WW2 - Saving Norway’s Gold

WW2 – Saving Norway’s Gold (Flukten Med Norges Gull) follows the evacuation of the last part of Norway's gold reserve to keep it from the clutches of the invading Nazi. On the 9th of April 1940 Nazi Germany launched a surprise invasion of Norway. At this point most of Norway's gold had been safely moved outside the country. Approximately 50 tonnes, about 2.5 billion quid in today's money, remained in the central bank in Oslo for banknote coverage. This to had to be moved out of the country too.

The Secretary of the Norwegian Parliament's Labour Party, Fredrik Haslund, leads the expedition north. The 50 tonnes is moved by an unlikely grouping of bank clerk, bureaucrats, soldiers, anti-fascist veterans of the Spanish Civil War, and the poet Nordahl Grieg. Under fire, dodging German bombers and trying to avoid detection, it is a mission that can only be pulled off by the skin of their teeth.

The three part documentary is, in its construction, fairly standard. It follows the story in a linear fashion. There is voiceover with archive footage and photographs, interviews with local historians and relatives of those who were involved with the operation. Various locations along the gold's route are visited and we get to see vintage truck and fishing boats of the sort that were used. This structure, tried and tested, is used effectively. The use of archive, location and interview is well balanced, allowing the story to flow smoothly. Both episodes one and two end very naturally on cliff hangers. It is not just the bare facts that are explored but the personalities of those who were involved. Throughout there are little touches of comic flair.

One problem with WW2 – Saving Norway’s Gold is, assuming that you are not Norwegian, that it skirts over major facts concerning the 1940 invasion. If you are Norwegian then you'll know the facts off by heart - it's part of the national narrative - but if you are American then your country was not involved so it is not. If you are British (or French) then the Norway campaign is another in a string of Churchill-related military fiascoes which ends in the ignominious sinking of the carrier HMS Glorious and the fall of the British government, and ironically propels Winston Churchill into the post of Prime Minister. It gets quietly brushed under history's carpet.

WW2 – Saving Norway’s Gold tells a story that is often omitted from the narratives that surround World War Two. It does so in an interesting and entertaining way. If you don't know much about that part of World War Two, a couple of things will be confusing or seem to come out of the blue, but you can always go and read about them later.