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Altmark Incident
Part of World War II
German dead are brought ashore for burial after the incident.
Date 16 February 1940 Location Jøssingfjord, Norway Result prisoners liberated
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Nazi Germany
Commanders and leaders
Philip Vian	Heinrich Dau
Strength
3 destroyers	1 tanker
Casualties and losses
1 severly injured (from friendly fire)	8 killed 5 severly injured 6 slightly injured
299 British POWs liberated

The Altmark Incident (Norwegian: Altmark-affæren; German: Altmark-Zwischenfall) was a naval incident of World War II between British destroyers and the German tender Altmark, which happened on 16–17 February 1940. It took place in what were, at that time, neutral Norwegian waters. On board the Altmark there were some 300 allied prisoners (officially internees), whose ships were sunk by the pocket battleship Graf Spee in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. British naval forces cornered the tanker and later the destroyer Cossack attacked the German ship and freed all the prisoners, killing and injuring eight German seamen with firearms and wounding 10 other, 5 of them seriously. A British and a Norwegian sailor was also seriously wounded in the action. The attack was a grave violation of international law and of Norwegian neutrality.

Background

Operating as a supply ship of Graf Spee

The Altmark, a state-owned tanker used by the Kriegsmarine and she had a civilian crew including Heinrich Dau, the captain. Some crewmen were Norwegian citizens. Altmark left on 5 August 1939 Wilhelmshaven under the Reichsdienstflagge (Imperial Service Flag) and after having taken up gasoline and water in Port Arthur left on the 19th August for Rotterdam as scheduled. Already while crossing the Providence Channel, during the night to the 22nd of August, the name of the ship was changed to Sogne (home port: Bergen)

Before leaving Germany Dau received a sealed document with secret orders of the Naval Staff (Seekriegsleitung) with instructions for the case of war. On 26th August Dau received the order to open the documents. According to its contents the Altmark had to support the cruiser war of the Graf Spee. The identity of the ship was changed, she received a new painting with the name Sogne and the Norwegian flag was raised.

By the first meeting with the pocket battleship west of Cape Verde on 1 September two 20 mm AA-machine guns were brought to the Altmark and mounted. 20 armed seamen, 2 wireless operators, a prize officer and a purser officer was also transferred. Including them the ship had 133 men on board. Later were around 300 prisoners accomodated on Altmark despite this was not forseen.

After some meetings on the 6th of December 1939 Altmark and Graf Spee separated latter sailing towards La Plata. According to the original plan the two ships should have met on the 2th January again and sail to Germany together. But after the scuttling of the Graf Spee at Montevideo following the Battle of the River Plate Altmark had to make the journey alone. She altered her appearence again and keeping the Norwegian flag she changed her name to Haugesund.

After a longer period spent with engine overhauling and awaiting the search after her to die down in the South Atlantic Altmark began the journey back home on the 24th of January. She reached the waters South of Iceland on the 12th February and 50 miles of the coast she turned eastward. She reached Norwegian territorial waters at around 5:00 a.m. near Trondheim.

Handling the prisoners

At the beginning of the war the British government announced, that they would regard the crew of the captured German merchant vessels as prisoners of war (will detain the crew of the captured German merchant vessels). The Germans announced the same shortly after. Hence Captain Langsdorff generally did not release the men from the sunken ships but transferred them to the Altmark. The tanker wasn’t prepared to accomodate prisoners and Captain Dau protested against taking them on board of his ship. In total 330 prisoners were transferred to the Altmark, but on 27 November 27 prisoners, mainly officers, were transferred back to the Graf Spee where they could receive a better treatment.

According to German records, there were 303 prisoners (among them 67 Indians and 8 black Africans) on board the Altmark when she was left alone after scuttling the Graf Spee. This meant, that the prisoners outnumbered the Germans by more than 2 to 1. They were housed in the empty storerooms of the bottom two decks, above the keep, with no natural light, little ventilation, and a table and makeshift shower as their only luxuries. Both the captains who remained on Altmark were allocated in a cabin with two beds. The prisoners outnumbering the Germans by more than 2 to 1, Captain Dau feared a mutiny and take over of his ship by them. Hence he imposed tough restrictions. The prisoners could spent twice a short time a day (30 plus 45 minutes) on the upper deck in small groups, later reduced to 45 minutes once till ariving in Norwegian waters.

But all the way almost the same provisions were given to the captives as for the German crew, only with minor restrictions. Dau let the prisoners make themselves comfortable, instructing Altmark's carpenters to help construct rudimentary tables and chairs for them and even allowing the Hindus among the prisoners to prepare their own meals from Huntsman's captured provisions.

Arrival in Norway

Closing in towards Norway, the Altmark switched to her original name, since the ship had ran other names for disguise earlier. She flied the Reichsdienstflagge (Imperial Service Flag) again and the two machine guns were dismounted and stored inside the ship. According to German law, the ship was concidered a State’s Ship (Staatsschiff - a ship in service of the state). Captain Dau planned to sail in the protection of neutral Norwegian waters south to the Skagerrak, where he could cross the open sea by night and arrive in Germany a few days later. When crossing Norwegian waters, the Altmark was not obliged to show her cargo, even if she would be considered as a warship.

The Norwegians knew about the prisoners on board. On January 11, Admiral Carsten Tank-Nielsen mentioned the expected arrival of the Altmark with 400 prisoners on board and gave the order to the units of the fleet to report sightings of the ship immediately.

On February 14, the Altmark was halted by three different Norwegian warships. At first the captain of the torpedo boat HNoMS Trygg came on board and checked the papers of the tanker near the island of Linesøya and gave permission to sail on Norwegian waters. The British prisoners held in the ship's hold reportedly made strenuous efforts to signal their presence by shouting and banging when the ship stopped. When the Germans noticed this, they started up the windlasses to drown out the noise. As a punishment the captain reduced their provisions to only bread and water for a day.

At Aalesund a Norwegian officer came on board and searched the Altmark. This was the first inspection. Later the officers of the torpedo boat Snøgg visited and searched the ship a second time. At last the the destroyer HNoMS Garm halted the Altmark at the Hjeltefjord and her captain made also an inspection on the direct order of Admiral Carsten Tank-Nielsen. After all the inspections went unseccessful, the Admiral himself, who was on board the Garm at the time, wanted to conduct the search, but this already fourth inspection was declined by Dau. His attempt to reach the German embassy in Oslo to let make his voyage easier was declined by the Norwegians, being at a "Defended Area" near Bergen. Altmark was allowed to travel within the area, but not at night. Admiral Tank-Nielsen ordered an escort to the ship.

The Norwegian officers could carry out only a superficial inspection, because the Altmark only travelled through Norwegian territorial waters. The Norwegian authorities attempted to stop the ship because it would allow them to holds of the ship. However, Dau was able to evade these attempts throughout his voyage.

Although international law did not prohibit the transfer of prisoners of war through neutral waters, Dau wanted to keep the enemy in uncertainty and get to Germany as fast as he could. If the Norwegians succeeded in bringing the Altmark to a halt, than they could have called upon Dau to release the prisoners and interned them. However, the captives weren’t actually POW’s, because they were civilian seamen employed by different shipping companies. But since the British handled the crew of captured German merchant vessels as POW’s at the beginning of the war, the Germans handled the British prisoners the same way. After the third search the torpedo boat Skarv was attached to the Altmark as an escort and the journey continued on the 16th of February to the south.

At 14:00 (CET) three British reconnaissance aircrafts flew near Egersund over the Altmark and definitely identified the ship by reading her name plate. This act was a clear violation of Norwegian territory and neutrality as well. The British flotilla sent earlier to the Norwegian coast to intercept the Altmark, was alarmed. The flotilla consisted of one light cruiser (Arethusa) and five destroyers (Cossack, Intrepid, Ivanhoe, Sikh and Nubian) of captain Philip Vian. The cruiser and the destroyers Ivanhoe and Intrepid were sighted from Altmark at 14:45. Both the destroyers approached the Altmark and called upon the ship to leave the Norwegian waters. The Altmark ignored the call and sailed along with unaltered speed and course escorted by Skarv, which ship protested against the British proceeding. After this occasion another torpedo boat, the Kjell joined the two ships.

The two destroyers tried unsuccesfully intercept the Altmark at 15:30 and at 15:56. Two warning shots were also fired, one exploding on the rocky shore. At the second occasion, as the Norwegians were just fending off the Ivanhoe, the Intrepid tried to get between the coast and the Altmark so she could force the German vessel out to the open sea. But the Altmark outmaneuvering the destroyer turned into the Jøssingfjord where she sought refugee, because the Germans sighted a storming party armed with rifles and helmets on board the British destroyer and feared that they would try to board the ship. By this action Intrepid ignored an order to take the bridge of the Altmark under fire with machine guns with the objection the Norwegian pilot could be hurt by doing so.

The destroyers didn’t follow the tanker in the fjord. The two Norwegian torpedo boats took up a defensive position at the entrance of the fjord and pointed their torpedotubes at the British. Later the guard boat Firern joined the ships in the fjord. The Noregians told the British, that the ship is unarmed and stands under their protection. The Altmark indeed did not have any weapons. The two machine guns were kept deep in the ship in storage and there were only a few handguns on board. Dau reported the case and the radio Deutschlandsender broadcasted the incident already at 20:45.

After the meeting with Lord Halifax, British foreign secretary, Winston Churchill let he following message sent to Vian:

"Unless Norwegian torpedo-boat undertakes to convoy Altmark to Bergen with a joint Anglo-Norwegian guard on board, and a joint escort, you should board Altmark, liberate the prisoners, and take possession of the ship pending further instructions. If Norwegian torpedo-boat interferes, you should warn her to stand off. If she fires upon you, you should not reply unless attack is serious, in which case you should defend yourself, using no more force than is necessary, and ceasing fire when she desists."

The boarding of the Altmark

Ship Altmark in early 1940 Jøssingfjord, Norway

At 22:30 the Cossack pushed into the fjord and stopped before one of the torpedo boats, than gave the following message via light signals to the Altmark: Do you need tug assistance? Bring out a Jacob’s ladder on backboard. The Altmark ignored the order but questioned the name of the ship. There was no answer. At 22:48 the call was repeated: Bring out a Jacob’s ladder on backboard and at 22:58 the Cossack signalled another message: Bring about the ship or I will open fire. Captain Dau was still not sure whether it was an enemy ship, cause he received such stop messages also from the Norwegians earlier. Anyway he brought his ship 200–300 meters deeper inwards in the fjord. At 23:12 the menace was repeated by the unidentified ship twice. Than the bow of the ship was illuminated by the Germans, cause they tried to find out whether the ship is on the move or not. Now it became clear that she was a British warship. The destroyer quickly started up in the direction of the Altmark. The British judged the beam of the search light as an attempt to blind them. According to the mit was pointed at the bridge.

Dau gave the order again to the crew: "Kein Widerstand mit Waffengewalt" (No armed resistance). The crew could have only use arms if the the Reichskriegsflagge (Imperial War Flag) would be hoisted and the captain did not want to give any occasion for accusations. In this situation Dau should have scuttle her ship, but because of the prisoners on board he couldn’t do so. Anyway he ordered the life boats to swing out and to get the preparations for scuttling the ship with explosives. As the Cossack along came, the Altmark rammed her with the stern in an angle of about 30° at the altitude of her bridge and pressed the destroyer towards the wall of the fjord. The commanders of the Norwegian torpedo boats later reported, that only the mass of ice piled up averted the destroyer to crash onto the rocky shore. The powerful engines of the destroyer made her escape from the squeeze possible.

33 (including 3 officers) seamen from the appointed 45 men-strong boarding crew were able to use the few seconds as the hulls of the to ships touched and slided along and opened fire immediately at the German crew.

The first shots hit the men who were busy with the aft port life boat. Steward Stender, Stoker Path and Steward Bremer were killed, others injured. Than were shots fired from the destroyer. One man got hurt as he helped to lower a manned life boat. The boat fell in the water and some people who tried to reach the shore by swimming were shot at. The Norwegian customs officer, who was on board the Altmark, and Stoker Rothe were trying to escape the ship on a rope’s end. Rothe was killed as he tried to pull himself up on the edge of the ice. The Norwegian was able to escape. Stoker Schüler reached the road along the coast when he got injured. Bone-setter Steffen fell into the water and held the edge of the ice when he was struck by shots. Sailor Schürmann was also killed in the water. Stoker Richards got seriously injured after reaching Norwegian soil.

Captain Dau decided to beach the ship, because he wanted to foil her seizure. They were able to carry out the manouver, although the British were already on the bridge and the crew was taken prisoner. The British turned the engine telegraph on stop, but as their attention lowered it was switched on full power backwards again and the ship hit the ground demaging her screws. Later the British blamed the unskillful manoeuvering of the German captain for the beaching. After that Dau was called upon to show the locations of the prisoners, what he did escorted by his prisoner-officer. After releasing the captives he expected that they would mishandle him, but according to his account some of them expressed their thanks for the good treatment and a few of them even shook hands with him. Dau was called upon to pack his private belongings and than join the German crew gathered on the stern. In his cabin he bumped into a group of British sailors who were on hunt for souvenirs. He experienced the same in the cabins of other crewmembers. The destroyer came along the Altmark in the meantime. The British seemed at first to intend to take the Germans with themselves, cause from the Cossack came the order: "First the prisoners, than the Germans!"

The ship’s doctor was captured in the lower deck. A seriously injured British, gunner Smith was brought to him. One artery in his arm was hurt by a projectile. He was layed in the doctors cabin, where he took care of the wound caused by the shot and tied it. He was about to place a compressions bandage on it as the awakening soldier was transferred on the Cossack on order of a British officer. From the kind of the wound the doctor could definitely ascertain, that the bullet was fired from a 11 mm pistol in use by the British navy. Because of the treatment the doctor got on the upper deck with some delay. The British opened fire on the belated person and only the shouting of the once prisoners, who identified him, convinced them to stop firing. The British action ended at 01:30 a. m. (CET) as the Cossack left the Fjord. The Germans were ultimately left behind.

Losses

Six German seamen died in the attack: the stewards Otto Stender and Fritz Bremer, the stokers Waldemar Path, Walther Rothe, the sailor Fritz Schürmann and the bone-setter Hans Steffen. Six were injured seriously: the machinist Clausen, the electrician Augustin, steward Meier and the stokers Richards, Schüler and Horst. Six other were injured slightly and one person was counted as missing. Still in the fjord a lifeless body was pulled on board of the Cossack from the water. According to the British the man was drowned. He had to be the missing stoker Berndsen. The seriously injured steward Ernst Meier died a short time later. With him the number of the dead rose to eight. All the casualties came from the crew of the Altmark. The British had only one injured, the gunner Smith.

After the incident

Aerial reconnaissance photo claimed to be taken of Altmark in the Jøssingfjord prior to the incident (in deed it was taken after it)

The next day the commanders of both the torpedo boats came on board the Altmark. Captain Dau showed them the wounded in the sickroom. They told the captain they had received orders not to proceed against British ships without a direct order of the admiralty to do so. That day British reconnaissance planes flew over the fjord again. Captain Dau was summoned by the Norwegians for the court in Egersund and to report about the event.

The British wanted to attend the hearing, but Dau protested against their presence and the hearing was adjourned. Next day the court judge called upon both the British present to leave the hall. Before doing so they declared, that they will not participate either by the hearings of the Norwegian eyewittnesses nor by the whole process as well. The Norwegians placed the depositions of captain Dau and that of his chief officer on the court records.

The authorities were interested above all in determining, whether there were any firearms used by the Germans. Dau denied this and the statements many other Norwegian eyewitnesses confirmed that.

The dead crewmembers were buried 19 February 1940 in the tiny cemetary of Sokndal. Dau took leave from his men with the the following words:

"My board-camrades! It was not given to you to face the enemy with weapons in the hand. The character of our ship didn’t allow us to fight, she sought the protection in the rules of international law, solemnly acknowledged also by England. But if we thought to be protected against British attacks in a neutral harbor, now we took a lesson all too soundly of something else (we were taught all too soundly to something else.). But the German nation will more than ever fight against the methods of British sea-pirates, revealed again in this occasion, to let it vanish from the world once and for all. After that your death will be not in vain. Rest in peace!"

After the incident the Germans protested by the Norwegians, because they did not handled according to their obligations and did not protect the Altmark from the British attack. The Norwegian ambassador in London, Erik Colban protested on 17 February 1940 by Lord Halifax against the grave violation of Norwegian territory and demanded the prisoners to be returned to Norway. Norway even threatened to put the case before an international court. Lord Halifax on the contrary wanted the Altmark to be interned but at the end he represented the position, that the case was a conflict of two rights. According to the British view the Altmark, regarded as a warship, should have not enter neutral waters if her route could be lead through the open sea as well.

The incident in the propaganda

German propaganda

Captain Dau reported the Norwegian media already on the 17 February and stressed, that his ship acted according the international law and that the crew made no use of arms. He announced, that in most cases the wounded suffered injuries in their abdomen, an indication for firing at a close range. On the 18 February came a German propaganda group to Norway and handed over a list to Dau with answers on some specific questions. He ignored the list and stuck to his earlier statements. He denied to answer only the questions related to the military operations conducted in the Southern Atlantic.

A successful transport of the prisoners to Germany could have been a good piece of propaganda for the Germans, but they made good use from the British attack in the Jøssingfjord and earlier that day. With this incident, called a sea-pirate attack, they could confirm, that the British payed no attention to the rights of neutral states and are ready to violate their territory by ignoring their protests. On the 19 February Joseph Goebbels ordered that all propaganda activities had to be focused on this one story and so it happened in the next four-five days. The Germans put the incident on the same level with the Baralong incidents, the poundering of the Dresden and with the bombardement of Copenhagen.

British propaganda

Before Cossack reached Leith and the freed prisoners were taken to the land, German broadcasting reported the events in the Jøssingfjord in detail. According to this were the sensitive questions indicated to Captain Vian which he had to answer after arriving. Turner, the leader of the boarding party, reported, that his men met with no immediate opposition, but rather with ’sullen obedience.’ It was reported from the British side, that Gunner Smith, in charge of the after party, was shot by a German as he advanced up an alleyway and several ratings also claimed to have been fired at. According to Vian, a number of the German armed guard (of the Graf Spee), ’decamped over the stern of Altmark’ and making their way across ice reached an eminence on shore from which they opened fire on the boarding party on after deck. Two Germans, who were running in the direction to those who opened fire, were shot on but reached shore. Turner suggested that Dau intended to damage and even sink the destroyer by manoeuvering his ship, but did not intend to use firearms. According to him the firing must have come from individuals.

This incident is frequently cited as the last Royal Navy action with cutlasses. However, the HMS Cossack Association does not believe this to be true. Barton and McGrath, the authors of British Naval Swords and Swordmanship, also think this is dubious, and point out that Frischauer and Jackson, authors of The Altmark Affair, interviewed a large number of the crew, none of whom verified the use of cutlasses. Barton and McGraph suggest that idea may have originated from German accusations that the British were "sea-pirates". However, Jim Rhodes, a former crew member of Cossack, wrote in the April 2002 newsletter of the Association that he had witnessed a cutlass being carried by one of the boarding party. Rhodes did not take part in the action, he watched from B Gun deck, and was not close enough to identify the cutlass holder. Rhodes stated that four cutlasses were kept on board for ceremonial purposes.

HMS Cossack left the Jøssingfjord just after midnight on 17 February. The Norwegian escorts protested, but did not intervene. The official explanation later given by the Norwegian government was that, according to international treaty, a neutral country was not obliged to resist a vastly superior force.

According to the British account the beaching of the Altmark was caused by the German captain, who was about to ram the Cossack but failed. He was also accused to have mistrteated the prisoners and to have them kept in emptied oil tanks where they almost starved from hunger. One of the released prisoners stated that the first they knew of the operation was when they heard the shout "any Englishmen here?" from the boarding party. When the prisoners shouted back "yes! We are all British!", the response was "well, the navy's here!" which brought cheers.

Some doubt that it happened that way. It might have appeared in the news on the suggestion of Churchill. In this way he could have avenge the accusations pointed at him, also First Lord of the Admiralty that time, and the Royal Navy at the beginning of World War I, when German warships bombarded unpunished towns in East-Anglia and the people criticized him and the Navy. At that time in many newspapers could be read the complaining question: Where is the Navy?

Churchill wanted to destroy the positive image of the German Navy, achieved after the releasing of the prisoners by Captain Langsdorff at Montevideo. The handling of the prisoners, many of them took even part on his funeral, was considered as a gallant act by the international press and this was not in line with the picture drawn by the British propaganda about the Germans. The successfull transport of the healthy prisoners to Germany would have been a propaganda victory for Germany, what Churchill tried to foil by all means.

On the 17 February 1940 Cossack arrived in Leith, Scotland. Winston Churchill remembered on the event in his book written after the war as follows:

"On the assumption that the prisoners were in a pitiable condition from starvation and confinement, we dericted ambulances, doctors, the Press, and photographers to the port of Leith to receive them. As however it appeared that they were in good health, had been looked after on the destroyers, and came ashore in a hearty condition, no publicity was given to this aspect. Their rescue by Captain Vian’s conduct aroused a wave of enthusiasm in Britain almost equal to that which followed the sinking of the Graf Spee. Both these events strengthened my hand and the prestige of the Admiralty. „The Navy’s here!” was passed from lip to lip."

HMS Cossack returns to Leith on 17 February 1940, after rescuing the British prisoners held in Graf Spee's supply ship Altmark

The round-up in the harbor was organized by Churchill dispite the fact, that Captain Vian reported already short after the action, that prisoners were all in healthy condition.

The British government made no particular objection to the fact of a prison ship traversing neutral waters. In fact, in official papers regarding the incident, they noted the fact that the Royal Navy had done the same, for example in December 1939, when the cruiser Despatch passed through the Panama Canal, which was neutral waters, with German prisoners aboard from the freighter Düsseldorf. To the attempt of the Altmark to ram the destroyer was not condemned by the British Admirality, in contrary it stressed, that the same handling would be expected from a British merchant vessel in a reversed situation.

As an answer on the accusations appeared in the British media Dau had written a book about his ships trip with the title Unentdeckt über die Meere - Die Fahrt der Altmark (Undetected across the seas – The journey of the Altmark), in which he rejected the accusations of the British press.

After the incident Dau became referent of replenishment oilers at the fleet commando, where he served the following years till the end of the war (1941–45). In the last the days of the war Dau expressed to one of his friends, that he fears the consequences of the incident. He thought, that after the war he will be tried and sentenced to death. As he put it: "I begrudge the English this satisfaction and I hope to have the opportunity to make an end myself" Two days after the German surrender, on 10 May 1945 Heinrich Dau committed suicide.

Indeed, some 60 per cent of letters intercepted by the Postal Censorship authorities from Norway to Britain were explicitly hostile to Cossack’s actions. One Norwegian wrote:

"If ever a naval job was done without heroism it was this one . . . . The British sailors shot at Germans running across the ice without any weapons at all. Such things happen in war but ought not later to be acclaimed as heroism. We have behaved like damned blundering fools, the Germans have been liars and cheaters, but on the other hand not much good can be said for the British action. And this is said by me who you know is entirely too much on the English side."

The Admiralty’s Awards and Honours Commitee regarded the boarding as a ’spectacular and brilliant’ exploit, but did not want to overestimate it, also because the Norwegians were about to belittle the quality of the action. Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord, vetoed awards to any except Vian and the officers and men of the boarding party, stating that the operation was ’on entirely different level to an action between ships’. It was decided cause of this, that Captain Vian (DSO rather than a CB) and the members of the boarding party will receive awards.

After questioning the once prisoners the Admiralty came to the conclusion, that the Altmark was not suited for keeping so much captives on bord, but the German captain and his crew did what they could to improve their situation. W. V. S Sinclair, Head of the Admiralty’s Military Branch proposed, that a public statement should be released exonorating Dau and his crew. He proposed to pay tribute to the Germans’ attempts to do what they could for the prisoners in the circumstances, and ‘in particular the Board of the Admiralty desire to put on record their appreciation of the widely acknowledged kindness that was consistently shown to the prisoners by the Ship’s Doctor’.

While senior figures in the Admiralty supported Sinclair’s idea, the propagandists were against it. C.A.H. Brooking, Director of the Press Division, argued that such a statement would only supply the enemy with valuable material for propaganda and would tend to discredit the British press in neutral countries. Geoffrey Shakespeare, the Parliamentary Secretary, also strongly argued against any exoneration of Dau. Shakespeare pointed out that many former prisoners had complained about their treatment, but in any case, ‘if the press has exaggerated the harshness of the treatment, the world, which has proof in plenty of Nazi bestiality, is more likely to assume the truth of these stories than to believe that our prisoners were kindly treated’. The last word on this aspect of the case went to Churchill himself, who noted simply, ‘let us leave it here’. This allowed a book titled ’I was an Altmark prisoner’ written by Thomas Foley to be published that year and in it the author described his allegedly sadistic treatment by the German crew in a hysteric and overwrought manner.

The incident also had a lasting propaganda effect in German-occupied Norway during the war, when the Norwegian collaborationist government tried to neutralise their nickname "quislings" by using the location of the skirmish, Jøssingfjord, to coin the derogatory term "jøssing", referring to pro-Allies and anti-Nazis. Their efforts backfired, as "jøssing" was immediately adopted as a positive term by the general public, and the word was banned from official use by 1943.

The fact that a number of the German crew were killed and wounded was used unsuccessfully as a defence by the Germans in the Nuremberg trials, as the British commander, rather than being tried himself, was decorated for the action.

Impact

Jøssingfjord pictured in 2006

The incident strengthened the political position of Winston Churchill and a few months later he became prime minister. This case also supported his plans to draw Norway into the war. Already in 1939 he planned to occupy the country and hindering that way the Swedish iron ore transport along the Norwegian coast from Narvik to Germany. Many did not supported his plans, but with the rescue he could hope to have more supporters. According to his plan, after French and British troops have landed in Norway (preferably with the consent of the Norwegian government), they could also occupy the ore mines in northern Sweden and go further to support Finland in its war against the Soviet Union (already settled by this time.)

The Germans prefered Norway to be neutral, but they knew about the French and British plans to invade the country already in 1939. The subject was also discussed in the House of Commons. The Germans wanted to prevent the occupation by the Allies and began to plan their own operation. Großadmiral Erich Raeder stressed the urgency of the operation and on 14 December the decision was made to occupy Norway. On 24 January 1940 the "Sonderstab Nord" was set up, later renamed as "Sonderstab Weserübung".

The Germans knew how fast Norway could be occupied by the Allies. This incident prompted Hitler to accelerate the plannings of "Operation Weserüng" on 19 February. On 21 February General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst was appointed as chief of the special staff (Leiter der Sonderstabes). Judging by the readiness of the invasion fleet, by the increased British naval operations towards the Skagerrak and by the arraival of a French delegation of army officers in Bergen, the Germans learned in March 1940, that the invasion was imminent and appointed the day of beginning the operation. On 9 April 1940 Operation Weserübung was launched.

Legacy

memorial plaques in the Jøssingfjord nowadays

• After occupying Norway the Germans erected a memorial tablet in the Jøssingfjord with the inscription: "Hier wurde am 16. Februar 1940 die Altmark von britischen Seepiraten überfallen." (Here on 16 February the Altmark was attacked by British sea-pitates.) The memorial consisting of to pieces was dismounted by British paratroopers in 1944, who took them with them. One piece they gifted to Vian, already an Admiral that time. The other part they kept for themselves and is now in the Parachute Regiment and Airborne Forces Museum in Aldershot.
• In the late 1950’s the Norwegian government errected a memorial with the inscription: "Her fant kampen sted mellom den britiske destroyer Cossack og det tyske hjelpeskip Altmark den 16. febr. 1940" (Here took place the fight between the British destroyer and the German auxiliary ship Altmark on 16 February 1940). Images from both the memorials are seen on the website of the Cossack Association.
• A popular song with the title The Navy's here was written by Ross Parker and Hughie Charles which saluted the incident by comparing it with those of Drake, Nelson, Beatty, and Fisher.
• The Wild Geese, a band from New Zealand has written a song related to the incident with the title Altmark.
• Two newsreels by the British Pathé reported the incident (1, 2).

External links

• IWM Interview with Altmark prisoner William Melville-Evans
• German Supply Ship Altmark and an Unlikely Meeting Llanelli Community Heritage
• Altmark Affäre
• HMS Cossack Association

Bibliography

• R. K. Lochner: Als das Eis brach: Der Krieg zur See um Norwegen 1940. Heyne Verlag, München 1983. p. 15-78.
• Martin A. Doherty: The Attack on the Altmark: A Case Study in Wartime Propaganda. In: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol 38 No 2, p. 187-200.
• Winston S. Churchill: The Second World War 1. Volume, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1985.
• Willi Frischauer, Robert Jackson: The Navy's Here! The Altmark Affair. London 1955.
• Janusz Piekalkiewicz: Der Zweite Weltkrieg. Mit einem Vorwort von Sebastian Haffner, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-89350-544-X.
• Mark Barton, John McGrath: British Naval Swords and Swordmanship. Seaforth Publishers, 2013.
• Gerhard Wagner (Hrsg.): Lagevorträge des Oberbefehlshabers der Kriegsmarine vor Hitler 1939-1945. München 1972.

References

Category:Maritime incidents in February 1940 Category:European theatre of World War II Category:International maritime incidents Category:Sokndal Category:Naval battles of World War II involving Germany