Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway to join the army

 

Photo: © 2023 The Royal Court/Øivind Möller Bakken.

Photo: © 2023 The Royal Court/Liv Anette Luane.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway graduated from Elvebakken videregående skole (upper secondary school) last week. The second photo above was released by the Norwegian Royal Court yesterday, showing the princess together with her parents Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit at the graduation ceremony.

Yesterday the Norwegian Royal Court also revealed Princess Ingrid Alexandra's plans for the near future. In the fall she will work at her former school Uranienborg in Oslo as a school assistant and environmental health worker. In January 2024 she will start on her 12 months long basic miltary service at Skjold Military Camp at Øverbygd in Målselv municipality, Troms and Finnmark county. Skjold Camp is the home base for the 2nd Batalion and the Engineers' Batalion. After the recruit period she will be given a service position and carry out a period with more specific education followed by a division period with more training and exercises.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra is 2nd in line of succession to the Norwegian throne and will as future monarch and head of state also become commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. In my opinion it is therefore important that she does her military service and gets a basic training and better understanding of the Armed Forces. I am therefore very pleased for the choices she had made so far.

Heder og ære - Honour and glory

The Norwegian Armed Forces has recently published the booklet Heder og ære. Nasjonale og internasjonale dekorasjoner brukt i Norge ("Honour and glory. National and international dekorations used in Norway"), which is a wonderfully illustrated survey of orders, medals and other decorations used in Norway. The booklet was published as an enclosure to the May 2012 issue of Forsvarets Forum, the monthly magazine of the Norwegian Armed Forces, but is a joint project with Forsvarets veterantjeneste (The Norwegian Armed Forces Veteran Affairs).

The booklet is divided into 6 groups (sections). The first group deals with orders and medals awarded/approved by HM The King, and includes everything from the War Cross with Sword and the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav to the Police Medal and the Armed Forces' service medal. The second group contains a survey of orders and medals awarded by foreign heads of state and include the Order of the British Empire (United Kingdom), the Order of the Dannebrog (Denmark), the Order of the Lion (Finland), the Order of the Falcon (Iceland), the Royal Order of the Polar Star (Sweden), the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Order of Leopold II (Belgium), the Order of Isabella the Catholic (Spain), the Legion of Merit (USA), Ordre National de Mérite (France), the Order of the Oak Crown (Luxembourg) and the the Order of Oranje-Nassau (the Netherlands). I am not sure why just these decorations were included, though.

The third group shows decorations awarded by the UN, NATO, EU, OSCE and similar international organsiations/unions. The fourth group deals with various medals awarded by different military (and some civil) associations etc., for instance the Independent Norwegian Brigade Group in Germany Veterans' medal and HM The King's Guard's medal. The fifth group shows other foreign medals, while group VI deals with merit badges. In addition you can find information about the Armed Forces' medal for casualties (killed in action) and the Dag Hammarskiöld's memorial medal.

Included in the booklet is also information about the use and awarding of orders and medals, a selection of statutes of various orders and decorations as well as a useful dictionary. The booklet is written in Norwegian, but some of the decorations have an English summary as well.

See also the chapter about the Norwegian orders and medals at the official website of the Norwegian Royal Court.

War memorials at Digitaltmuseum.no

Kulturnett.no (Culturenet.no) published earlier this week (21 November 2011) an interesting article about Norwegian war memorials which have been registered at Digitaltmuseum.no.

Forsvarsmuseet (The Armed Forces Museum) in Norway has kept a record of the war memorials in Norway since 1979. The survey was, however, rather insufficient and difficult of access. The Armed Forces carried out a national registration of all the war memorials with the help of the Home Guard districts. This registration work makes the basis for today's accessibility.

The survey of the war memorials can be viewed here.

According to the article historical objects, cultural monuments/relics or cultivated areas with defence-related relevance are not included in the Armed Forces' presentation of war memorials.

A war memorial is defined as a memorial of persons or events related to war occurrences and defence-related activity throughout history. A war memorial can be everything from a small plaque on a wall to a large monument in the middle of a city. There are war memorials of persons and events in every corner of Norway, symbolizing courage, resistance and the basic values of the Armed Forces. The vast majority of war memorials have been erected by initiatives of the local community. But the Armed Forces itself has also erected war memorials - both inside and outside military areas.

As of now about 2700 war memorials are included in the register.

I have over the years photographed many war memorials, often in connection with visits to cemeteries. The photos will be included in blog articles in due time. The photo at the top shows a war memorial outside Spangereid Cemetery in Lindesnes at the very south of Norway. Another photo of the memorial can be found at Digitaltmuseum.no. Named on the memorial are Sverre Gundersen (1916-1941), Norman E. Samuelsen (1919-1942) and Toralf Robertsen (1921-1943). The latter was a first cousin of my father-in-law and I wrote a few words about him in the Robertsen booklet published in August 2009 in connection with the Robertsen family reunion at Spangereid. Toralf, who had been a sailor since he was 15, was on board the ship D/S Christian Michelsen which was torpedoed on 26 September 1943.

Postscript 24 January 2017: The website Kulturnett.no was closed in 2013, so the three links in the first paragraph don't work any longer.

Updated on 24 January 2017 at 10.15 (postscript added).

Veterans' Day without King Harald

The 8th of May is called «Frigjøringsdagen» («Liberation Day») in Norway and is an official flag-flying day, commemorating the day when Norway was liberated from German occupation in 1945.

Last week the Norwegian Government decided to make the Liberation Day also a «Veterans’ Day» in recognition of the veterans’ contributions and war efforts from WW2 on. The intention is to commemorate the 8th of May also as a Veterans Day’ every year from now on.

On 8th of May this year there were arrangements several places in Norway where members of the Norwegian Government took part. Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Minister of Defence Grete Faremo – the former’s grandfather, the officer Emil Stoltenberg, spent 2 years as a prisoner of war in among others Poland during WW2, while the latter’s father Osmund Faremo (1921–1999) was active in the Norwegian resistance movement Milorg and spent nearly 2 years in concentration camps in Germany and Austria as a «Nacht und Nebel» prisoner.

Minister of Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs, Rigmor Aasrud attended commemorative events at Hamar, Elverum and Rena, Minister of Petroleum and Energy Ola Borthen Moe was in Trondheim, Minister of Transport and Communications Magnhild Meltveit Kleppa was in Stavanger and Minister of Research and Higher Education Tora Aasland in Kirkenes. In addition 3 state secretaries – Terje Moland Pedersen, Hans Kr. Amundsen and Roger Ingebrigtsen – attended events in Fredrikstad, Bardufoss/Heggelia and Tromsø.

In Oslo the Veterans’ Day was marked at Akershus Castle and Fortress with speeeches, laying of wreaths, a reception, a twirling display by His Majesty The King’s Guard and a medal ceremony as well as a church ceremony in Oslo domkirke (Oslo Cathedral).

Three Norwegian officers – Colonel Eirik Johan Kristoffersen, Captain Jørg Lian and Naval Commander Trond André Bolle (for the latter the award was made posthumously, as he was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan last year) – who have served in Afghanistan received the War Cross with sword. The Chief of Defence of Norway, General Harald Sunde, presented the decorations, assisted by Prime Minister Stoltenberg.

I missed the King’s presence at Akershus and wondered about the reason for his absence. He had no official engagements that day, and even if decisions on the War Cross are taken by the King in Council (i.e. the Government, with the king presiding over the Council of State) and not the King personally, if would be natural that he was present. He is known to care a lot about Veterans issues and takes his constitutional obligations as Commander-in-Chief seriously.

Dagbladet today claims to know, citing among others several unnamed sources in the Armed Forces, that King Harald had wanted to be present at Akershus and to hand over the decorations himself, but was denied this by the Prime Minister.

The court’s communications secretary Marianne Hagen has told Dagbladet that «the War Cross was this year presented by the Chief of Defence on the King’s behalf. This is something the king and the prime minister have agreed on». She refused to comment when Dagbladet asked if it was not natural for the king to be present under such a ceremony.

Obviously the communications secretary had no choice but to comment the way she did. An open war with the Government would not be acceptable. Still, if Dagbladet’s version of the story is correct, I find it difficult to interpret it any other way than a snub and an effort in undermining the king’s position and the monarchy itself. The Government obviously wanted to bask in the sun alone at such a popular event as the Veterans' Day is...

See also photos and press releases at Regjeringen.no (the Government's official website), Flickr and Forsvaret.no (the Armed Forces' website) as well as Views and News from Norway's article (9 May 2011), Liberation Day now Veterans' Day.

Updated on Tuesday 10 May 2011 at 16.15 (one expression changed).

HM The King's Guard won't be downgraded after all

Last week I passed on Views and News from Norway's article King's Guards to lose some status, by which we were told that HM The King's Guard from 2011 was to be downgraded to a purely ceremonial unit.

Fortunately the military leadership has changed its mind, cf. Aftenposten and Views and News from Norway today, which means "business as usual" also next year. The guards will have both infantry training and field exercises in addition to parade and ceremonial duties.

HM The King's Guard to lose some status

Views and News from Norway published the article King's Guards to lose some status on Thursday 7 October. Unfortunately (at least for the time being) I don't get enough time in the evenings to update my blog, so I have found that a good solution is to write shorter blog articles - or just references to news articles - during my (unpaid) lunch breaks instead. I would have loved to add some personal comments about the Views and News of Norway article and the current status of the Norwegian Defence, but that will have to be put on hold until later.

Anyway, I would like to point out that the time stated in any blog article at Blogspot is not the time when the blog article is actually published (i.e. available to the public), but the time when the first draft of the (unpublished) article is stored. For instance, my article written last Thursday, Luxembourg: Grand Duke Henri's 10th anniversary, was not published at 11.34, but much closer to noon that day. This also means that if I write a longer ("in-depth") blog article one evening, the actual time of publishing could be 1-2 hours later than the stated time. Not sure why Blogspot (Google) has chosen this solution, but thought it would be useful to mention it.

Updated on Tuesday 19 October 2010 at 17.30 (minor mistake corrected).

Crown Prince Haakon promoted to Commodore

In Council of State on Friday 7 May 2010 at the Royal Palace in Oslo, HRH Crown Prince Haakon was promoted to Commodore of the Navy, Brigader of the Army and Air Commodore of the Air Force.

Earlier the Crown Prince was Lieutenant-Commander of the Navy and Major of the Army and Air Force, so the promotion on Friday meant that he climbed 3 steps up the ladder. Crown Prince Haakon got his military education at the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy in Bergen.

References

• Crown Prince Haakon's biography at Kongehuset.no
• Aftenposten.no 7 May 2010.
• Press release no. 9/2010 from the the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence, 7 May 2010
• Ranks and insignias, the Norwegian Armed Forces