Hello!
*Not a historian here*, I'm sure my question isn't too complex, I'm just seeking context and understanding. Sorry for the vagueness, I really don't know much about history or my grandfather.
My grandpa served for the U.S. during WW2, something that was sorta known in my family but never really talked about. The story as I know it is literally just "he was repairing phone lines in Norway. His brother was a POW, so they sent him somewhere safe to avoid another family tragedy." (brother survived, died early 2000s).
However, the other day I learned Norway was occupied by Germany during WW2. So now I'm confused- why would my grandpa be there? I know the Allies were briefly in Norway but it sounds like they withdrew early on.
Would someone who knows more about history care to contextualize? Thanks.
Edit: Thank you for the feedback and context! I'll reach out to my family and see if they have more details about him. I know he was Ashkenazi (probably "from" Germany due to our last name) and took my dad to Norway in the 70s, which suggests he was actually there earlier. Thank you!
I have to admit, there is not much to go on here as you do not know exactly when your grandfather served in Norway. Since you mention "repairing phone lines", I assume he did not actually serve during the occuption, but was rather a part of Force 134 during Operation Doomsday, which was the Allied operation to police Norway immediately after the unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht.
Force 134 was lead by General Andrew Thorne, and while it was primarily made up of troops from the British 1st Airborne Division and Norwegian troops, there were also Americans there as part of the US' 99th Infantry Batallion. I would assume your grandfather might have been a part of that.
For more information about General Thorne, I can recommend Hart, Stephen Ashley. "The Forgotten Liberator: The 1939–1945 Military Career of General Sir Andrew Thorne". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 79 (Autumn 2001)
With so little to go on, it is hard to say anything for sure.
But you are quite right, assuming your grandpa was working for the US army, not the Germans, he would not have been in Norway between April 9th 1940 when the German invasion of Norway started (almost a year before the US entered the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor) , and the end of the war.
At least not in anything called a "safe" capacity; while I don't know of any US units or operatives being sent to Norway during the war at all, there could of course have been some special operations thing that escaped me ...but that would hardly qualify as being a telephone repairman in a safe place unless your granpa was reigning world champion in ironic understatements.
So it is a bit of a mystery.
However, it may have a solution if we allow for the tinyest bit of misunderstanding or information loss: you see, as the Norwegian government escaped (narrowly) into exile and never surrendered, units of Norwegian fighters were set up in England and Canada. In particular a rather famous training school for aviators called "Little Norway" near Toronto. Now that was in Canada, but they were part of the Lend Lease program and used US airframes, so it is very possible that some technical personell was there from the US too. And "Little Norway" in Canada was probably as safe as it got so that would make sense. For all the Norwegians there, hell for all I know your gramps may have thought about it as part of Norway even.
There is a lot of resources on "little Norway" so you may even search for your gramps name.
Get back to us if you find anything. As a Norwegian whose relative was killed in WWII flying US aircraft over Germany I can't help but be a bit curious.