posted
I am looking for a particular WWII propaganda poster. It shows a long line of merchant ships sailing abreast; above them is a line drawing of a dragon-headed Viking ship. The caption is "Norway - a fighting ally". Alas, my Google-fu is weak. Can someone help me?
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
How did you do that? The closest I could come was an inventory list at Utah State University..
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Having tried your way just now, and failed, I'm going to say that it's because I'm lacking your amazingness.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
You need the quotes around it, otherwise it'll just search for occurences of each word in the string. And you'll have to sift through tons of pictures and allies.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm gonna have to show that propaganda poster to my Dad--I bet he'll remember it!
He is a Norwegian-American, born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents, who served in a Norwegian Battalion in WWII. (He was trained as a ski trooper--the story was that they were to invade Norway--but he thinks it was all an elaborate ruse and they never had do that.) I interviewed him a few years ago about his experiences, and here's a comment of his about the Norwegian merchant fleet:
quote: K: When you enlisted, that was just for the duration of the war?
SLE: Duration plus 6 months. Some of the guys in the outfit were actually Norwegian seamen. When the Germans invaded Norway, the Norwegians had a tremendous merchant fleet. And naturally, they wouldn’t go back to their home port in Norway, because it was occupied by Germans! So they were loose and I guess they went various places and sometimes they landed in an American port, and some of these seamen would jump ship, and then they would stay a step ahead of the FBI and join the American army. When they did that, they were guaranteed citizenship.
K: Really? And the FBI was trying to find them because they weren’t citizens?
SLE: That’s right, sure, because who knows, they could be German agents, you know, so they had to stay after them. So they would join the American army, so it was an interesting bunch of guys. We actually had Norwegians from the Midwest that spoke perfect Norwegian, yet never had been there. And there were some 3rd-generation Norwegians too.
posted
The Norwegian merchant fleet is still one of the largest in the world. It was our main source of wealth before oil; and it'll still be there when the oil is gone. But it's not crewed by many Norwegians anymore - Filipinos, mainly, who'll work for near-zero wages.
When the Germans invaded, government ordered all merchant ships to make for Allied harbours; one of the few things they did right.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |