Frivilligkompani Benckert ETO (id:#65263)

(ASL Action Pack #15 Swedish Volunteers ID: AP147)   [next]   [previous]

Kongvinger, Norway 1940-04-16 (3 others)

Overview:

Shortly after the attack on Denmark and Norway, the Swedish government prohibited public meetings and recruitment organizations for Swedish volunteers to Norway. Maybe some 300 Swedes went to Norway, some of them in the Swedish uniforms with Finnish emblem they had used as volunteers for Finland against the Soviet Union attack, and maybe half of them got into fights with Germans. The Swede Gösta Benckert led a company of at the most 219 men, mostly Norwegians who had fought in Finland and some 20 Swedes. On 16 April, they defended Kongsvinger fort for about a day and night, while two German batallions were stopped from advancing. When Benckert tried to find out who of his men later had fired at a Norwegian ambulance, several of the Swedes went back to Sweden. When he learned that the Allies left the south of Norway, he kept 20 men and fought guerilla war until early June 1940 when the fighting in northern Norway also ended.

Defender: Norwegian/Swedish (Kompani Benckert)  

Errata (source)