Krags in WW II
I spent all of June and some of July in Norway, mostly Telemark, but also Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen and the fjords. Went to some of the resistance sites, including Vermork/Rjukan and the Oscarsborg forts that gave the Kriegsmarin so much grief (which I will post on sometime soon).
It was Krags vs. Mausers from April 9 to June 10 1940. There was some serious fighting, 55,000 Norwegian infantry and naval personnel and another 40,000 allies, mostly British and French, against 100,000 Germans, SS and Wehrmacht. The Norwegians were armed with the Norwegian Krag in its variations, 6.5x55, as well as Madsen SMGs and Colt machine guns. The fighting on the ground was pretty intense and there were a lot of casualties. If there was a deciding factor - well, there were two: German air superiority and armor, and the Allied withdrawal when Germany attacked France. The Norwegians had managed to keep the Germans at bay long enough to get the Royal family, the elected officials and the nation's gold reserves out of the country, and most of the merchant marine to British ports. Narvik changed hands a couple times and capital ships on both sides went to the bottom.
Without Allied support there was no way to win, so the Norwegian army negotiated. WHile negotiations were ongoing some major units defected to Sweden and were disarmed and the rest of the army disbanded, leaving most of their gear behind.
My guess is that the Krag was the main infantry rifle for the Milorg resistance, at least until British weapons started coming in by airdrop. I saw Krags and Madsens in the Resistance Museum in Oslo, even a Krag pistol.
The Krag was still in use at the Coast Artillery Academy for small arms drill and parade well into the 1970s. A few photos from the museum at Oscarsborg. Hard to tell without seeing the action and lunchbox, but those look like N Krag barrels to me.
krags_c.jpg krags_b.jpg krags_a.jpg
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Originally Posted by jon_norstog
