command and the uniforms would be German. Even bigger was the disappointment when the soldiers found out they were on their way to Leningrad and not Finland like most had hoped.
The unit was formed 29th June 1941, but not deployed to the front in Leningrad until February 1942. It remained there until it was disbanded in March 1943.
The only battalion formed was known as “Viken” battalion and was initially under command by Major Finn Hanibal Kjelstrup, while Sturmbannfuhrer Arthur Qvist led DNL into battle on the Eastern Front.
The initial military training was given at Fallingbostel Camp in Germany. When deployed, the unit was sent by Ju52 transport aircraft to Leningrad where it supported the 2nd SS (motorized) Infantry-Brigade and the 250th Spanish Blue Division. The 2nd SS Infantry-Brigade was an international unit which consisted of Latvians, Dutch and Flemish volunteers.
The effective strength of the Legion was 1150 men in April 1942 with an additional 150 on reserve. Even though the recruitment efforts in Norway continued throughout the Legion’s existence, it never grew any larger than this. Reinforcements were sent from Norway, including 93 men from the 1st Norwegian Police Company under command by Sturmbannführer Jonas Lie, also Minister of Police under the Quisling government. At the end of December 1942, the Legion’s strength was down to 20 officers and 678 other ranks.
One of the fiercest battles of Frw. Legion Norwegen was during the Battle of Urizk 21st and 22nd April 1942. While the Legion remarkably only lost 3 soldiers during this battle, the Russians lost hundreds, which was most attributed to their tactics of the “human wave” and that their retreating soldiers were shot by their own.
On 1st March 1943, the Legion, together with the 1st Police Company was withdrawn from the front and sent back to Norway on leave. 600 members of the Legion were sent to Grafenwohr Training Camp in Germany in May 1943, where the Legion was disbanded. The Norwegian volunteers were offered to re-enlist in the new 23rd SS Panzer-Grenadier Regiment Norge. A total of 175 members of “Den norske Legion” gave their life on the battlefront and while serving their unit in the fight against bolshevism.
In 1943 an extensive pictorial memorial book named Legionsminner was published in Norway to commemorate the Legion and its history. This book is today highly sought after by collectors, and was in 1986 translated to English by Richard Landwehr and sold in the United States. The complete (161 pages) Legionsminner is available here as a pdf file. This download is free, but we kindly ask for a $5 donation by Paypal for the download of this important book. See Paypal link below. Thank you! |
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