FOCUS

CANADAS CAMP NORWAY AND LITTLE NORWAY

By Victor Pittman

n 1940, Norway, with a population of some 3,000,000, had t h e third largest ocean-going merchant fleet in the world. When Nazi Germany invaded Norway on 9 April of that year, over 1,100 of those ships were at sea. King Haakon VII and the Government immediately ordered them all to proceed to Allied ports. Not one refused, despite messages from the Quisling government ordering them to return home. The Antarctic whaling fleet, with about 2,000 m en, c ame into Halif ax in the spring of 1940 and many of the ships were converted for wartime usage.
King Haakon VII

After two months of fighting, the Norwegian forces had to capitulate but the King and Government escaped to England, where they s et up a Government-in-exile (GIE), took control of all Norwegian ships outside of Nor way thr ough Nortraship (The Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission) and put them at the disposal of the Allies. This was a very important contribution because up until 1942 Norwegian

combat planes some 20 million dollars worth bought from the United States (US), but not delivered to Norway. They comprised Fairchild trainers, Curtiss fighters, Douglas attack bombers and Northrop patrol seaplanes. They were later joined by Harvard trainers purchased with some o f the $400,000 received under the Wings for Norway and Mark Romanow fundraising campaign which received contribution s fro m various Nordic associations, including some $100,000 from Swedish-Americans, Norwegian expatriates, Americans and Canadians . In 19 42 a second TC, for elementary flying, was establis hed at Muskoka airport, 120 miles north of Toro nto, and once the Royal Canadian A i r Force purchas ed t h e Toronto TC Little Norway was transferred to Muskoka, although Prince Harald, five-year-old future King of Norway, the original aerodrome during his first visit to Little Norway with Princesses was still at the disposal of Ragnhild and Astrid. the Norwegians. Once the ships carried about half of the fuel and US entered the war some equipment oil and one-third of all other supplies was also received under the lend-lease transported to Britain. The Norwegian agreement as the Norwegian Merchant merchant fleet lost 570 ships, suffered Marine is of vital importance to the nearly 4,000 seamen dead and about defence of the US, the US would put 6,000 wounded. The GIE paid for all some of her immense resources at the Norwegian military activities overseas disposal of the Norwegian government. during the war through the income genThere was also a small Norwegian Army basic training camp in Lunenburg erated by Nortraship. for a short time (March, 1942 to May, In Halifax, the Norwegians set up 1943). This came about because at the offices for the Royal Norwegian Navy beginning of the war there were some and Nortraship as well as a hospital. In 2,600 Nor wegian men liable for November, 1940 they established a conscription in Canada and the US and training facility, Camp Norway, in the Norwegian Army hoped to be able Lunenburg to train civilian seamen to to draft and train them here. Both man the guns being installed on their Canadian and US law prohibited foreign merchant ships. Camp Norway was citizens residing in these countries moved to Travers Island, New York, in f r o m being drafted into the forces of 1943, by which time 635 gunners and their homelands so the camp had to be 450 crew for converted whalers and disbanded and the men dispersed to other vessels had been trained. other units. b Canada was the main training ground for the re-established Air Force with the main Training Centre (TC), Little Nor way, set up in Tor onto . Training was initially conducted using

Victor Pittman is a retired Federal public servant living in Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia. Mark Romanow is VANGUARDS contributing Editor/Analyst.

VANGUARD

14

Issue 6, 2000