Altmark Incident
The
Altmark Incident (
Norwegian:
Altmark-saken) was a naval skirmish of
World War II between
United Kingdom and
Nazi Germany, which happened on
16 February 1940 in what, at that time, were neutral
Norwegian waters. The
Altmark, a German supply ship with Norwegian escorts, was returning to Germany with 299 British merchant sailors on board, who had been picked up from ships sunk by the heavy cruiser
Graf Spee, herself scuttled after the
Battle of the River Plate in December
1939. It has the unusual distinction of being the last major boarding action fought by the
Royal Navy.
After being intercepted by the destroyer
HMS Cossack, captained by
Philip Vian, the
Altmark sought refuge in the
fjord Jøssingfjord, but
Cossack followed her inside and forced her to ground. The British then boarded the
Altmark and after some hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets, overwhelmed the ship and released the prisoners. 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.
The Norwegians were angered that their
neutrality had been infringed and did not want to be dragged into a European war. Yet, the Altmark incident sowed doubts about the Norwegian neutrality among the allies, as well as Germany. Both sides had contingency plans for military action against Norway, primarily to control the traffic of
Swedish iron ore, on which German armament industry depended in the early stages of the war. The Altmark incident convinced
Hitler that the allies would not respect Norwegian neutrality, and on
19 February decided to intensify the planning for
Operation Weserübung, the occupation of
Denmark and Norway, which eventually took place on
9 April 1940.
The
Altmark incident gave the British a short-lived, but sorely needed morale boost during the
"Phony War". The incident also had a more lasting
propaganda effect in German-occupied Norway during the war, when the Norwegian collaborator government tried to neutralize 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 finally banned from official use by 1943.
*Frischauer, Willi; & Jackson, Robert,
The Navy's Here! The Altmark Affair*
Ships of the World: Altmark*
Halford Mackinder's Necessary War An essay describing the Altmark incident in a larger strategic context of World War II
