Father and the Norwegian Fiasco of April 1940 by Clare Jakeman
This was the third time Clare had spoken to Rotary and on this occasion she gave a fascinating account of he father’s part in the Norwegian Campaign of 1940 when he served with the 8th Sherwood Foresters.
This campaign which had the aim of opposing the German occupation of Norway, preventing their access to Norwegian Iron ore and securing the Atlantic coast, was ill prepared and not Churchill’s finest hour.
Clare gave us a blow by blow account of the part her father played and of the lack of planning which resulted in chaos, the inevitable defeat of the Allied forces and their eventual surrender. Her father who subsequently became a prisoner of war was decorated for gallantry but spent the rest of the war as a P.O.W.