European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 05, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Display cases filled with photographs and models of Battle ready soldiers. The occupation of Norway Narvik museum tells the Story artillery pieces line one Wall of the War museum operated by the norwegian red Cross. Is photos by Gus Schuettler by Ron Jensen staff writer in the pre Dawn darkness of april 9,1940, the commander of a nazi flotilla of 10 destroyers asked for the surrender of the norwegian defense ship Eidsvold in the fjord below Narvik. The norwegians said no we want to fight but they did t get a Chance to fight says Nils Yeng director of the War museum in Narvik. The germans sent the Eidsvold to the Bottom of the fjord taking 176 sailors to watery Graves. While it was sinking the invaders began putting troops ashore. Meanwhile another norwegian ship the Norge appeared through a driving snowstorm. It was unable to mount any defense before two torpedoes dropped it beneath the Waves. So began the German occupation of Norway 50 years ago this week. And so begins the Story of the invasion and occupation As told by Yeng at the museum operated by the norwegian red Cross. The museum is heavy in depicting the events of Narvik s occupation but does t forget the five year occupation of the rest of the country. Narvik was important for its Railroad to the Iron Ore Fields of Sweden. Even now the Harbor holds the largest mechanism in Europe for loading Ore into ships. Yeng is an appropriate director for the . He was an 11 year old boy when the nazi warships steamed into the fjord and As he leads visitors through the displays his knowledge is accompanied by a Large dose of Pride. Yeng a retired High school teacher spends Many hours at the museum. He prints pictures builds displays and studies the Battle of Narvik. While Reading diaries of soldiers who fought in the Battle he Learned that soldiers from each Side had similar desires. For a particular Day a norwegian Soldier and a German Soldier each wrote that the Sunshine gave them an Opportunity to dry their clothes. The museum which is open from March 1 to oct. 1, attracts about 45,000 visitors annually. It contains a Large number of photographs of the occupation plus War equipment from the time torpedoes flags weapons and soldiers gear. It is arranged in chronological order which allows Yeng to Tell the Story As he shows off his displays. The Day after the two norwegian ships were sunk he says five destroyers from the British Royal Navy arrived. They Sank the German flagship and one other German destroyer and heavily damaged a third. Two British ships were lost and one was heavily damaged. The Battle for Narvik would continue for nearly two months highlighted by a naval bombardment of the town that would reduce much of it to rubble. We had six weeks where the germans were on Shore and the Royal Navy was on the fjord Yeng recalls. They were shooting against each other night and Day. We civilians were Between them. It was dangerous he adds. Most of the houses were hit by the artillery from the Royal Navy. My Mother took her two sons with her and went to the other Side of the  pictures in the museum show the destruction. Where there is now a bustling downtown there was Only rubble and smoking ruins. Blank faced civilians stare into the camera As they stand in line for food along debris cluttered streets. A combined Allied Force of 25,000 norwegian British French and polish soldiers was Able to seize Narvik in a land assault on May 28, but was unable to prevent the germans from retreating into Sweden. But events in France were conspiring against the norwegians. On May 10, the germans had launched their Blitzkrieg into France. This created great concern among the British who feared an invasion of their Island nation. On May 27, the evacuation from the beaches at Dunkirk was begun. Eventually More than 300, 12 stripes Magazine april 5, 1990 above ships fittings and implements of naval warfare Are displayed in part of the Narvik museum along with models and old photographs. Nils Yeng remembers the occupation. An Anchor displayed next to the museum Entrance. Rooms would be taken from those beaches to safety in great Britain. Yeng says i think Churchill must have had a bit o panic. He sent an order to the Allied troops in Norway that they had to draw  the evacuation of Narvik began on june 3 and wa4 completed on june 8. All that remained were norwegian troops and they were too few to prevent of ermans from retaking Narvik. The norwegian troops did the Best they could Kyeng says. They lost their air support. They lost their artillery help from the warships. They had Only one Ling to do. They must  Norway was in the hands of the nazis until the end to the War in 1945. The first american casualty America was still 20 months away from officially entering world War ii when its first uniformed casualty was recorded in the mountains of Norway. Capt. Robert Moffat Losey the military attache at the embassy in Oslo and a member of the . Army air corps was killed by bomb fragments during a raid on the rail station at Domaas on april 21,1940. A simple Monument has been erected in the town to Honor Losey and the 29 norwegians who were killed during combat in and around Domaas. Information supplied by the . Embassy gives some detail of Losey s last Days and How he came to be in Domaas on that Day. Particularly helpful Are the memoirs of Florence Jaffray Harriman who was the . Minister to Norway when the War broke out. The nazis had entered Oslo sending citizens scrambling in Early april. Losey accompanied Harriman and others to the assumed safety of Sweden. Later they decided to try to reach norwegian cities in the North despite the threat of attacks by German planes along the Way. In her diary Harriman wrote in her memoirs she recorded her comments upon meeting him the new military attache is a Nice spare Young Man in a flying corps uniform and seems in every Way  he is portrayed in Harriman s Book As a capable and professional Young Man aware of his duty and bound to perform it. When Losey decided to go to Domaas to determine the situation there German paratroopers had landed in the area he had to convince Harriman to let him go without her. You might be bombed. The germans Are strafing the roads he told her according to her Book. But so might you she replied and that would be worse for you Are so Young and have your life before you while i have had a wonderful life and nearly All of it behind  Losey 32, replied i certainly Don t want to be killed but your death would be the More serious As it might involve our country in All kinds of trouble whereas with a military attache. On april 22, Harriman received a Call telling her that Losey had been killed the previous Day. An air raid had come just As Losey and a chauffeur had loaded the car on a train for a trip to the swedish Border. They and other passengers sought safety in a nearby Tunnel but Losey wanted to observe the bombing so he stepped away from the Wall of the Tunnel. A splinter from a bomb pierced his heart and killed him instantly. The body was taken by train to Stockholm. Flowers and an american Flag covered the coffin. Nearly 20 months later the japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. During the next four years american deaths would become commonplace. But from All accounts capt. Robert Losey was the first american casualty of world War ii. R. April 5, 1990 stripes Magazine 13