Denmark's Hour of Destiny - A Personal Testimony

Summary of Lars Ericson's article in RSAWSPJ no 4 2001.

April 9th 1940 will forever stand out as something of an hour of destiny for the Nordic countries, with the German attacks against our neighbours Norway and Denmark. A great deal of the research of recent years has been devoted to the question how this could happen and – of course – what could have prevented a successful German occupation of these countries. Not surprisingly, this discussion has focused on the events in Norway, where Norwegian troops as well as those of the Western Allies occasionally put up a strong resistance to the aggressors, not least in the Narvik area. It is obvious to present-day observers that the run of events might easily have taken another course.

As far as Denmark is concerned, her destiny always seemed a foregone conclusion, given her exposed strategic position under the shadow of her big neighbour. With German troops in the very centre of Copenhagen and the Wehrmacht’s columns moving at full speed across the border to Jutland, Denmark’s prospects of successfully defending herself were severely limited on the morning of 9th April, 1940. Not least, just for that very reason, documents dealing with those hours of decisive importance are seen as being of particular interest. One such reading experience has now been offered through the publication of the Commander in Chief of the Danish Nany, Vice Admiral Rechnitzer’s personal diary. For the lasting benefit of latter-day researchers he kept a diary from the outbreak of the war on the continent of Europe in September, 1939, until his resignation on 10th May, 1940. The diary in its present form is a thoroughly scholarly achievement by the prominent Danish naval historian Hans Christian Bjerg (Fra neutralitet til besættelse. Viceadmiral H. Rechnitzers dagbog om flådens virke 1939-40, Selskabet for Udgivelse af Kilder til Dansk Historie, Copenhagen 2000).

April 9th 1940 was not only a tragedy for the Nordic countries. For Rechnitzer it was a personal disaster and, as a reader, one cannot be surprised by the entry in the Admiral’s diary for April 11th: ”My mood is quite black and I feel extremely dejected and heartbroken. It all seems endlessly sad to me.”