Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany - Weapons and Equipment

Weapons and Equipment

The post-war armament situation in Norway can be simply described by the term "quartermasters nightmare". The armed forces had and used a wide assortment of Norwegian weapons recaptured from the Germans, captured German weapons, British weapons as issued to Norwegian units trained in Britain, some Swedish weapons that came with the Police force consisting of Norwegian refugees trained and equipped in Sweden during the war and finally British and American weapons from air drops to the resistance.

Tysklandsbrigaden however was supplied by the British and were armed and equipped with British weapons, wore British webbing and British uniforms. But the difficult situation needed a solution, and after testing and debate the decision was made around 1950 to adopt and standardize the weapons then in use by the United States for the regular armed forces (the Home Guard (Heimevernet) kept the captured Mauser K98's and other German weapons, most converted to fire the .30-06 round to standardize ammunition supply). This decision also covered Tysklandsbrigaden and its weapons.

Starting with some parts of Brigade 512, the transformation was finished during Bde. 521's contingent. This however had an advertent effect on the training of the personnel in Bde. 521 and all the ensuing Brigades, before this a fairly large amount of ammunition allocated for training purposes had ensured excellent results through rigorous training. The change from .303 caliber Lee Enfield rifles, Bren LMGs and Vickers machine guns to .30-06 caliber M1 Garand rifles, BAR LMGs and Browning M1919 Machine guns (these were the principal infantry weapons in use, other weapons types were also affected) meant that the British could no longer supply Tysklandsbrigaden. The considerable drop of available ammunition showed up clearly, when Bde. 521 had to report that due to lack of ammunition for training, the Brigade was not fit for combat.

This was a very serious situation indeed, as not only had the Brigade's mission been changed from pure occupation to first-line defence against a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe; there was at this time serious consideration regarding a Norwegian contingent in the Korean War, and the most convenient troops to send were Tysklandsbrigaden. Luckily for the troops, none were ever sent to Korea, and with the precarious situation a deployment to Korea could easily have ended in disaster.