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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Bergan, Norway.


Roger Thompson

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Walking along the harbour front back towards the cruise ship terminal I happened across this strange plague, I know nothing about it apart from what's on it.

 

Any enlightenment from anybody please.

 

Cheers Roger.

 

ps Mods if in the wrong place please move.

Norway 28.JPG

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World War 2? Norwegian Resistance/ heavy water sabotage, Telemark etc?

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8 minutes ago, seaJane said:

World War 2? Norwegian Resistance/ heavy water sabotage, Telemark etc?

 

Nice inscription for 1914 & 1918.  The badge on the left states the Norwegian club.  

 

I think that google will have some answers for you

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Sorry Sea Jane it's def WW1 as at the top it says 1914-1918.

 

Google not showing anything.

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Oh sorry - didn't see the date! (phone screen, but still, duh).

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Hmmmmmmmmmmm, looks a good possibility.

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www.dennorskeklub.co.uk 

 

based at 4 St James Square, London 

 

nothing on the website about the memorial but an email to the secretary would help

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Thank you the trenchrat22, I'll give that a go.

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For norwegians in the Mercantile Marine, the norwegian inscription says it clearly: "sjøfolk" = seamen, sailors.

 

Lars

Edited by LarsA
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Thank you Lars, perfectly understandable now.

It was a complete surprise to me seeing it, we where on a cruise and had been on one of those hop on/hop off tour buses and decided to walk back from the Bryggan area when we spotted it.

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Hello there seaJane, Lars as confirmed what it says in Norwegian.

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That's nice to know, thank you :)

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  • 2 years later...

This memorial is in Trondheim and is for Norwegian Merchant Seamen for both WW1 & WW2.

Apparently more Norwegian Seamen died in WW1 than any other country even though they were supposedly neutral.

My wife's father started his career in WW1 and served through WW2, mostly on tankers,

Tony1822036161_DSC_9220Trondheim.JPG.67891c8e0c429d43ed2d767be95fe6ed.JPG2022487137_DSC_9219Trondheim.JPG.879f1a9d281cf17797dcd9e027ccb971.JPG

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"Apparently more Norwegian Seamen died in WW1 than any other country even though they were supposedly neutral. "

 

An interesting comment Tony, I wonder on what you are basing it?  Whilst it is largely impossible to put an accurate figure on Merchant Seamen deaths of any nation during  WW1, or at any time for that matter, the generally accepted total for British Seamen, however that was calculated, is between 14000 and 15000.  Various sources give Norway's losses as around 2000, in 1924 the Norwegian Government admitted to only 1180 Norwegian citizens killed or missing from any calling.

 

I was wondering if you mean the greatest number of deaths as a percentage of heads served, but as the Norwegian Merchant service was the 4th largest in the world at the beginning of WW1 I'm not sure that would work either.

 

Tony

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Very nice seeing another one.

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2 hours ago, MerchantOldSalt said:

"Apparently more Norwegian Seamen died in WW1 than any other country even though they were supposedly neutral. "

 

An interesting comment Tony, I wonder on what you are basing it?  Whilst it is largely impossible to put an accurate figure on Merchant Seamen deaths of any nation during  WW1, or at any time for that matter, the generally accepted total for British Seamen, however that was calculated, is between 14000 and 15000.  Various sources give Norway's losses as around 2000, in 1924 the Norwegian Government admitted to only 1180 Norwegian citizens killed or missing from any calling.

 

I was wondering if you mean the greatest number of deaths as a percentage of heads served, but as the Norwegian Merchant service was the 4th largest in the world at the beginning of WW1 I'm not sure that would work either.

 

Tony

I have some graphs I found that I will post tomorrow.

It will be good to establish the facts an figures if possible.

Tony

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16 hours ago, Talesofaseadog said:

I have some graphs I found that I will post tomorrow.

It will be good to establish the facts an figures if possible.

Tony

I have a document, “NORWAY IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR"

By Jan Normann Knutsen

from the University of Kristiansand 

Published by FOLIA SCANDINAVICA VOL. 5 POZNAŃ 1999

This is what he says although I cannot establish where the figures come from.

"Forty-nine per cent of the Norwegian merchant fleet had been lost, while around two thousand seamen had lost their lives. Norway had suffered more civilian losses at sea than any other country."

Another document I have is 

TRANSLATED AND SUMMARISED FROM

" SJOFORKLARINGER OVER ^NORSKE SKIBES IVRIGSFORLIS "

("NAUTICAL: DECLARATIONS REGARDING THE WAR LOSSES

OF NORWEGIAN SHIPPING.")

This is only for 1914,1915 & 1916 but gives numbers which are comparable to the following graph for those years.

1852894651_SeamenLossesWW1.jpg.547d92af8e67e92f9a2c90eff1f69c54.jpg

The Mercantile Memorial in London does list 12,210 but this appears to include many nationalities however, most appear to be British which leads me to believe that my original statement was wrong and I probably should have added "apart from British"

Unless anyone else knows better.

Tony

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