The disaster that struck Elverum 80 years ago is the subject of historian and author Vegard Sæther's new book Elverum 1940 The hidden enemy.
The bombing of Elverum has been characterized by many as a pure German terrorist bombing and an act of revenge because of the King's No.
On April 11, 1940, German bombs hit the capital of Østerdalen with such ferocity that 35 people lost their lives. Still others were physically and mentally injured, while countless others lost their homes and all their possessions.
The book gets close to individual destinies. Through the young girl Ingeborg Krog, Sæther illuminates the story of the many who lost their lives on this fateful day. On April 11, 1940, she became the first Norwegian soldier to fall during World War II, in the service of king and country. But this is also the story of the great unanswered questions that arose after the bombing. About Aage Cappelen Møystad who disappeared and about Frantz Heyerdahl who was shot without the killer being punished. Readers will also learn about overall military strategies, a king on the run, German secret agents and Hitler's new weapons - the paratroopers. And for the first time, the military dispositions for this important section of the front are highlighted.
Launch at the Glomdal Museum is streamed
Saturday, June 6 at 1300 hours it will be book launch at Glomdalsmuseet in Elverum.
Vegard Sæther will give a lecture and the whole thing will be streamed on the Glomdal Museum's Facebook page, so that even those who are not in the geographical vicinity will have the opportunity to attend.
It was politics that laid the foundation for the chaos
In the book's foreword, Vegard Sæther points out that history is something we must learn from: «For example, it's something we can use as a starting point, something we can look back on as an experience before moving on and not repeating the same mistakes. I'm thinking specifically of the defense policy pursued by several governments in the interwar period. It was a policy that laid the foundation for the chaos shown in this book. In many ways, newspaper headlines about defence policy tell the story of the interwar period, about cutbacks and downsizing in an already marginalized Armed Forces. One wonders if we can actually learn anything from history, so that we can avoid a similar disaster to the one that unfolded 80 years ago. It's a shared responsibility.»
