Carl Gustav Fleischer
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| Carl Gustav Fleischer | |
|---|---|
| 28 December 1883 – 19 December 1942 (aged 58) | |
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| Place of birth | Bjørnar Rectory in Nord-Trøndelag |
| Place of death | Toronto |
| Resting place | Vår Frelsers gravlund, Oslo |
| Allegiance | Norway |
| Service/branch | Norwegian Army |
| Years of service | 1905-1942 |
| Rank | general |
| Commands held | • Staff officer Norwegian 6th division • Commanding Officer of Infantry Regiment 14 • Commanding Officer Norwegian 6th division • Commanding Officer Norwegian Army in exile • Commanding Officer Norwegian forces in Canada • Defence attaché in Washington D.C. |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards |  War Cross with sword Virtuti Militari Croix de guerre Knight Commander of The Order of the Bath |
Carl Gustav Fleischer KCB (28 December 1883 - 19 December 1942[1]) was a Norwegian general and the first land commander to win a major victory against the Germans in World War II.
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[edit] Early life
Fleischer was born in Bjørnar in Nord-Trøndelag as the son of the Church of Norway pastor Carl Edvard Fleischer and Johanne Sofie Fergstad.[1] His father died while he was very young and Fleischer moved with his mother to grow up in Trondheim. His childhood home was one characterized by Christianity, simplicity and frugality.[2]
[edit] Personal life
In his spare time Fleischer enjoyed painting watercolours and going trout fishing.[3]
[edit] Military career
[edit] Pre-World War II
Motivated by economic uncertainties, Fleischer joined the Norwegian Military Academy and graduated as the second best student in 1905.[1] The academy instilled in young Fleischer a strong belief in that the first task of a military officer was to defend his country and that regulations were to be considered standing orders in critical situations.[2]
In 1917 Fleischer made the rank of captain.[1]
In 1919-1923 he was the staff officer of the Norwegian 6th Division before becoming Commanding Officer of Infantry Regiment 14 (IR 14) in Mosjøen. While serving in North Norway Fleischer became an avid writer of military manuals and worked continually on developing the Norwegian Defence Forces in line with the special prerequisites caused by the Norwegian nature and society.[2]
From 1909 to 1933 he held various positions in the Norwegian General Staff. In addition he served as a captain in the Norwegian Royal Guards in 1926-1929, chief of the Commanding General's staff of adjutants in 1933-1934 and as a teacher at the Norwegian Defence Staff College in 1928-1934.[1] During his time at the General Staff Fleischer warned of the possibility of a surprise attack on central areas of Norway. He also stated that the best way of confronting such an attack was a combination of defending coastal outposts while the main forces mobilised in rear areas in the interior of the country.[3]
In 1930 he was promoted to the rank of major, and in 1934 became a colonel, assuming command of the Sør-Hålogaland Regiment (Infantry Regiment 14).[1]
[edit] World War II
[edit] Background and strategy
| Norway and World War II |
|---|
| Key events |
|
Weserübung |
| People |
|
Haakon VII of Norway |
|
Vidkun Quisling · Jonas Lie |
| Organizations |
|
Milorg · XU · Linge |
| Supported legitimate exiled government. |
| Supported German occupants and Nasjonal Samling party. |
On 16 January 1939 Fleischer was made Major General (generalmajor) and Commanding Officer of the Norwegian 6th Division,[2] the position that would lead him to become the first allied general to defeat the Wehrmacht in a head-on land confrontation. January 1940 saw Fleischer appointed by royal resolution as commander-in-chief of North Norway in case of war.[1]
After the Winter War between Finland and Russia broke out in November 1939 the 6th Division was mobilised and Fleischer repeatedly took the initiative to encourage the Norwegian government to increase the country's military readiness in North Norway. Included amongst these initiatives were wide-ranging measures against the region's communists. Fleischer's distrust of the Soviet Union continued to show itself throughout the following Norwegian Campaign in 1940, when he kept substantial forces at the Soviet border in eastern Finnmark despite a desperate need of reinforcements at the front line at Narvik against Maj. Gen. Eduard Dietl's Gebirgsjäger forces.[4]
In 1940, following the German invasion of Norway General Fleischer was appointed commander-in-chief of the Norwegian armed forces in North Norway.[4] At the time of the attack on 9 April 1940 Fleischer was at Vadsø in Finnmark. When message of the invasion reached Fleischer the area was in middle of a ferocious blizzard. Fleischer immediately set off for Tromsø, arriving there by aircraft on 10 April after flying in terrible conditions.[3] From Tromsø he issued orders for total civilian and military mobilisation and declared North Norway a theatre of war. Fleischer's strategic plan was to first wipe out the German forces at Narvik and then transfer his division to Nordland to meet a German advance from Trøndelag.[3] Fleischer valued offensive actions against enemy forces, using the unique nature of the Norwegian terrain to carry out attacks against an enemy's flanks and rear. General Fleischer had already in 1934 opposed the concept of fighting delaying actions while waiting for Allied reinforcements, a tactic on which General Otto Ruge relied during his defence of the vital Eastern Norway region.[3]
[edit] Operations in 1940
As commander of the 6th Division, Maj. Gen. Carl Gustav Fleischer coordinated Norwegian, French, Polish and British forces in the recapturing of Narvik on 28 May from Maj. Gen. Eduard Dietl's Austro-German 3rd Mountain Division. The victory was accomplished despite shifting allied strategies and leadership. Following the evacuation of southern Norway Fleischer was embroiled in conflicts with the political and military leadership arriving from the abandoned southern parts of the country. The General's hard-headed and uncompromising style did not help in this regard.[4]
Narvik was the first major allied infantry victory in World War II. Unfortunately for the Norwegians, following the German invasion of France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, the Allied task force was withdrawn in early June. Without the support from the Allies, the Norwegian Army alone was not able to defend its positions and the Germans recaptured Narvik on 9 June.
As the Norwegian forces in mainland Norway was about to surrender, General Fleischer followed King Haakon VII and the Cabinet Nygaardsvold into exile in the United Kingdom, having been made commander of the Norwegian army in exile on 7 June 1940.[1]
[edit] Exile
General Fleischer was known as an excellent and righteous officer and soldier who had been very critical of the Norwegian Labour Party's pacifist policies and razing of the Norwegian Army during the 1930s. The relative ease with which the Germans were able to execute Operation Weserübung proved he had been fatally right.
During his exile in the United Kingdom, General Fleischer quickly built up a Norwegian infantry brigade based in Dumfries, Scotland from June 1940. However, he soon got at odds with the Norwegian political leadership in exile due to his strong headed attitudes and unwillingness to compromise. He also became controversial in factions of the cabinet due to his support of British commando raids on the Norwegian coast, even stating his willingness to personally participate in the attacks on the German occupying forces in Norway.[5] While stationed in the UK, he received a number of allied awards. Among these were the Polish Virtuti Militari for bravery, the French Croix de guerre, and the British Knight Commander of "The Order of the Bath".
Most likely because of a personal antagonism due to this fact, General Fleischer was bypassed when the exile government of prime minister Johan Nygaardsvold in 1942 decided to recreate the post of commander-in-chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces.[5]
This post had existed temporarily during the 1940 campaign, but General Otto Ruge, who had been commander-in-chief during the campaign, stayed in Norway and surrendered with his troops. Instead of Fleischer, who was the obvious choice, the cabinet promoted the young Helsinki, Finland defence attaché Major Wilhelm von Tangen Hansteen directly to general and gave him the post.[2] In response to this act Fleischer delivered his resignation.[5]
The cabinet ordered General Fleischer to take up a new post as commander of Norwegian forces in Canada. Apart from the Royal Norwegian Air Force's training base Little Norway near Toronto, which was already headed by Ole Reistad, and a school for merchant marine gunners at Lunenburg near Halifax, Nova Scotia, there were no Norwegian forces in Canada. A plan to create a Norwegian Army in Canada of expatriate Norwegian Americans came to nothing.[5]
[edit] Suicide and aftermath
On 1 December, 1942, General Fleischer was ordered to the position of Military Attaché to Washington D.C. This was another obvious humiliation, since usually officers of the ranks of Major or Lieutenant-Colonel were serving in this position. Being too much for him to swallow, he shot himself with his own gun through the heart on 19 December 1942. He was found by his adjutant Lieutenant Richard Brinck-Johnsen who brought the urne with the General's ashes to London in a Liberator aircraft. In London Brinck-Johnsen was ordered to keep the circumstances of Fleischer's death secret. Only in 1995 did Brinck-Johnsen speak out, stating that in his opinion Fleischer had taken his own life in sorrow of being set aside and not being needed by anyone.[5]
Still disputed today, it is thought that one of the reason for sending him to Canada was because he favoured a series of coastal raids against Norway to hamper German use of the occupied nation. Fleischer also wanted to build substantial army forces abroad and employ them in active operations against the German occupying forces in Norway, something that was in direct conflict with the more passive strategy favoured by Cabinet Nygaardsvold.[3] The prevailing view in the rest of the Cabinet was to build air and naval forces that could be used directly with Allied forces, as they feared such raids would provoke the Germans into severe punitive actions against the local populace, such as they did after the Telavåg incident.
When his ashes were brought back to Norway after the war, the Labour cabinet denied him a state funeral. Despite the presence of the King, the Crown Prince, and representatives of all other parts of Norwegian society, no representatives of cabinet or the Labour Party attended. When a monument to his honour was raised in Harstad at the headquarters of the 6th Division, with the presence of the King, the same thing happened.
Harstad (Gen. Fleischers gate), Bodø (General Fleischers gate) and Bardufoss (General Fleischers veg) all have streets named after the general.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Fleischer 1947: 216
- ^ a b c d e "En viljesterk general" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 9 April 1990. http://www.aftenposten.no/fakta/verdenskrig/article449065.ece. Retrieved on 2008-10-18.
- ^ a b c d e f Hovland, Torkel (14 March 2005). "General Carl Gustav Fleischer – storhet og fall" (in Norwegian). Oslo Militære Samfund. http://www.oslomilsamfund.no/oms_arkiv/2001/2001-03-19-Hovland.html. Retrieved on 5 February 2009.
- ^ a b c Borgersrud, Lars (1995). "Fleischer, Carl Gustav". in Dahl, Hans Fredrik (in Norwegian). Norsk krigsleksikon 1940–45. Oslo: Cappelen. http://www.norgeslexi.com/krigslex/f/f3.html#fleischer-carl. Retrieved on 2008-10-19.
- ^ a b c d e "Forfatter truet under arbeid med bok om general Fleischer" (in Norwegian). Aftenposten. 12 September 2000. http://www.aftenposten.no/fakta/verdenskrig/article533547.ece. Retrieved on 2008-10-19.
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[edit] Literature
- Fleischer, Carl Gustav: Efterlatte papirer, Tønsberg Aktietrykkeris Forlag, Tønsberg 1947 (Norwegian)
