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{{short description|WWII incident between British and German ships}}
{{refimprove|date=February 2018}}<!--several paragraphs are not cited-->
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Altmark'' incident}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2014}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = ''Altmark'' incident
| image             = [[File:Altmark Incident.jpg|300px]]
| caption           = German casualties are brought ashore for burial after the incident.
| partof            = the [[Phoney War]] of [[World War II]]
| date              = 16 February 1940
| place             = [[Jøssingfjord]], [[Sokndal]], [[Norway]]
| result            = British victory
| combatant1        = {{flagcountry|United Kingdom}}
| combatant2        = {{flagcountry|Nazi Germany}}
| commander1        = {{flagdeco|UK|naval}} [[Philip Vian]]
| commander2        = {{flagdeco|Nazi Germany|naval}} Heinrich Dau
| strength1         = 3 destroyers
| strength2         = 1 tanker
| casualties1       = 1 wounded<ref>{{Cite news|title=A Great Naval Exploit: The Return of the H.M.S. Cossack|newspaper=The Times|location=London|page=10|date=19 February 1940}}</ref>
| casualties2       = 8 killed<ref>Haar p. 378.</ref><br/>10 wounded
| casualties3       = 299 British prisoners rescued
}}

{{Scandinavia in World War II}}
{{Campaignbox Atlantic Campaign}}
[[File:Altmark schiff norwegen joessingfjord.jpg|thumbnail|Ship ''Altmark'' in early 1940 Jøssingfjord, Norway]]
[[File:Altmark in Jøssingfjord.jpg|thumb|Aerial reconnaissance photo of ''Altmark'' in the Jøssingfjord prior to the incident]]
[[File:HMS-Cossack-returns-to-Leith-17-February-1940.jpg|thumb|[[HMS Cossack (F03)|HMS ''Cossack'']] returns to Leith on 17 February 1940, after rescuing the British prisoners held in [[German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee|''Graf Spee'']]'s supply ship {{Ship|German tanker|Altmark||2}}]]
[[File:Norway Rogaland Jøssingfjord overview.JPG|thumb|[[Jøssingfjord]] pictured in 2006]]

The '''''Altmark'' incident''' ([[Norwegian language|Norwegian]]: ''Altmark''-affæren; [[German language|German]]: ''Altmark-Zwischenfall'') was a naval incident of [[World War II]] between British destroyers and the German tanker [[German tanker Altmark|''Altmark'']], which happened on 16–17 February 1940. It took place in what were [[neutral powers during World War II|neutral]] Norwegian waters. On board the ''Altmark'' were roughly 300{{efn|German official documents mention 303 internees, and the British reported that they had liberated 299.}} [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] prisoners (officially internees), whose ships had been sunk by the [[pocket battleship]] [[German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee|''Graf Spee'']] in the Southern Atlantic Ocean. 

British naval forces cornered the tanker, and later the destroyer [[HMS Cossack (F03)|HMS ''Cossack'']] boarded the ''Altmark'' near the [[Jøssingfjord]] and liberated all the prisoners. Eight German sailors were killed and ten wounded during [[hand-to-hand fighting]], which took place during the boarding. A British sailor was also wounded during the fighting. The [[government of Nazi Germany|German government]] claimed that the boarding had been a violation of [[international law]] and of [[Norway|Norwegian]] neutrality and later used the incident in the [[propaganda in Nazi Germany|propaganda broadcasts]] of "[[Lord Haw-Haw]]".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/02_february/01/archive.shtml|title=BBC - Press Office - BBC Archive reveals effect mysterious Lord Haw-Haw had on Britain}}</ref>

==Background==

In February 1940, the German [[Tanker (ship)|tanker]] {{Ship|German tanker|Altmark||2}} was returning to Germany with 299 captured British [[sailor]]s on board.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Simpson|first=Brian|title=The Rule of Law in International Affairs|journal=2003 Lectures- Proceedings of the British Academy|volume=125|pages=213–264|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R24HwO0XWeMC&q=hell-ship+altmark|isbn=978-0-19-726324-2|access-date=9 April 2010}}</ref> These were [[prisoners of war]] who had been picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleship {{Ship|German cruiser|Admiral Graf Spee||2}}.

On its way from the southern Atlantic to Germany, the [[German tanker Altmark|''Altmark'']] passed through Norwegian waters. [[International law]] did not ban the transfer of prisoners of war through neutral waters. On the insistence of British contacts who had been pursuing the vessel, it was investigated three times on 15 February by the [[Royal Norwegian Navy]]. First, the tanker was boarded by officers from the [[torpedo boat]] [[HNoMS Trygg (1919)|HNoMS ''Trygg'']], off [[Linesøya]], then by officers from the torpedo boat HNoMS ''Snøgg'' in the [[Sognefjord]], and finally personally by Admiral [[Carsten Tank-Nielsen]] and naval personnel from the destroyer [[HNoMS Garm (1913)|HNoMS ''Garm'']] in the [[Hjeltefjorden|Hjeltefjord]]. In each instance, the men who boarded the ship carried out cursory searches and took the Germans' word that the vessel was conducting purely commercial business. The British prisoners held in the ship's [[Hold (compartment)|hold]] reportedly made strenuous efforts to signal their presence, but the Norwegian search parties did not inspect the hold, and allowed the ship to continue on its way.{{cn|date=March 2020}}

Following the third boarding, ''Altmark'' was escorted southwards by the torpedo boats [[HNoMS Skarv (1906)|HNoMS ''Skarv'']] and [[HNoMS Kjell|HNoMS ''Kjell'']] and the [[guard boat]] HNoMS ''Firern''.

==Incident==

[[German tanker Altmark|''Altmark'']] was then spotted off [[Egersund]] later that same day by British aircraft, which raised the alarm in the Royal Navy. The aircraft were stationed at [[RAF Thornaby]], in the North East of England. After being intercepted by the destroyer {{HMS|Cossack|F03|6}}, captained by [[Philip Vian]], ''Altmark'' sought refuge in the [[Jøssingfjord]], but ''Cossack'' followed her in the next day. The ''Altmark''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> Norwegian naval escorts blocked initial attempts to board the ship, and aimed their torpedo tubes at the ''Cossack''. Captain Vian then asked the British Admiralty for instructions, and received the following orders directly from the [[First Lord of the Admiralty]], [[Winston Churchill]]:

{{quote|Unless Norwegian torpedo-boat undertakes to convoy [[German tanker Altmark|''Altmark'']] to [[Bergen]] with a joint Anglo-Norwegian guard on board, and a joint escort, you should board ''Altmark'', liberate the prisoners, and take possession of the ship pending further instructions. If Norwegian torpedo-boat interferes, you should warn her to stand off. If she fires upon you, you should not reply unless attack is serious, in which case you should defend yourself, using no more force than is necessary, and ceasing fire when she desists. Suggest to Norwegian destroyer that honour is served by submitting to superior force.<ref>NA-ADM 1/25843. Last sentence is omitted in Churchill's account:{{Cite book|last=Churchill|first=Sir Winston|title=Volume 1 of The Second World War: The Gathering Storm|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1948|location=New York|isbn=978-0-395-41055-4|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/gatheringstorm00chur_0}}</ref>}}

The British government made no particular objection to the fact of a prison ship traversing neutral waters. In fact, in official papers regarding the incident, they noted the fact that the Royal Navy had done the same, for example in December 1939, when the cruiser {{HMS|Despatch|D30|6}} passed through the [[Panama Canal]], which was neutral waters, with German prisoners aboard from the freighter ''Düsseldorf''. But the crew of the [[German tanker Altmark|''Altmark'']] had gone hundreds of miles out of their way to make the long run through Norwegian waters to Germany. Besides, the Norwegian government had not permitted the Germans to transport prisoners through Norwegian waters (the ''Altmark'' having falsely claimed to be carrying none), and the {{HMS|Despatch|D30|6}} crew had been truthful regarding the nature of their cargo and voyage.<ref> {{cite book|last= Haarr |first= Geirr|title=The Gathering Storm: The Naval War in Northern Europe, September 1939 – April 1940|publisher= Naval Institute Press |year=2013|isbn=978-1591143314}}</ref> 

The Norwegian naval forces refused to take part in a joint escort and reiterated that their earlier searches of [[German tanker Altmark|''Altmark'']] had found nothing. Vian then stated that he intended to board ''Altmark'' and invited the Norwegians to take part, but that was also refused. In the ensuing action, ''Altmark'' ran aground. The British then boarded her at 22:20 on 16 February and, after some [[hand-to-hand fighting]] with bayonet, overwhelmed the ship's crew and went down to the hold.<ref name="Altmark Affair"/>{{rp|227–239}} One of the released prisoners stated that the first they knew of the operation was when they heard the shout "any Englishmen here?" from the boarding party. When the prisoners shouted back "yes! We are all British!", the response was "well, the Navy's here!", which brought cheers.<ref name="Liberation of prisoners">{{Cite news|title=Hardships of the Prisoners|newspaper=The Times|location=London|page=8|date=19 February 1940}}</ref>

This incident is frequently cited as the last [[Royal Navy]] action with [[cutlass|cutlasses]]. However, the HMS ''Cossack'' Association do not believe this to be true. Barton and McGrath, the authors of ''British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship'', also think that is dubious and point out that Frischauer and Jackson, the authors of ''The Altmark Affair'', interviewed a large number of the crew, none of whom verified the use of cutlasses. Barton and McGrath suggest that idea may have originated from German accusations that the British were "sea-pirates".<ref>Mark Barton, John McGrath, ''British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship'', p. 21, Seaforth Publishers, 2013 {{ISBN|184832135X}}.</ref> However, Jim Rhodes, a former crew member of ''Cossack'', wrote in the April 2002 newsletter of the Association that he had witnessed a cutlass being carried by one of the boarding party. Rhodes had not taken part in the action, had watched from B Gun deck and had been too far to identify the cutlass holder. Rhodes stated that four cutlasses had been kept on board for ceremonial purposes.

Seven German sailors were killed, and eleven wounded during the fighting, six seriously. The German dead were buried in Sogndal Cemetery above Jøssingfjord.<ref name="Altmark Affair">{{cite book|title=The Altmark Affair|author=Willi Frischaur & Robert Jackson|year=1955|publisher=[[Macmillan Publishers (United States)|Macmillan]]|location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|246}} HMS ''Cossack'' left the [[Jøssingfjord]] just after midnight on 17 February. The Norwegian escorts protested but did not intervene. The official explanation later given by the Norwegian government was that according to international treaty, a neutral country was not obliged to resist a vastly-superior force.{{fact|date=June 2022}}

==Aftermath==
The Norwegians were angered that their [[neutral country|neutrality]] had been infringed, as they did not want to be dragged into the war. Nonetheless, the ''Altmark'' incident sowed doubts about Norwegian neutrality among the Allies and in Germany. [[Adolf Hitler]], who earlier had decided on 14 December 1939 on the invasion of Norway after discussions with Admiral [[Erich Raeder]] and [[Vidkun Quisling]], ordered intensified planning on 19 February 1940 for attacks on Norway and Denmark, which eventually took place on 9 April 1940 under the code name [[Operation Weserübung]].<ref name="Altmark Affair"/>{{rp|244}} However, as noted by the British politician [[Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey|Maurice Hankey]], the incident "does not seem to have given Hitler the pretext he was seeking for launching an invasion of Norway".<ref>{{cite book|first=Maurice|last=Hankey|authorlink=Maurice Hankey, 1st Baron Hankey|title=Politics, Trials and Errors|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-i405mdDq0C&dq=altmark+nuremberg&pg=PA77|date=1950|publisher=Lawbook Exchange|isbn=978-158477228-6}}</ref>

The ''Altmark'' incident gave the British a short-lived but sorely-needed morale boost during the [[Phoney War]]. The incident also had a lasting propaganda effect in [[German-occupied Norway]] during the war, when the Norwegian collaborationist government tried to neutralise its nickname "[[quislings]]" by using the location of the skirmish, Jøssingfjord, to coin the derogatory term "''jøssing''", referring to pro-Allies and anti-Nazis. The efforts backfired, as "''jøssing''" was immediately adopted as a positive term by the general public, and it was banned from official use by 1943.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://lotus.uib.no/norgeslexi/krigslex/j/j2.html#jossing|title=Norge i krigen 1939-45|language=no|work=NorgesLexi|publisher=[[University of Bergen]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050919052656/http://lotus.uib.no/norgeslexi/krigslex/j/j2.html#jossing|archive-date=19 September 2005|access-date=14 February 2018}}</ref>

The phrase "the Navy's here" became well known in Britain and was used as the title of a book about the incident;<ref name="Altmark Affair"/> the publisher referred to "the simple statement which stirred the imagination of the world".<ref name="The Navy's Here">{{Cite news|title=The Battle of the Plate
|newspaper=The Times|location=London|page=10|date=4 April 1940}}</ref> A popular song was written by [[Ross Parker (songwriter)|Ross Parker]] and [[Hughie Charles]] and saluted the incident by comparing it with those of [[Francis Drake|Drake]], [[Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson|Nelson]], [[David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty|Beatty]] and [[John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher|Fisher]].<ref name="Parker and Charles">{{Cite web|last=Parker|first=Ross and Hugh Charles|title=The Navy's Here|publisher=National Library of Australia|year=1940|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-vn1766870|access-date=9 April 2010}}</ref><ref name="Cossack sunk">{{Cite news|title=Ave Atque Vale|newspaper=The Times|location=London|page=5|date=11 November 1941}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|title="The Navy's Here!" The Altmark Affair|author=Willi Frischauer & Robert Jackson|publisher=Gollanz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFd0nQEACAAJ&q=Willi+Frischauer;+%26+Robert+Jackson,+The+Navy%27s+Here!+The+Altmark+Affair|date=1955|access-date=16 February 2015}} The American edition under the title ''The Altmark Affair''. Macmillan, New York 1955.
* [[Janusz Piekałkiewicz]]: Der Zweite Weltkrieg mit Vorwort von Sebastian Haffner. Düsseldorf 1985, {{ISBN|3-89350-544-X}}

==Further reading==
* Martin A. Doherty: ''[http://jch.sagepub.com/content/38/2/187.full.pdf The attack on the Altmark – A case study in wartime Propaganda]'', ''[[Journal of Contemporary History]]'' 38/2003, pp. 187–200.
* Geirr H. Haarr: [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ft47BAAAQBAJ&dq=geirr+h+haar&pg=PA93 ''The Gathering Storm – The Naval War In Europe September 1939 – April 1940''], (pp. 352–389.) Seaforth Publishing, Barnsley/UK 2013, {{ISBN|9781848321403}}. (only partly online)
* {{cite book|last=Curtis|first=Monica|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.498967|title=Norway and the War|others=September 1939 – December 1940|location=London|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1941}}

==External links==
{{commons cat|Altmark (ship, 1937)}}
* [https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80011949 IWM Interview with Altmark prisoner William Melville-Evans]

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{{February 1940 shipwrecks}}

[[Category:Maritime incidents in February 1940]]
[[Category:British violations of the rights of neutral nations during World War II]]
[[Category:European theatre of World War II]]
[[Category:International maritime incidents]]
[[Category:Sokndal]]
[[Category:Naval battles of World War II involving Germany]]
[[Category:February 1940 in Europe]]
[[Category:1940 in Norway]]