In 1940 Norway, with a population of some 3,000,000, had the third largest ocean going merchant fleet in the world, about 1100 ships. When Nazi Germany invaded the country without warning on the 9th of April that year, 1024 of those ships were at sea. The King and government immediately ordered them all to proceed to allied ports. Not one refused, despite messages from the Quisling government ordering them to return home. The Antarctic whaling fleet, with about 2,000 men, came into Halifax in the spring of 1940 to await further orders.
The Norwegian forces fought bravely for two months but were finally defeated. The King and government escaped to England where they set up a Government-in-exile and took control of all Norwegian ships outside of Norway through Nortraship (The Norwegian Shipping Altar Trade Mission) and put them at the disposal of the Allies. This was a very important contribution for up until 1942 Norwegian ships carried about half of the fuel and one third of all other supplies that were transported to Britain. The Norwegian merchant fleet lost 570 ships, and suffered nearly 4,000 seamen dead and about 6,000 sick or wounded.
In Halifax, the Norwegians set up offices for the Royal Norwegian Navy and Nortraship as well as a hospital, a seamen's church and a seamen's club. In November of 1940 they established a training facility, called Camp Norway, in Lunenburg to train gunners for Norwegian merchant ships. They also bought a hotel in Chester in which they set up a convalescent home for sick and injured seamen. The Norwegian Army also had a small base in Lunenburg from the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1943. Countless Norwegians trod the streets of Halifax and sailed out of this port during the war. Many of them never came to land again, while others died in Nova Scotia and some bodies were recovered from the sea and buried here. There are over 30 Norwegian war graves in Nova Scotia. Some are in Halifax at Camp Hill Cemetery and St. John's Anglican Cemetery, some at Fairview, four at Hillcrest Cemetery in Lunenburg and one in Sydney. Many of the graves did not have headstones until the Government of Norway provided stones which were installed during the summer of 1999.
The Norwegian memorial stone just south of the Canadian Merchant Navy memorial at Sackville Landing, near the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, commemorates members of the Norwegian Merchant Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy and Army buried in Nova Scotia. It also commemorates those who sailed out of Nova Scotian ports never to return. It was donated by Hans Petter Strandberg, of Strandberg Stein a.s., Larvik, Norway, and brought to Halifax through the courtesy of Wilhelmsen Line. The Government of Norway paid for the installation. The design on the face of the stone is copied from a monument in Larvik and was used with the permission of the late artist's family. The monument was unveiled on Canada's Remembrance Day, November 11th, 1998, by His Excellency Johan L. Løvald, then Norwegian Ambassador to Canada, and Mr. Jostein Kjelsrud of Larvik.
Mr. Kjelsrud has written a book about this part of Norway's and Canada's shared history, which has been published under the title "Etsteds" på den kanadiske østkyst. It has been translated into English with the title Somewhere on the East Coast of Canada and is available at the Fisheries Museum in Lunenburg and several bookstores in Halifax and along the South Shore. Publication of the book was supported by the Camp Norway Foundation, and the profits will be used to provide scholarships for students studying the Second World War with emphasis on the contribution of the Allied Merchant Navies.
The Norwegian motto is ALT FOR NORGE and those commemorated by this stone did give their all for their country - and ours.