Tag Archives: denmark wwii

Leftovers

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An M270 150mm gun salvaged from the scuttled Danish cruiser Niels Juel, emplaced by the Germans at Frederikshavn, seen under new management circa May 1945– a beret-clad Danish resistance member with a British STEN gun. FHM-210592

When the Germans swept into Denmark in April 1940, the country, jutting like a finger out between the North Sea and Baltic Sea, had a few coastal artillery batteries dotting its shores, typically clustered around Copenhagen. These totaled just over 100 assorted guns in 10 batteries and forts.

The largest of these guns were five 30.5 cm MRK L/35 Krupp M1889 guns at the fortress island Middelgrundsfortet, accompanied by another dozen 17cm fortress guns from the same era, while similar fortress island Flakfortet had a half-dozen 8.3-inch M1913 guns. These works, built at the turn of the century and updated in the Great War and in the early 1930s when there was a real threat of war with neighboring Norway over Greenland (!), had guns mounted on barbette carriages and protected by armored shields and earthen ramparts. The ammunition and barracks areas were under concrete.

Middelgrundsfortet guns FHM-275366

Danish Cannon cleaning at Middelgrundsfortet THM-3280

Two Danish Navy conscripts present rifles in front of Middelgrundsfortet. Note the Krag rifles. THM-22156

Other batteries were simply guns removed from old warships, such as Kongelund Battery, on the southern end of the circa 1660s Copenhagen Fortress, which was armed in 1939 with four 150mm Bofors guns landed from the condemned coastal battleship Herluf Trolle.

Danish Den næstnordligste 7,5 cm kanon battery at Hørhaven, from guns taken from old torpedo boats

Caught unprepared due to tiny defense budgets, the Danes had several new batteries (Skagen-North, Läsö, Hjelm, Seelandsodde, Hornbek, et al) of surplus 5- and 6-inch guns planned but not finished.

Danish batteries in 1933, via Fortress Europe: European Fortifications Of World War II by JE Kaufmann.

Then came the Germans

The easy German fix to get around the Danish seacoast defenses around Copenhagen was to sail a converted passenger ship (Hansestadt Danzig) escorted by three gunboats, boldly into the capital city of the neutral country at 0420 when Operation Weserübung kicked off on 9 April 1940.

Filled with troops of the 2nd Bn, 308th Infantry Regiment, the men efficiently secured their objectives by 0600 on “Der Tag.”

Hansestadt Danzig landing troops in Copenhagen harbor during the invasion of Denmark, 9 April 1940

The Germans moved to rectify the condition of Danish coastal defenses and soon had two dedicated Marine Artillerie Bataillons (Nos. 308 and 309), rushed to Denmark within weeks to begin that sector’s length of the Atlantic Wall. Those two battalions were the first with the 10-battalion 180. Heeresküstenartillerie (HKAR) Dänemark, or coastal artillery regiment, was formed to oversee the enterprise.

Danish coastal artillery near Copenhagen operated by German gunners FHM-213114

Czech hedgehogs (Spærringer) at Hanstholm FHM-209998

By April 1945, at least 70 batteries existed in occupied Denmark in various states of construction and manning, with no less than 6,000 coastwise bunkers and 277 guns sized 3-inch or larger. The biggest pieces were giant, state-of-the-art, 15-inchers.

Just about every inch of the Danish coast was covered

As noted by a 1945 American survey, here are the guns by size and number:

 

7,5-cm – 15 batteries with total of 60 guns

8,8-cm –     5       ”                          19   ”

10,5-cm – 17        ”                          67   ”

12,0-cm –   3        ”                          16   ”

12,2-cm –   8        ”                          32   ”

12,7-cm –   5        ”                          20   ”

15,0-cm – 10        ”                          40   ”

17,0-cm –   2        ”                          16   ”

19,4-cm –   1        ”                            4   ”

21,0-cm –   1        ”                            6   ”

30,5-cm –   1        ”                            5   ”

38,0-cm –   2        ”                            8   “

A later Danish survey in 1946 came up with at least 79 batteries and well over 300 guns.

Several pieces were recycled Danish guns harvested from the country’s scuttled Navy.

On Fano Island, a battery of four guns, recovered from the lost Danish bathtub battleship Peder Skram, made up one battery, while another four 5.9-inch guns came from the battleship Gneisenau. A third battery was made up of French guns.

French cannon on Fano FHM-210127

Gneisenau’s 5.9-inch guns, set up on Fano Denmark FHM-210106

Gun from Peder Skram on Fano. FHM-210103

Among the more modern German pieces, the 7.5 cm Pak 40 was popular. Others included 76.2mm and 122mm Russian field artillery captured along the Eastern Front.

7.5 cm Pak 40M on Kattegat FHM-210360

There were also lots of very old (M1888) French 194mm pieces and Great War-era Schneider 105s– some 60 guns, reclassified as K 331(f)s in German service– and Creuzot 155s.

At Hanstholm, concrete fortifications up to 11 feet thick were constructed while the base mounted dozens of guns brought from occupied Poland and elsewhere, augmented by flamethrowers and over 30 assorted flak guns– many of the latter being British Vickers and French Hotchkiss.

Guns at Hanstholm FHM-209958

17cm gun at Hanstholm FHM-209981

Naval piece at Hanstholm FHM-210270

17 cm naval gun, Hanstholm, FHM-209953

The biggest, the eight pack of 38 cm (14.96″) SK C/34s, in two planned four-gun batteries at Oksby and Hanstholm, were Siegfried coastal artillery variants of the guns used on the Bismarck class battleships.

unmounted 38cm gun at Guldager near Esbjerg FHM-209862

38, cm gun, Hanstholm FHM-210072

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-209957

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-209964

38 cm kanon i Hanstholm FHM-210027

Gratefully, other than the occasional flak burst at passing Allied aircraft, none roared in anger during their time in Denmark.

German soldiers surrender their rifles at Kruså, Denmark – 17 May 1945. Norris (Sergeant) Photographer. IWM BU 6345

For a time, the Danes manned (or planned to man with reservists in case of war) some of the more modern batteries into the early 1950s, when even the last few were retired, seen as obsolete in an age of guided missiles and nuclear weapons. The bunkers often remained in use for other purposes until the end of the Cold War.

The majority of the guns were long ago scrapped, although a few have been retained as museum pieces.

M270 bunker med 150mm Bofors kanon fra Niels Juel at Bangsbo battery, Frederikshavn, by Carsten Wiehe via Wikimedia

Maskinpistolen!

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From the collection of the Danish Resistance Museum comes this amazing poster made just after the post-WWII Liberation.

Translation:

“The machine gun: Making STEN-Gun. The working drawings are exported and sent to several companies that each performed their part. Only 5 trusted men knew and worked at the ASSEMBLY SITE!!”

At least three Danish resistance groups (Ringen, BOPA, and Holder-Danske) were known to have manufactured Sten locally, with each giving the gun its own little tweaks, largely due to the materials available. Plumbers and bicycle shop owners proved particularly adept.

Making Holger Danske STEN guns Denmark Danish FHM-286695

Danish underground STEN workshop on Niels Finsens Allé in Søborg FHM-182982

Danish sten making workshop on Niels Finsens Allé, Søborg FHM-182978

Danish STEN BOPA’s workshop on Kongevejen in Holte FHM-182895

Danish homemade STEN BOPA workshop in Holte FHM-182924

They had a wild collection of differences, with each group setting up a thriving cottage industry, in many cases only dependent on the magazines (originals dropped from England or Suomi magazines smuggled from Sweden).

As detailed by the SADJ:

There were several variations of the Sten made by the different resistance organizations, of available materials. Producing barrels was a problem, largely solved by boring and re-rifling old rifle barrels. One Danish Sten copy was designed to use Suomi magazines. The Ringen Sten was a Danish design produced in small workshops using a number of aluminum castings.

Danish Resistance Sten Gun (Ringen type); butt, trigger housing and magazine housing are of aluminum alloy construction; lacks magazine. Height 195 mm., Length 910 mm., Width 100 mm. IWM (FIR 6156)

Same as above

Suomi quad mag Danish STEN Tøjhusmuseet in Copenhagen

Homemade Danish Sten in Freedom Museum FHM-261175

Danish Freedom Museum STEN collection FHM-316233

Danish homemade STEN coat gun FHM-153217

Danish homemade STEN. Note it is set up to accept an over-barrel suppressor. FHM-286723

Of course, there were some weapons dropped to the Danes via the efforts of the SOE and Free Danish forces in London.

Danish Resistance members process an SOE para-dropped weapon container at Søholt (Røgbølle Sø) on Lolland in March 1945. The picture was taken by the light from the headlights of the truck brought along. Note the M1 Carbines. FHM-200342 and 200349

Danish resistance STEN guns dropped via canister. Also note Mills bombs, explosives, and detonators. 

The assorted Danish Resistance groups counted some 90,110 members during the war, and while most of these were involved in passive resistance and intelligence gathering, they were very active when it came to rubbing out collaborators and informers, with Likvidering (liquidation) units assassinated upwards of 400 alone in 1943-1944 ala Flame & Citron.

The Resistance also helped spirit over 7,000 Danish Jews out of the country to nearby Sweden, helped hide Danish police and military personnel, ratline downed Allied aircrews back to Freedom, and kept British intelligence very well informed of German movements.

It was only after August 1944 (!) that the British SOE began dropping weapons to the Danes, totaling just 600 tons of munitions and supplies by March 1945, and followed that up with 53 SOE agents.

And when the order to take back the country came in May 1945, most areas of Denmark were self-liberated. The now in the open Resistance, wearing identification armbands, typically met the British as they arrived, the situation already in hand and, in many cases, the local German garrisons isolated and waiting to hand over their guns.

Danish Resistance, 1945, World War II sten mausers k98 m1 carbine stg44

Danish Freedom fighters in Vejle May 1945 STEN FHM-238868

Danish STEN guns at the Liberation

Danish STEN resistance Godthåbsvej, in Frederiksberg 1945 FHM-244069

Danish STEN resistance Godthåbsvej, in Frederiksberg 1945 FHM-244064

At least 850 members of the Danish Resistance would perish in the war, with 102 of those executed.

However, no one doubts that a few STENs haven’t been set back for a rainy day in Danish communities. They often show up at police stations, are found in attics, and handed quietly down with grandpa’s old things.

Turned in to a Danish police station in 2024: Mausers, Berthiers, STENs and a MP40

Last stand of the Danish Army

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In a sort of follow-up to the one-day 9 April 1940 invasion that saw an overwhelming German force steamroll the country by lunch, on 29 August 1943– some 80 years ago today– while we covered the actions of the Danish Navy already (see Copenhagen’s Finest), the Hæren made a final attempt to resist their unwanted neighbors to the south when the Germans made a move to stamp out a growing resistance and uprising through an armored fist.

The prelude included the famed Danish “cold shoulder” campaign, no less than 800 sabotage actions in the first eight months of 1943, and a series of strikes and public disorders in Esbjerg (9-11 August), Odense (18-23 August), Aalborg (23-29 August), and Århus (26-29 August), culminated with the Danish government submitting their resignation to the King on 28 August.

This led Gen. Hermann von Hanneken, the supreme commander of the German forces in Denmark, to declare martial law in an “emergency action” (Operation Safari) that led to the Danish military being disarmed and its personnel interned, at least briefly.

Denmark was largely used by the German military during the war as a training ground for its garrison, with many units stationed there long-term filled with older (age 38 was average) men unlikely to do well on more active fronts. Often units were sent to the country– unofficially dubbed the “Whipped Cream Front” due to the widespread availability of dairy products long scarce in Germany– to rest and reform before being shipped out to the Ostfront or elsewhere. 
 
At the time of Safari, the Germans had at their disposal in Denmark three infantry divisions including one Landesschützen (fortress infantry) (416. Inf.Div) and two second-line (160. Res.Div. and 166. Res.Div.), a Luftwaffe Field Division (20. Lw.-Feld Div.) made up of mobilized ground personnel pressed into an infantry role, and a second-line panzer division (233. Res.Pz.Div.) which had just arrived and included a mixed regiment of rebuilt Pz Kpfw IIIs and IVs.
 
A new infantry division (361. Inf.Div.) was being formed in the country from remnants of the battered 86th, 94th, and 137th Infantry Divisions under the command of Ritterkreuz-adorned GenLt. Siegmund Freiherr von Schleinitz, late of the old 9th Infantry.  

Unternehmen Safari: German panzers of 233. Res.Pz.Div. on the move in Copenhagen on the morning of 29 August 1943. FHM-170533

The occupied country’s pre-war left-socialist government had stripped the ostensibly 30,000-man two-division Danish Army by April 1940 to its bare minimum of just 15,000, then furloughing most of them until the force stood at just a 2,000-man cadre and about 6,600 conscripts on month two of their 11-month national service orders.

Even at this, post the German occupation, the Danish Army was paired down even further to just 2,200 men: the battalion-sized Royal Life Guards (Kongelige Livgarde) who were still allowed to protect the King, caretaker forces required for maintenance work at bases, and a small number of reserve officers and NCOs were allowed to train in the Army’s Kornet og løjtnantskole (Cornet and Lieutenant School).

Facing 60,000 panzer- and air-supported German troops, it was a no-win situation.

Still, there was resistance offered and the Danish army suffered about 60 casualties, inflicting roughly half as many on the Germans. 

An understrength company-sized unit at the Holbæk Barracks on the island of Zealand took to the street…

Soldiers from Holbæk Barracks prepare for battle, on Aug 29, 1943. Note the Madsen LMG with its distinctive 40-round magazine forward, Krag rifles, and their iconic Danish M23/38 Staalhjelm. FHM-170147

FHM-170119

…Then, with German armor coming up, saw the futility of their actions and managed to turn the resulting hour-long stalemate into an opportunity to scrap their guns.

They even paraded with their broken weapons before stacking them.

Soldiers from the garrison in Holbæk 29 August 1943 parade with broken guns before the arrival of the Germans. FHM-170129

FHM-170112

Several period color images, snapped by Flemming Find Andersen, detailing the Army Officer’s School detachment at the Jægersprislejren training grounds in Horns Herred, about 50 km from Copenhagen, going on alert on 29 August 1943 endure in the collection of the Nationalmuseet.

Drink in that period Danish battle rattle including Krag rifles and a M35 Swedish-Danish 37mm antitank gun the distance. FHM-159177

FHM-159176

At one point in the morning, they loaded up in privately owned trucks and readied to rush off to meet the Germans. Some discussion was made about a trip into the capital to link up with the Life Guards.

FHM-159178

FHM-159179

FHM-159182

In the end, the prospect of a company or so of officer cadets facing off against a German division proved futile, and they were ordered to lay down their arms.

FHM-159181

FHM-194501

They were interned at the Jægersprislejren until 31 October and then paroled, with most of the men going on to join the local resistance movements alongside the Freedom Council and donned their uniforms again during the final days of occupation, girded by both homemade STEN guns and weapons dropped via the SOE and OSS.

Perhaps the most important contribution the Danish Resistance had to the war was to smuggle acclaimed Danish physicist Niels Bohr out of the country to Sweden, where the RAF further extracted him to England and then to the U.S. where he met with Oppenheimer’s crew on the Manhattan Project. While Bohr only made minimal contributions to The Bomb, he did shed light for Opie and the gang on just what German big brain Werner Heisenberg was working on for Hitler– the two had met in Copenhagen in 1941— and importantly that he was doing it wrong– one of the most unsung kernels of strategic intelligence in WWII. 

Flash forward to May 1945

The Hæren effectively reformed in the streets and countryside on 4 May 1945, when upwards of 20,000 armed Danes took their country back.

Old helmets and uniforms were taken out of attics, and new guns added to old stocks carefully put away, as “The Day” had come. 

Meeting of Danish Resistance fighters in a farm in Rødvore just after the Freedom message aired on the BBC at 20:35 pm on the 4 of May 1945. (DINES BOGØ)

Rally of Danish Resistance fighters (Rødvore company) in the periphery of Copenhagen, days after the Freedom declaration of the 4th of May 1945. (DINES BOGØ)

Danish resistance fighters leading collaborators to the courthouse in Copenhagen, following the liberation of Denmark in May 1945. The resistance fighters are wearing black-painted Danish Army M23/40 Staalhjelms (without the front emblem) and are all armed with 9mm Swedish M37/39 Suomi pattern submachine guns.

Members of the Danish Resistance Movement (den danske modstandsbevægelse) photographed in Kalundborg in 1945. They are armed with Swedish-made 9mm Kpist M37/39 submachine guns (licenced-made variants of the Finnish Suomi KP/-31) and are wearing M23/40 Staalhjelms.

Freedom fighters in Aalborg after the liberation on 5 May 1945 FHM-238616

German soldiers surrendered to Danish Resistance FHM-218347

Danish resistance Frederiksberg Castle. Note the mix of Army, Navy, and police uniforms, helmets, and arms. FHM-320918

Battles in Odense 5 May 1945 FHM-239539

Resistance groups from Kulhuse, Kyndby, and Strandgården reoccupied the Jægersprislejren, on 6 May 1945, two days before VE-Day, and fired a salute on the parade ground as the Dannebrog was raised once again.

Today, the total strength of the Danish Army is approximately 9,000 professional troops, excluding conscripts undergoing basic training which brings total active strength to nearly 23,000, bolstered by some 60,000 reserves. Meanwhile, the Danish Home Guard counts some 40,000 members.

Training continues to be held at the Jægersprislejren.

The Danes Making Ready

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Denmark had a very brief baptism of fire during WWII. On 9 April 1940, the German Army swept across the unfortified border while simultaneously landing paratroops (the first use of such in combat) and conducting seaborne landings as well.

The Danish government, which had been controlled by socialists in the 1920s and 30s, had gutted the military and, while the rest of Europe was girding for the next war, the Danes were laying off career officers, disbanding regiments and basically burning the bridge before they even crossed it.

This made the German invasion, launched at 0400 that morning, a walkover of sorts and by 0800 the word had come down from Copenhagen to the units in the field to stand down and just let it happen.

That doesn’t mean isolated Danish units didn’t bloody the Germans up a bit. In fact, they inflicted some 200 casualties on the invaders while suffering relatively few (36) of their own. (More on that in detail here)

Five Danish soldiers with a 37mm anti-tank gun outside Hertug Hansgades Hospital in Haderslev on the morning of 9 April 1940

The head of the Royal Bodyguard, Colonel Mads Rahbek, in his function of Commandant in Copenhagen, installed a wreath in remembrance at the Vestre Kirkegård to the April 9 invasion on Friday. The large traditional ceremony was canceled due to COVID concerns.

To further commemorate the event, the Danish Ministry of Defense just released the two circa 1939 training films “Angrebet” (Attack) and “Forsvaret” (Defense) by Danish filmmakers Theodor Christensen and Ingolf Boisen. A total of 80 minutes in length, they detail field camouflage as well as basic small unit infantry tactics, and the like all while showing lots of really neat Danish military gear including Krag rifles and Madsen machine guns.

The films were reportedly also used extensively during the 1941-45 occupation era to train direct action cells in the Danish Resistance, a group that emerged strong and ready in April 1945.

Danish resistance fighters note the mix of arms to include an SOE-supplied BREN, several Danish Army Nagant revolvers, and a couple of very Darth Vaderish Royal Danish army helmets, the latter no doubt squirreled away in 1940 no doubt. 

Sometimes you have to break a few eggs

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Bjorn Sibbern was born May 18, 1916 in Soro, Denmark and by 1940 was a Danish police officer. When the Germans invaded he remained at his day job– which he as a cover to investigate those suspected of being Nazi informers– while at night he helped manufacture false papers for the underground.

And he also liked scrapbooking.

Bjorn Sibbern danish cop and underground welrod used to assasinate ID card of a female member of the Danish Nazi party photo via holocuast museum

As noted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about this page from his scrapbook donated to the museum:

The Danish police played a major role in support of the Danish resistance movement, and some documents relate directly to Mr. Sibbern’s work in the underground. He was in charge of the printing and issuance of false identification cards. There are several examples in the scrapbooks. The albums contain both real and forged cards as well as his forgery stamps. The scrapbooks also contain leaflets dropped over Denmark of Nazi propaganda, anti-Nazi cartoons and photographs of German officials, Danish collaborators, sabotage and demonstrations. Every page is fully annotated in English.

Pictured is a British Welrod, which Sibbern explains was used by Resistance “Liquidation” groups for rubbing out informers and high value targets. Chambered for .32ACP (7.65x17mm), the same caliber as many popular Italian, German, and Japanese pistols, the gun was stated to be able to fire a 72-grain Kynoch leadhead at 920fps.

The firearm developed by the SOE was not a traditional pistol fitted to a silencer—it was a pistol built around a silencer. To keep gas from escaping from a cylinder like on a revolver or a cycling action like on a semi-automatic, the Welrod was bolt action. The simple and effective bolt action could be worked rapidly for a follow-up shot if needed, and doubled as a safety device. The integral suppressor built around the barrel was made up of 12 thin metal washer baffles separated in groups by three leather wipes.

The baffles would start to deteriorate with use and typically was no longer suppressed after about 15-20 rounds, though could still be used as a rather funky pistol. The nose cap of the suppressor was hollowed out to allow it to be pressed into an intended target without undue back blast. The magazine itself, encased in a rubber sleeve like a bicycle handle, formed the pistol grip. With few moving parts, it could be broken down and stored in pieces that did not resemble a firearm. In fact when disassembled it rather looks like a bicycle pump, of which thousands were in common use in occupied Europe.

It was made in two varieties, the MkI and MkII.

“This pistol, only 11.5-inches long, gave off less noise than a pop-gun and was well-suited for ‘attic executions'” notes Sibbern.

Not your typical scrapbook.

April 9

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Denmark had a very brief baptism of fire during WWII. On April 9, 1940 the German Army swept across the unfortified border while simultaneously landing paratroops (the first use of such in combat) and conducting seaborne landings as well. The Danish government, which had been controlled by socialists in the 1920s and 30s, had gutted the military and, while the rest of Europe was girding for the next war, the Danes were laying off career officers, disbanding regiments and basically burning the bridge before they even crossed it.

This made the German invasion, launched at 0400 that morning, a walkover of sorts and by 0800 the word had come down from Copenhagen to the units in the field to stand down and just let it happen. That doesn’t mean isolated Danish units didn’t bloody the Germans up a bit. In fact, they inflicted some 200 casualties on the invaders while suffering relatively few (36) of their own. (More on that in detail here)

There is an upcoming movie from Nordisk Film on that desperate fight scheduled for release next month on the 75th anniversary of that scrap and it doesn’t look half bad.

“In the early morning of April 9th 1940 the Danish army is alerted. The Germans have crossed the border; Denmark is at war against Europe’s strongest army. In Southern Jutland Danish bicycle- and motorcycle companies are ordered out, to against all odds, hold back the forces until the Danish reinforcements can be mobilized. In the fatal hours, we follow second lieutenant Sand (Pilou Asbæk) and his bicycle company – they will as the first Danish soldiers meet the enemy in combat on April 9th 1940.”