Leif Welding-Olsen was the commander

Norwegian military ranks

The green part represents soldiers and the equivalent of non-commissioned officers. The blue part represents officers. Norway does not have a NCO-system and thus Sergeant and Quartermaster are grouped with the officers under the common designation befal...

 of the Royal Norwegian Navy

Royal Norwegian Navy

The Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. , the RNoN consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 5 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection vessel, 4 support...

 patrol boat HNoMS Pol III

HNoMS Pol III

Pol III was a patrol boat of the Royal Norwegian Navy, used for guarding the inlet of the Oslofjord in early April 1940. She was a small vessel, originally a whaler, of 214 tons...

. He was killed on 8 April 1940, becoming the first Norwegian to be killed during the German invasion of Norway

Operation Weserübung

Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...

.

Biography

Leif Welding-Olsen raised the alarm as the German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 navy ships moved past the guard lines in outer Oslofjord

Oslofjord

The Oslofjord is a bay in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the Torbjørnskjær and Færder lighthouses and down to Langesund in the south to Oslo in the north....

. Norway had been attacked at 2205hrs that evening as German ships passed the Norwegian territorial borders. Captain Welding-Olsen had a brief conversation with the commander of one of the German torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

s, who demanded that he surrender, but Welding-Olsen refused. Realising that the enemy would not turn away, but was going to violate Norwegian neutrality, Pol III fired flares to alert Norwegian coastal batteries

Coastal artillery

Coastal artillery is the branch of armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications....

 and rammed the Albatros.

From the Albatros it was clear that the guns on Pol III were manned, and that the Norwegians intended to fight. The Albatros promptly hit the small Norwegian vessel with anti aircraft fire, wounding Captain Welding-Olsen and starting several fires. As Pol III was burning, her crew abandoned the vessel and were captured. Leif Welding-Olsen, weakened by blood loss, did not manage to enter the lifeboat and drowned, becoming the first casualty in the war between Norway and Nazi Germany.

Legacy

• SHV-205 Welding, a vessel of Sea Home Guard was named after Leif Welding-Olsen
• Welding Olsens way of Oslo is named after him
• Leif Welding street in Horten (Welding birthplace) is named after him

Other sources

• Dildy, Douglas C. (2007) Hitler's Boldest Operation; Osprey Campaign Series (Osprey Publishing) ISBN 978-1846031175