The Rescue of Norway's Gold: A WWII Story, Part 1 & A GIVEAWAY

by Cindy K. Stewart

For the past two months, I’ve shared the experiences of two prominent figures who lived through the German invasion of Norway in April 1940. If you missed those posts, you can read them here and here. Among the miraculous accounts from this event is the story of how every bit of Norway’s gold reserves was saved from the Nazis and spirited out of the country right under the enemy’s noses. If the Germans had obtained it, they would have gained more wealth to supply their war machine.

Norwegian Gold Coin - Public Domain
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Although Norway was neutral during WWII, Nicolai Rygg, the director of Norges Bank where the nation’s gold reserves resided, made preparations in case Norway should fall or a crisis develop. Early in 1940, Rygg brought in volunteers to pack bars of gold in white painted boxes and seal them with iron bands. Bags of gold coins were packed in smaller kegs. Of the 421 million Krone stored in the bank, 300 million was shipped to the United States. The rest was left in the vault because Norwegian law did not allow all the gold to be removed from the country at one time.

After Rygg learned that German warships were headed up the Oslo Fjord on April 9^th, Rygg contacted General Laake, the Commander-in-Chief of military forces, who ordered Rygg to immediately evacuate the gold to the bank in Lillehammer. Moments later, Rygg learned that the Germans already occupied major cities but hadn’t reached Oslo (the sinking of the Blücher kept the Germans from seizing the capital for an extra eight hours).

Norges Bank at Oslo 1906-1986. Courtesy of Norges Bank.

Twenty-six trucks were chartered from local merchants, and the drivers were directed to the side entrance of the bank but were not informed about what they would be carrying. Bank guards were placed close to the bank to keep inquisitive eyes away, but the military was not used to avoid drawing attention to the operation. The bank employees loaded the gold.

Each truck, along with two armed bank guards, drove away immediately after loading so there was no convoy to draw the attention of the Luftwaffe. The first truck left at 8:15 AM and the last truck shortly before 1:30 PM. German soldiers marched down the main street of Oslo at exactly the same time, and the Norwegian commander of the Oslo garrison surrendered the city at 2:00 PM at the Akershus Fort, only a couple hundred yards from Norges Bank.

A Gold Bar from the Norges Bank. Courtesy of Norges Bank.

The gold shipment totaled 818 large crates, 685 smaller crates, and 39 kegs of gold coins. Lillehammer was 115 miles from Oslo, and the trucks traveled over snow-laden roads. Vehicles and pedestrians fleeing the capital slowed down the trucks, and people became angry because the trucks didn’t stop to help them. The last truck arrived at the bank in Lillehammer at 8:00 PM.

The bank employees in Lillehammer tucked the gold away in their vault; however, they could only unload the cargo when the Luftwaffe wasn’t flying over them. The media picked up on the activity and broadcast that trucks of gold were arriving in Lillehammer. A Trondheim newspaper also reported on the shipment, but the Germans did not pick up on the reports. The Royal Family, the Norwegian government, and the Norwegian gold had escaped for the time being!

The gold remained at Lillehammer for ten days while the Norwegians barricaded the roads and kept the Germans from advancing. Rygg checked on the gold twice and on the second trip, he asked the bank manager, Andreas Lund, to memorize the numbers to the vault lock. Frequent bombing raids forced the bank to close and wait to reopen until the planes disappeared.

Norges Bank at Lillehammer. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

On April 14th, 15 German transport planes dropped about 180 lightly armed paratroopers in the Dombås area, northwest of Lillehammer. They were spread over a wide area, and the Norwegian troops successfully killed or captured them over a five-day period. This kept the railway lines to the north and the west coast open. 

In the mean time, it became obvious that the Germans could overtake Lillehammer at any time. Oscar Torp, the Norwegian Minister of Finance, tasked Fredrik Haslund, Secretary of the Labour Party, with transporting the gold from Lillehammer to the port of Åndalsnes where the British Royal Navy could take it safely away. On April 17^th, the British—determined to assist the Norwegians in ousting the Germans—had landed a large number of troops and equipment at three Norwegian ports—Harstad, Namsos, and Åndalsnes. 

United States Military Academy Dept. of History - Courtesy of Wikipedia - Public Domain

At midnight on April 19^th, orders came to open the bank vault door. Unfortunately due to fear and anxiety, Lund had a difficult time getting the lock to the brand new vault open—it had only been opened once before and Lund was operating by memory. He finally succeeded with the code a little past 1:00 AM.

Haslund had recruited the Lillehammer chief of police who assembled 30 volunteers who met at a secret location at 10:00 PM. They were armed with spades and shovels so they would appear to be preparing to dig trenches. Instead they were quietly transported to the bank and loaded the trucks which took the gold to the railway station, a short distance away. The gold was loaded onto the wooden railcars. A small group of soldiers was ordered to accompany the train, but the men weren’t told what they were guarding. They soon figured out the contents because of the Norges Bank initials displayed on the outside of each container.

Lillehammer Train Station. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons - Public Domain

The train left Lillehammer at 4:00 AM with its lights dimmed in case any Luftwaffe aircraft flew over. When dawn approached, the bullion train stopped at Otta and pulled onto a siding to wait for a safer time to proceed. Later, a train arrived at Otta Station from the north with three carriages full of British soldiers who had their thumbs in the air. The Norwegians were encouraged. Little did they know what dangers lay ahead.

Click here for the link to Part II (February 1st).
Click here for the link to Part III (March 1st).

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Source:  Gold Run by Robert Pearson. Casemate Publishers, 2015.

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Cindy Stewart, a high school social studies teacher, church pianist, and inspirational historical fiction author, semi-finaled in the American Christian Fiction Writer’s 2017 Genesis contest, and won ACFW’s 2014 First Impressions contest in the historical category. Cindy is passionate about revealing God’s handiwork in history. She resides in North Georgia with her college sweetheart and husband of thirty-seven years and near her married daughter, son-in-law, and four adorable grandchildren. She’s currently writing a fiction series set in WWII Europe.

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GIVEAWAY: Leave a comment below by Thursday, 1/3, at 8:00 EST to be entered in the drawing for Tricia Goyer's WWII book, A Daring Escape. If you share my post on social media and mention that you've shared in your comment, you will earn a second chance to win the giveaway. 

New Year's Trivia

Tonight, millions of people will celebrate the new year. In the United States, New Year's Eve is celebrated with fancy parties and concerts, family-oriented activities, and public events such as firework shows and "drops." My husband and I tend to stay home, unless we go out to dinner or to an early movie or over to a friend's house to play games.

I thought it might be interesting to talk about some New Year's Eve and Day trivia today. For starters, did you know that New Year's wasn't always celebrated on January 1st? 

The early Roman calendar designated March 1st, as the new year. The calendar had just ten months then, beginning with March. Later, the calendar was extended by two months, but even before the Gregorian calendar was officially adopted as the standard, people had already begun celebrating New Years Day on January 1st.

The New York ball drop is over 100 years old. The first drop was in 1907, which is about six weeks after my home state of Oklahoma became a state. The ball has dropped every year, except for a couple during World War II.

The New Year's Eve kiss has been around since the Middle Ages. Historians say that it originated with German or English folklore, which believed that the first person you kissed would set the tone for the new year.

On January 1, 1788, Quakers in Pennsylvania freed their slaves, anticipating the emancipation of chattel slaves in the United States that occurred some seventy-five years later.

In some parts of the world, to insure a healthy household in the coming year, it is customary for the head of the household to spank his wife on New Years Day.

Queen Victoria became empress of India on January 1, 1877.

In 1969, Congress introduced the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act, which would ban cigarette ads from TV and radio, mostly because of the FCC's urges that the ads broke the Fairness Doctrine. The act was signed on April 1, 1970, but didn't go into effect until January 2, 1971.

Ricky Nelson
(film studio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons)

Ricky Nelson, an America rock and roll star died on December 31st, 1985 when his plane crashed, just two miles from the landing strip. Nelson and the rest of the passengers were flying to Dallas for a New Year's Eve concert.

According to data at Box Office Mojo, the highest box office sales draw for a movie on a New Year's day is held by Avatar.

Hawaii was one of the last places on earth to celebrate the new millennium on Jan. 1st, 2000.
What do Paul Revere, J. Edgar Hoover, Lorenzo de Medici, Betsy Ross and Pope Alexander VI have in common?

All of these historical figures came into the world on January 1st. According to tradition, babies born on the first of the year grow up to enjoy the luckiest of lives, bringing joy and good fortune to those around them. I wonder someone born on January 1, 2019 will grow up to greatly influence our world. 

So be honest, do you eat black-eyed peas for New Years Day? If not, do you eat some other food each year? Do you make New Year's resolutions?

Releasing tomorrow! The Runaway Brides Collection. What happens when seven brides get cold feet at the altar?

Amy’s home is at stake if she doesn’t marry her neighbor. Delia’s father wants her to marry into a political family. Georgiana is posing as a wealthy man’s wife in order to hide from her groom. Callie is fleeing one wedding and racing to marry a stranger. Emily flees her wedding with the help of a mysterious coachman. Josey’s best friend leaves a letter proposing marriage unanswered in order to elope. Bernadine becomes the ward and pawn of her evil uncle. Where will each turn when they have only God to trust?

Vickie McDonough is the best-selling author of 50 books and novellas, with over 1.5 million copies sold. Vickie grew up wanting to marry a rancher, but instead, she married a computer geek who is scared of horses. She now lives out her dreams penning romance stories about ranchers, cowboys, lawmen, and others living in the Old West. Vickie’s books have won numerous awards including the Booksellers Best and the Inspirational Choice awards. When she’s not writing, Vickie enjoys reading, doing stained glass projects, gardening watching movies, and traveling. To learn more about Vickie’s books or to sign up for her newsletter, visit her website: www.vickiemcdonough.com

HHH Book Day

Avice Touchet has always dreamed of marrying for love and that love would be her best friend, Philip Greslet. She’s waited five years for him to see her as the woman she’s become but when a visiting lord arrives with secrets that could put her father in prison, Avice must consider a sacrificial marriage.

Philip Greslet has worked his whole life for one thing—to be a castellan—and now it is finally in his grasp. But when Avice rebuffs his new lord’s attentions, Philip must convince his best friend to marry the lord against his heart’s inclination to have her as his own.

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Rosalinda knows she will never escape her past, both the choices forced on her and the mistakes she’s made. She longs to find a place to live in peace—where she can learn to mother her children and where Lucio Armenta won’t be a constant reminder of the love she can never have. Lucio wants to marry. However, Rosalinda, the only woman he’s ever been attracted to, doesn’t meet the ideals he’s set for his future wife. When he discovers she, and her adorable brood, are accompanying him to his sister and brother-in-law’s, he objects. An objection that is overruled. When secrets from Lucio’s past are exposed, and Rosalinda faces choices no woman should have to make, will their growing love, and their faith, survive? 

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The Runaway Brides Collection: 7 Historical Brides Get Cold Feet at the Altar

What is a woman of the 1800s to do when she feels powerless to choose her own spouse and marry for love—run!

Amy’s home is at stake if she doesn’t marry her neighbor. Delia’s father wants her to marry into a political family. Georgiana is posing as a wealthy man’s wife in order to hide from her groom. Callie is fleeing one wedding and racing to marry a stranger. Emily flees her wedding with the help of a mysterious coachman. Josey’s best friend leaves a letter proposing marriage unanswered in order to elope. Bernadine becomes the ward and pawn of her evil uncle. Where will each turn when they have only God to trust?
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The crusading daughter of a Washington politician, Marietta Hamilton comes between twin brothers as the country plunges toward Civil War. Horse traders from Virginia, Ethan Sharpe and his brother Devon would defend their livelihood from her interfering kind. When love ignites, friends become enemies separated over the course of a long and brutal conflict. Can the very influences which carved a chasm unite a torn family against all odds?

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Two families discover what they’re looking 

for in the fledgling mine-supply town of Cañon City, Colorado. Read their three-generation story spanning nearly thirty years in the complete collection of The Cañon City Chronicles, Books 1, 2 & 3. “Follow the generations with three touching romances, each one better than the last.” –Amazon review

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Pregnant and alone, Dori Bontrager is sure her Amish kin won’t welcome her—or the child she’s carrying—into the community. And she’s determined that her return won’t be permanent. As soon as she finds work, she’ll leave again. But with her childhood friend Eli Hochstetler insisting she and her baby belong here, will Dori’s path lead back to the Englisher world…or into Eli’s arms?                     Buy Here

Widowed during the war, Natalie Ellis finds herself solely responsible for Rose Hill plantation. When Union troops arrive with a proclamation freeing the slaves, all seems lost. How can she run the plantation without slaves? In order to save her son’s inheritance she strikes a deal with the arrogant, albeit handsome, Colonel Maish. In exchange for use of her family’s property, the army will provide workers to bring in her cotton crop. But as her admiration for the colonel grows, a shocking secret is uncovered. Can she trust him with her heart and her young, fatherless son?

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Sautee Shadows: Book One of The Georgia Gold Series begins the sweeping saga of four families whose lives intertwine through romance, adventure and mystery, linking antebellum Georgia's coast and mountains during the mid-1800s.

Journey back to a time when the foothills of Northeast Georgia were scarcely more than a frontier, a summer retreat for the state's wealthy coastal elite, verdant watercolor vistas where the footprint of the Cherokee remained. Where one half-Cherokee, orphaned girl grows up in the shadow of a mystery. Who killed her father, and what happened to the gold he mined from the Sautee Valley? And with whom does she belong, the adoptive farm family who raised her, or her white inn-keeper grandmother?

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It’s 1967, and the Vietnam War is tearing the country apart, slicing through generations and shattering families. Because of Japanese atrocities he witnessed as a Marine in the South Pacific during WWII, Frank McRae despises all Asians. Now his son, Mike, is a grunt in Viet Nam, and his wife, Maggie, is fighting her own battle against cancer. When Mike falls in love with Thi Nhuong, a young Buddhist woman, and marries her in spite of his father’s objections, Frank disowns him. Then, as Christmas approaches, Frank’s world is torn apart, and he turns bitter, closing his heart to God and to his family.

What Frank doesn’t know is that on this bleak Christmas Eve, God has in mind a miracle. As on that holy night so long ago, a baby will be born and laid in a manger—a baby who will bring forgiveness, peace, and healing to a family that has suffered heart-wrenching loss.                                                             Buy Here

Cora Miller, a recent widow, moves to St. Augustine in 1875 with young daughter Emily to start life over as a single mother and opens a fine millinery shop, courting the tastes of the town’s affluent social elite. She succeeds in gaining the hat business of wealthy tourists Pamela Worthington and her daughter Judith, as well as, the attention of their family friend, extravagant Sterling Cunningham. But aloof Daniel Worthington, Pamela’s son, is more interested in the Indian captives recently brought to the fort.                            Daniel Worthington didn’t expect his trip to St. Augustine to coincide with the arrival of Plains Indians to be imprisoned at Fort Marion. Sympathetic to the plight of the Indians, he seeks to communicate with them through art. Daniel also didn’t expect to have an attraction for the lovely milliner, however, he believes her preoccupation with material things is shallow.                                         When her customers’ expensive jewelry disappears, Cora is suspected of taken it. Will Cora’s reputation and future be ruined when she is accused of theft?     Buy Here

Through the ages, men have told many stories about Mary, Joseph, and the birth of the Messiah. Stories of shepherds and sheep, kings, angels, and stables. But one story no one has ever told. One story hidden in the fabric of time. The story of The Swaddling Clothes.

Mentioned not once, but several times in the Scriptural text, what is the significance of these special cloths? And how did they make their way into a stable in Bethlehem? From the author that brought you the Days of Messiah series comes a whole new adventure critics are calling "intriguing...thought provoking... a fresh twist on an age old story."

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All little girls love playing princess, and while watching princess movies with her nieces, Brianna Newcomb dreams of her own Prince Charming sweeping her off her feet. When she meets Damien Penland, sparks ignite and love blooms until she learns he is a real prince from a small country in Europe. When their relationship hits the news and social media, he is ordered home, and Brie expects to never see him again. However, a little bit of scheming by Damien’s American grandmother brings them back together in his homeland. Will their love flare up again and brighten their lives even as the fireworks light up the night in a special celebration for his grandmother, the Queen? 

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During the American Revolution, Aurinda Whitney lives with her cold and calloused father, an embittered veteran of the previous war. Aurinda’s life changed forever when her father returned for her after that war, taking her away from the only place she’d ever experienced affection. Since her father blamed his daughter for the death of his wife in childbirth, Aurinda is convinced she is unworthy of love.

Zadok Wooding believes he is a failure as he tends the smithy at home while others go to battle against the British. Just when he has an opportunity to become a hero, he is blinded in an accident. Now he fears he will never live up to the Biblical “mighty man of valor” for whom he was named. 

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A Prostitute Seeks Her Revenge--In 1942, Miyako Matsuura cradled her little brother as he died on the sidewalk, a victim of the first U.S. bombing raid on Japan. By 1948, the war has reduced her to a street-hardened prostitute consumed by her shame.
A Doolittle Raider Finds His True Mission--Dave Delham makes military aviation history piloting a B-25 in the audacious Doolittle Raid. Forced to bail out over occupied China, he and his crew are captured by the Japanese and survive a harrowing P.O.W. ordeal. In 1948, he returns to Japan as a Christian missionary, determined to showcase Christ's forgiveness.
Convinced that Delham was responsible for the bomb that snuffed out her brother's life, Miyako resolves to restore her honor by avenging him--even if it costs her own life. But the huntress soon becomes hunted in Osaka's treacherous underworld. Miyako must outmaneuver a ruthless brothel owner, outwit gangs with competing plans to profit by her, and overcome betrayal by family and friends--only to confront a decision that will change everything.

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The Great Lakes Lighthouse Brides Collection

Lighthouses have long been the symbol of salvation, warning sailors away from dangerous rocks and shallow waters.
Along the Great Lakes, America’s inland seas, lighthouses played a vital role in the growth of the nation. They shepherded settlers traveling by water to places that had no roads. These beacons of light required constant tending even in remote and often dangerous places. Brave men and women battled the elements and loneliness to keep the lights shining. Their sacrifice kept goods and immigrants moving. Seven romances set between 1883 and 1911 bring hope to these lonely keepers and love to weary hearts.

Includes novellas by two Heroes, Heroines, and History contributors:

The Last Memory by Kathleen Rouser
1899—Mackinac Point Lighthouse 
Natalie Brooks loses her past to amnesia, and Cal Waterson, the lighthouse keeper who rescues her, didn’t bargain on risking his heart—when her past might change everything.

The Wrong Survivor by Marilyn Turk

1911—Au Sable Point Lighthouse

Lydia Palmer's dream for happiness as a lighthouse keeper's wife shattered when her fiancé Nathan Drake drowned in a shipwreck, but his brother Jesse survived. 

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In two days, wealthy Chicagoan, Anna Hartwell, will wed a man she loathes. She would refuse this arranged marriage to Lyman Millard, but the Bible clearly says she is to honor her parents, and Anna would do most anything to please her father--even leaving her teaching job at a mission school and marrying a man she doesn't love. The Great Chicago Fire erupts, and Anna and her family escape with only the clothes on their backs and the wedding postponed. Father moves the family to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where Anna reconnects with Rory Quinn, a handsome immigrant who worked at the mission school. Realizing she is in love with Rory, Anna prepares to break the marriage arrangement with Lyman until she learns a dark family secret that changes her life forever. 

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FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME: Hills of Nevermore (Montana Gold, book 1)

Can a young widow hide her secret shame from the Irish preacher bent on helping her survive? Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, Hills of Nevermore explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west.   

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