Rick in Norway
Rick Elrick in Norway
Rick Elrick’s invited Jolly to Norway Visit to Norway 26—28 June As most of you know I attended a Centennial celebration of the Royal Norwegian Submarine Service recently. There were six ex submariners from UK, Germany, Holland, Sweden and Denmark in the group. There were no serving submariners on this visit as there had already been a national celebration in Bergen which was attended by a British T boat. The visit was arranged in the area of Horten which was the original submarine base. The area used by the Navy is now maintained as a museum. The Submarine fleet currently consists of six coastal type vessels, photos of the interior of the latest boat are attached with another showing their equivalent of our ‘Alliance’ on the ‘beach’ at the entrance to the museum. Our group were picked up at about 1330 on Friday at an airport near Oslo and driven straight to an old fort that had visions of Blockhouse springing to mind. We were billeted here along with all visitors and a group of our Norwegian hosts. The main event on Friday was a music concert given by the Royal Norwegian Navy Band which is rated the best in the country and seems to spend all its time giving concerts up and down the country. This concert ended with a fantastic firework display. Saturday’s events started with a museum tour including visits to the beached boat and one in service, incidentally one of the guides was a female submarine officer. During this morning we attended a short intimate service in the museum for the only Norwegian submarine that was lost during WW11, having sailed on patrol from Dundee. The main event was the formal dinner in the evening which was a little like our annual reunion but on a much smaller scale. The whole weekend was very good; very tiring as our hosts tried to cram in a century of information, however, I am glad I attended and look forward to meeting some of our hosts who are attending the unveiling of the memorial at Dundee in September.
Rick Elrick’s invited Jolly to Norway Visit to Norway 26—28 June As most of you know I attended a Centennial celebration of the Royal Norwegian Submarine Service recently. There were six ex submariners from UK, Germany, Holland, Sweden and Denmark in the group. There were no serving submariners on this visit as there had already been a national celebration in Bergen which was attended by a British T boat. The visit was arranged in the area of Horten which was the original submarine base. The area used by the Navy is now maintained as a museum. The Submarine fleet currently consists of six coastal type vessels, photos of the interior of the latest boat are attached with another showing their equivalent of our ‘Alliance’ on the ‘beach’ at the entrance to the museum. Our group were picked up at about 1330 on Friday at an airport near Oslo and driven straight to an old fort that had visions of Blockhouse springing to mind. We were billeted here along with all visitors and a group of our Norwegian hosts. The main event on Friday was a music concert given by the Royal Norwegian Navy Band which is rated the best in the country and seems to spend all its time giving concerts up and down the country. This concert ended with a fantastic firework display. Saturday’s events started with a museum tour including visits to the beached boat and one in service, incidentally one of the guides was a female submarine officer. During this morning we attended a short intimate service in the museum for the only Norwegian submarine that was lost during WW11, having sailed on patrol from Dundee. The main event was the formal dinner in the evening which was a little like our annual reunion but on a much smaller scale. The whole weekend was very good; very tiring as our hosts tried to cram in a century of information, however, I am glad I attended and look forward to meeting some of our hosts who are attending the unveiling of the memorial at Dundee in September.
The Submariners Association, Lincoln Branch, Copyright 2023