The Bombing of the Shellhus on March 21, 1945

Love to see some of them.
There were a number of books, and a weekly newspaper, printed 'underground' by the Resistance and others. The founder of one of Denmark's largest companies, in the graphics/printing industry equipment field, stared by mixing chemicals in his bath at home, in secret, so that copying and printing could be undertaken. All of the publications were, of course, circulated secretly.
The Resistance wasn't just passive though, as a number of key installations, such as docks, power stations, rail lines etc were sabotaged, and I have some footage of at least one target actually being blown up!
The organisation also helped many to escape to Sweden, normally by sea, and often from the quay at the Carlsberg Brewery, and this included allied airmen, in a very risky undertaking.

Here's some scans from the book. Some of the cartoons, plus a couple of pages of text. The book seems to be a compilation of stories by, or about, some various people. I blurred the swastikas, just in case.

If anyone has any insights into this book, I'd love to know more about it.

Book Cover
Dunkerque, Winston Churchill
Another text page
Hitler at breakfast
The new Mona Lisa
David and Goliath

Leif

Airframes said:

Hopefully, you will enjoy the attached. I apologise for the format, and the fact that it is mainly concerned with the production, and the background to my painting, but I assembled this a couple of years ago, as a 'legacy' for my daughter, who knows little of my past.
It is rather 'long-winded in parts', but hopefully will give some insight into the operation, and the research undertaken by Derek Carter, which eventually led to the true story of 'Operation Carthage' being revealed.
The photographs included were all taken during the 50th Anniversary Commemoration, and I apologise for the mediocre quality of some, which have been scanned from 'copies of copies' of the original prints.
The intention here is to show the depth of research undertaken by Derek Carter, and the almost unbelievable feat of arms accomplished by all those involved in the attack on the Shell House, and again, I apologise for the fact that it may seem I am 'blowing my own trumpet', as it were.
The main theme of the story shows how involved Derek's research was, and how important the requirements, and the ultimate attack, actually were - a fact normally only briefly acknowledged, being so late in the war, in most accounts covering this chapter of World War Two.
Rather than 'clutter' this fantastic thread, I've made this in PDF format, for ease of viewing at your leisure.

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That's a damn fine tale Airframes, thanks for posting it!

<S>

Zeke,

Well, I think it is difficult to compare Denmark to any of the other occupied nations. Closest is probably Holland.

Remember, Denmark is only 5 million people, tiny, and flat (with the highest peak some 150 m up in the air (sic!).

According to my family who lived there during the occupation, it was very much passive resistence as anything else was not only dangerous but pretty futile.

The Danish government still functioned, even with elections to parliament. However, it quickly became governed by the Director-generals when government went away.

The consensus among government officials was to see if Denmark could go through the war as un-harmed as possible. That was also the reason for the police working together with the occupation forces (in the begining) to stamp out resistence.

There were very few who actively cooperated with the occupation forces.

Remember, the danish-German conflicts go back to Charlemagne (+/- 800 AD). Recent wars: 1847-50 and 1864.

however, i believe the allied started to question the situation even to the point where they considered whether Denmark was going to be "liberated" or "occupied" after the war.

As the German fortunes turned, the resistence grew and was supported by more official actions to the point where Denmark got "really occupied" 1943/4.

If you read more of the resistence story, you wil also see that the communist groups felt a bit left out in weapon distribution. Correct or not, there was a political twist to it as well, trusting the communists or not, and the question of government after the war. Would it be a communist take-over, backed by the red army or a continuation of democracy? Those were key questions at that time.

I have asked my brother in Denmark to go look for the illegal newspapers. He has told me they are sitting in his garage. I will scan and post.

Yours,

Ivan

ivanotter said:

When Denmark got occupied 9 April, early morning, my mom still remembers seeing sme of the columns moving up through Jutland.

When soemof the German soldiers was to billeted at my grandfather's farm, he was just standing at the doorstep. The first one's wanting to gt past, he just hurled down the stairs. After some more of those things, he was threatened with a gun. Then he stopped. PS: My grandfather was a very very stubborn aggressive farmer in Jutland. Not the most easy people in this world.

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It must have been a very difficult thing for people to accept occupation. Your grandfather got to see the Germans leave again in 1945? If so, he must have been very happy.

I have the one newspaper picture that contrasts the troops entering in 1940, with them leaving in 1945.

ivanotter said:

Remember, Denmark is only 5 million people, tiny...

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It is funny, but we scandinavians have been like that for as long as our culture has existed. Such small nations, but the influence of our people on other nations and cultures is huge. Over here in western Canada it seems that every other person I know has some Danish, Norwegian, or Swedish blood in them (even a few Icelanders). And the ones that don't, come from cultures that were already 'tainted' by us in viking times (French, English, etc).

Even though my parents met over here, they are both scandinavian; my mother Danish, and my father the son of a Dane Norwegian. So i'm 3/4 Danish 1/4 Norwegian.

It is easy to forget how small Denmark is. And conversely, many Danes don't realize how big some things are. When some relatives wanted to come to western Canada back in 1976, they asked if we could drive to see the Olympics in Montreal. My grandfather told them that they better stop there on the way, since Montreal was probably closer to Denmark than it was to him.

ivanotter said:

As the German fortunes turned, the resistence grew and was supported by more official actions to the point where Denmark got "really occupied" 1943/4.

If you read more of the resistence story, you wil also see that the communist groups felt a bit left out in weapon distribution. Correct or not, there was a political twist to it as well, trusting the communists or not, and the question of government after the war. Would it be a communist take-over, backed by the red army or a continuation of democracy? Those were key questions at that time.

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Excellent comments on Denmark's state of affairs during the occupation. It seems very true to what I have heard as well.

Leif

A bit more;

Towards the end of the occupation, Denmark had +/- 240 illegal newspapers (!), producing 70,000 copies per day.

Yes, My grandfather saw the liberation of Denmark.

The resistence groups were ready to partake in the liberation and the Danish "army" in Sweden was ready (+/- 6,000).

The total of active resistence fighters was +/- 4-5,000 with an additional reserve of 40,000.

However, the liberation of Denmark happened in a way nobody could have predicted:

At about 8:30 pm, the Danish Radio station broadcasting from London (and everybody listened to this, if they possible could) announced: Field Marshall Montegomery's HQ has announced that the German forces in Holland, North west Germany and DENMARK have capitulated.

There was no warning, Everyone got the news at the same time, The King, The SS, Dr. Best (German commandant), resistence movements, everybody.

My mom can remember that some Hungarian troops rushed into their house and started to fiddle with the radio. Insofar as they could not speak Danish the whole thing got into a big confusion before they all got the news.

Denmark got liberated via radio.

Same mood as when the wall went between East and West Germany. happiness and relief really.

However,
9 April 1940: occupation: 11 danes killed
29 August 1943: 26 danes killed
June 1944 (strike action): 102 danes killed
Liberation: 400 killed.

Mostly because of accidents with weapons, confusion, etc.

Denmark had +/-250,000 German refugees at the end of the occupation. The last was repatriated in 1946.

Either in the days before or shortly after the liberation, my mom was travelling along some remote road on her bicycle, A big lorry passed her and she knew she should not look back, which she did. It was full of dead soldiers.

Apparently, a group of Hungarian SS refused to capitulate, occupied a bunker and had to get killed as they would not surrender.

One of the (few) Danish newspapers aligned with the german occupation forces got visited the same evening by the resistence movement.

The editor had left , but had also left a message: "Please water my plants on the window sill. They are at least innocent".

When the first cabinet was presented to the king, they had dispensation to not dress up in the striped pants (as the resistence members did not have any anyway). And the king was hard on protocol.

Just some more few snippets of info.

Yours,

Thanks Ivanotter; great info!

My grandfather said they had a small mountain of weapons and things that they had to take away from Germans or collaborating Danes. A big part of their work afterward was gathering up collaborators or Germans who had not left.

Leif

Anytime Leif,

According to my mom, everybody cheered the police on when they finally got back. Probably one of the few times a police force has been this popular.

It is correct that the amount of illegal weapons, etc, was high. Insofar as Denmark got livberated "by radio", there was no need for the weapons.

I can remember myself (must have been in the 60's/70's) a drive by the police to get all old (and newer) weapons off the street by promising that people would not be prosecuted.

A weapons expert said it was downright scary:

One phoned and said he had 200 kg of explosives in his back garden, which he had. it could have flattened the entire enighborhood.

Some came with live ammunition in brown paper bags, loaded guns with the safety off, etc, etc.

The worst was the 'home made' sten guns. Totally unsafe and more dangerous to the shooter than to the target or even to the handler.

Remember this was a society where guns were totally unheard of. I don't even think the polilce was armed at all in the 30's and 40's. Criminals would not have access to guns. Now this society suddenly got exposed to tons of arms without any knowledge. Of course there would be serious accidents (hence more people killed during the hours of liberation than at any other time).

Yours,

ivanotter said:

The worst was the 'home made' sten guns. Totally unsafe and more dangerous to the shooter than to the target or even to the handler.

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Interesting that you mention a homemade sten. In the photos my grandfather had... the ones I can't find, where the men were readying weapons, while wearing civilian cloths (long coats), and getting into a truck... one of the weapons was a sten. I figured they were resistance fighters, and guessed that the sten was supplied by the British. But maybe it was one of these 'home made' stens you mention.

Leif

Could vey easily be.

One of the resistence rads was a factory manufacturing guns for the German forces. The goal was to blow it up AND to get hold on the firing pins and trigger mechanisms for their own production.

Imagine the finished product: Trigger and firing pin from a rifle, barrel a steel pipe supplied by the plumber, rifling done in a shed in your garden, ammunition standard british issue. wow!

The 'real' stuff parachuted in was at a premium.

My father was in the 'daddy's army' (became a demolition expert, btw. and, as a kid, I loved it when he took me along for some of his demolitions). Even into the 60's, the variety of weapons in the Home forces was amazing. The homemade stuff was gone, but the rest was from all over. My father had a Swedish Husquarna mashin gun, an American helmet and british webbing. The array of handguns was from good ol' Webley's, mauser, walther's, Colts, all of it.

By and large, those forces were equipped with the flodsam from the war days.

I remember that as a kid I saw him cleaning his handgun: the best way of rinsing the grease off is to take it apart and boil it in a pot for 1/2 hour (!!). Do that with anything else but a Webley and you have a problem.

Among the rifles, I think the only one not there was from outer Mongolia or something. I think I have seen them all.

I will try to scan a couple of pics from some of the books I have here in South Africa for you.

Ivan

I found my audio taped interview with my grandfather. Hurray!

Was listening to it last night a bit. He mentions that the capitulation occurred like this: May 4th it was announced, and on May 5th it was put into effect in Denmark. He describes that they had one day's notice to put together their cars, weapons, and uniforms. Then on the evening of May 5th, after 8PM, the police began to disarm German troops and round up collaborators. They had to wear armbands to identify themselves as participants in the round up. Anyone not wearing an armband and carrying a gun, was in danger of being shot. Apparently, the disarming and rounding up of Germans and collaborators took 2-3 weeks, most of the month of May.

He had kind of a funny account to tell. On one occasion, someplace, there was reportedly some people held up in this building with weapons, who were refusing to surrender. The police ordered them to stand down and disarm, but they wouldn't respond. So they began shooting the building, and riddled it entirely with gun fire. Eventually, they ceased fire and went in... only to find the building completely empty!

Another detail about his escape from the police round up on Sept 19, 1944. Around 4PM, whenever it was the order to stand down came, he said that, knowing they were going to be sent to Germany, him and another officer, made their way into the area where all of the castle staff prepared for work. They took off their police unifroms, and put on some work coveralls. Then they climbed out the window, as I described before.

His recounting of the Shell building bombing raid was far less detailed than he had gone into on other occasions. I was hoping it contained some details I missed, but instead, it seems to be missing the detail we had in other discussions.

Question about the Shell building bombing though... he was under the impression that hundreds of Germans were killed, and incorrectly that only one Dane was killed (in the building itself). Do we know how many Germans lost their lives? Was there any report from the German side?

Leif

Hi Leif, here's the casualties for the Shell House raid.
Total number killed in Shell House was 72, including 26 Gestapo members and 30 Danish collaborators, the remainder being innocent Danes.
Of the 26 prisoners held on the sixth floor, 18 escaped. Some jumped from windows on the fifth floor, and some of these were injured or killed, these being inclued in the total above.
At the Jeanne D'Arc School, 86 children lost their lives, with 67 injured, and 16 adults, including Nuns, also perished, along with 35 injured.
Further fatalities occurred elsewhere in the City as a direct result of the raid, with some possibly injured (perhaps killed) by the bombs which struck the Technical Institute.
It is known that had the air raid alarm been sounded on time, civilian casualties would have been a lot less.
Some info on the first wave attack: As the aircraft spread into attack formation, the bombs were fused, bomb doors opened, and speed increased to 300 mph (483 km/h), and the Mustangs also increased speed and opened out to seek out their targets, flak positions, most of which were unmanned at this time.
On the final run-in, W/Cdr Kleboe's aircraft (Code YH-T) struck a floodlight pylon in the rail marshalling yards, damaging the port wing and engine, and losing the port elevator. The Mosquito went into a vertical dive and at least one bomb fell away, exploding and killing 8 civilians. The aircraft was seen waggling it's wings and trailing smoke, before it struck the road on Fredericksberg Alle, outside a garage opposite the Jeanne D'Arc School, and exploded. The force of the explosion and burning fuel caused a huge pall of black smoke, and a photograph of the scene shows the wreckage burning, with at least one 'live' bomb lying on the road. It was this smoke, of course,which lead to at least one other in the attacking waves to believe this was the target, as the smoke and flames was much larger than that which, at that time, was emanating from Shell House.
The first aircraft to bomb the target was that of GpCpt Bateson and Sqn.Ldr Sismore, in EG-X, with the bombs penetrating the side of the building between the second and third floors, exactly on time at 11.15 hrs.
The second aircraft was flown by Sqn Ldr Carlisle (YH-Y), followed by AVM Embry (in OM-H), and he observed his bombs strike at street level.
Ted Sismore told me of his visit to Copenhagen, along with other aircrew who had taken part in the attack, shortly after the liberation. The crews met some of the parents of the children lost in the raid, who bore no malice or hard feelings, understanding that the fliers had done what was asked of them, and at a loss to their own. The aircrew also had an audience with the King, who presented them with a pair of gold cuff-links each, before being hosted by Carlsberg Brewery.
Hope this helps a bit.
Cheers,
Terry.

stenguns were the most easily home manufactered weapons. the design is basic and simple. it fires from an open bolt so the number of internal parts are not near as complicated or numerous. the hard part is getting the right kind of steel to make them. several years ago there were plans on how to make the reciever out of automotive exhaust pipe. while that could/would work...the metal was way too soft and would have been dangerous to be on either end of the barrel. they are fun guns to shoot...with a slow rate of fire for a MG...

Leif,

Herewith some few ppics for you:

First one: some SS and Danish HIPO's not willing to surrender and had to be killed by the resistance. Notice the peculiar danish steel helmet.

Police being very popular when they came back

Change of guards at the border

The russians on bornholm

Yours,

I just finished reading a very thought-provoking book entitled "Seduced by Hitler" which examines the moral choices made by individuals and organisations under Hitler's Nazi dictatorship. I never knew that the Danish Government successfully evacuated almost all Danish Jews, some 8000 in number, to neutral Sweden. I know this isn't specifically related to the thread but there is a resonance with the discussion of other forms of resistance undertaken by the Danes during WWII. Respect!

Interestnig observation, in terms of forms of resistance.

The Jewish evacuation to Sweden was spectacular insofar as it was a feeling shared by the entire population, that persecution of the Jewish people was "just not on". Everybody helped and very very few got caught.

there is a myth that the king had one of the yellow Jewish stars on his coat in solidarity with the Jewish people. it is not true though.

It is true that the king had his morning ride through Copenhagen and a German soldier asked a dane: "Where are the bodyguards? who is looking after him" and the Dane answered: "we all look after him".

Speaking of individual choice: it is correct that there was a danish SS regiment, staffed by danish officers.

Some of the these were youngsters looking for adventure, the normal collection of disturbed individuals, but also volunteers who believed in figthing the communist russians.

Hitler's propaganda pertaining to the communists was effective insofar as a range of volunteer SS regiments came from occupied countries (Charlemagne SS from France, etc, etc).

The passive resistance in Denmark was prevalent from the very beginning, but also remember that there is a 'bigger' border between Denmark and Germany: Germanic and Scandinavia.

After all, Charlemagne wanted to occupy Denmark but got defeated and that was the start of it all. Germany and Denmark have only had an ongoing war for 1,200 years.

Yours,

Now, this is what I call a thread! Fantastic troops!

Ivanotter,

Thanks for the additional insights. "Seduced by Hitler" presents a very nuanced view of why people made the choices that they did. There were ardent Nazis and facists who believed in the final solution, there were ardent Nazis and facists who didn't believe in the final solution (Castro in Spain was an example of the latter), there were ordinary people who used the repressive laws to inform on their neighbours to settle old scores, there were many people who profited from the seizure of Jewish property and goods, there were people who sat back and did nothing, and there were people who resisted to various degrees (ranging from subtle disobedience through to outright armed opposition). There is no one-size fits all and many were culpable of benefitting from the hideous policies of the Nazi party. Perhaps most sickening were the Vichy French leaders who actually implemented their own version of the "Final Solution" before Berlin demanded it. Contrast that with little Hungary which protected its Jewish population and refused all demands to send them East until German troops invaded in 1944 and took over the country. Again, hats off to all who resisted!

That is also where I think it is very difficult to judge anybody.

The minute we see people as part of a group, on which we can stick labels, instead of unique individuals, we have lost our humanity I think.

"scots are stingy"
"Germans are ..."
"Italians are ...
"English are not good cooks" (well, Ok, that could just be..only joking)

But this is the danger point I believe and that was explored by Hitler, but we find parallels today. It is unfortunately not unique.

HOWEVER, on a more positive note:

If we accept that the conflicts up to 1945 was a continuation of the Charlemagne settlement of Europe (France and Germany in essence), we may also see that WWII settled it once and for all.

HOWEVER, on a negative note: Nobody could believe that WWI was coming on. After all, France was isolated and Germany and Britain were the best of friends (at least until Wilhelm II started to stuff it up). Wilhelm was the grandson of Victoria and The Tsar's cousin.

What could possible go wrong?

The big question is: as much as it is impossible to imagine, could we see another European war? Not outside forces invading Europe, but a war among the European nations? Tomorrow? next year? 10 years from now?

The Europeans of 1900 (also) thought it impossible.

Just to de-rail this thread further