gold smuggling in 1940

jeff of pa

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Henderson daily dispatch. (Henderson, N.C.), 04 July 1940.

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https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...ext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
 

Rum Tide

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My mother was a child in Germany during WWII. She said a her neighbors would bury their jewelry in their back yards to keep from losing it.
 

EKG

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Yes true my grandmother also buried lots of values in the ground when they Russians moved into Stettin , the family in those days was wealthy .
Grandmother after 5 years travel with 5 kids settled down in Germany . When she was still alive old and poor I tried to get information about the buried treasure .She didn't tell anybody, my guess she don't want to remember the good old days on their land
I am German and live in Ecuador .
 

BillA

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The smugglers blues

disagree completely,
the above are people trying to avoid the consequences of war (theft and destruction by others)
NOT smuggling for personal profit, smuggling is a voluntary act for gain

when you and your family are overjoyed to eat a rat, you will understand war
 

BillA

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The tale of which Jeff has posted a 'news' clipping is rather well known

July 4, 1940 publication - sure smells like propaganda to me
?s
moonless night - might be able to get a close date
when did the Bomma dock in NY ?
how much gold ?
who recieved it ?
was it returned after the war ?
returned to whom ?
when returned ?
is the hiding place known today ?
does the same story circulate in Norway today ?

there should be documents covering this, anyone ?

edit: these questions derive from the application of "Kanacki's Razor"
test the premise, test, and test again (the results better be similar)
 

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jeff of pa

jeff of pa

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The tale of which Jeff has posted a 'news' clipping is rather well known

July 4, 1940 publication - sure smells like propaganda to me
?s
moonless night - might be able to get a close date
when did the Bomma dock in NY ?
how much gold ?
who recieved it ?
was it returned after the war ?
returned to whom ?
when returned ?
is the hiding place known today ?
does the same story circulate in Norway today ?

there should be documents covering this, anyone ?

edit: these questions derive from the application of "Kanacki's Razor"
test the premise, test, and test again (the results better be similar)

? Kanacki's Razor ? (don't have time for Google) not Occam's razor ?

Naturally it could be Propaganda, all countries use Propaganda.
News didn't travel as easy as it does Now,if it did, All the Children
& Mothers pulling sleds would be in danger of being Shot or Worse after that hit the news.

so in my mind that would be a reason to squelch, not advertise,
But then 1940 vs 2019 :dontknow: Hard to say.

Where did it Go ? was the WTC there in 1940 ?
There was Supposedly Plenty in the Basement from Many Sources.
(I won't go into all the Propaganda Possibilities in That )
 

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Jimoutside

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I can't begin to tell you whether the tale is true or not, but it is widely known. I read a children's chapter book about it when I was a kid. The whole plot is the same. I can't remember what the name of it was, but all the kids took the gold down to the seaside on their sleds right under the noses of the soldiers. They would bury the gold in the snow and make a snowman on top of it. Then in the night, the adults involved would load the gold onto the ship. In the book (fictionalized account of supposed true story), at the end the German officer got angry at the kids and started knocking down the snowman they had made. He had it almost down to the ground and would have discovered the gold, and the boy threw a snowball at him, hit him in the face, and ran for it. Somehow he managed to get away, hid until night, (can't remember whether in somebody's house, or whatever), then managed to escape with his uncle onto the ship and they made a clean escape to England. I think the book might have been called Snow Treasure.
 

KANACKI

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Hello All

Jeff Once again thank you for the interesting newspaper story. The story is well known. partially true and Partly fiction. And interesting story as it is in part an excellent example of how treasure legends evolve.

The Bomma did indeed take gold to the US,

bomma.jpg

But this was after it had been taken by British cruisers to the UK. No children were involved at any point during the rescue of the gold, nor was SOE - at that point it had not come into being. However, it is possible that a man called Gunnar Fougner, nephew of Colonel Fougner at Lillehammer, played a part in the transportation to Åndalsnes. Fougner later became one of the first six Norwegians to join SOE after he had escaped to the UK.

West Australian , Wednesday 8 May 1940, page 17.jpg

There were three British crusiers - HM Ships, Galatea, Glasgow and Enterprise. Glasgow brought the bulk of the gold to the UK. There was claims that the gold was smuggled past the Germans. This only happened on the day of invasion - April 9th. However, the Germans were marching down Karl Johan Gate when the last lorry load of gold was shipped out of Norges Bank and on to Lillehamer. At no other point did the Germans come close to the gold, with the exception of a German spy at Romsdalhorn - the railway station closest to the port of Åndalsnes.

Oscar Torp - the Norwegian Finance minister, is likely to have briefed McSwigan on an outline of the story. The Germans never found out what had happened to the gold, despite their best intentions. The gold was stored in the main vault of the Norges Bank's headquarters in Oslo. During the increasing tension of the 1930s, plans were made to make the gold more mobile. When the Second World War broke out, these plans were accelerated and the gold was packed into 818 crates of 40 kg, 685 crates of 25 kg and 39 barrels of gold coins, weighing 80 kg each: a total of 53 tons.

When news reached the government in the early hours of 9 April 1940 that the patrol boat Pol III had been attacked and that enemy ships were approaching Oslo, orders went out to evacuate the gold to the vault in Lillehammer. from local businesses were used to load the gold onto 26 civilian lorries. The last lorries left Oslo hours before the Wehrmacht arrived.

The gold stayed at Lillehammer for a few days before having to move again due to the German advance. It was loaded onto a train and travelled across country away from the German advance. Meanwhile, the Norwegian government and King Haakon VII were separately evading the German advance. German paratroopers attempted to reach Lillehammer in buses to capture the dignitaries and gold, but were stopped by an improvised defence at Midtskogen. Norwegian troops from Jørstadmoen, including poet Nordahl Grieg, deployed to Lillehammer to guard the train.

The train left Lillehammer on 19 April and arrived in Åndalsnes on 20 April, where British expeditionary troops had landed a few days before. Åndalsnes was bombed several times by the Germans. The train was undamaged and was moved to Romsdalshorn station, outside Åndalsnes. The British were informed of the gold, and agreed to evacuate it to Britain and then perhaps onwards to America.

The gold was to be split between three ships. The first, the British cruiser HMS Galatea departed from Åndalsnes on Thursday, 25 April, with 200 crates.

No further loading was done at Åndalsnes due to the approach of German troops through the Gudbrandsdalen and further air raids. The gold was moved on 23-28 lorries to Molde, to be embarked on the British cruiser HMS Glasgow with the King and the government, and taken to Tromsø and then to Britain.

The city was being bombed when they arrived. 756 crates and all 39 barrels were loaded onto Glasgow before, late on Monday April 29, Captain Pegram judged they could wait no longer and ordered the ship north to Tromsø.
18 tons of gold, in 301 large and 246 smaller crates, were left behind. The coastal steamer Driva took on most of the remainder before bombing suspended loading. The 30 crates left by Driva were moved by lorries to Gjemnes, to be picked up by the steamer on its way north to Tromsø.

Driva was attacked by German aircraft several times and beached to avoid sinking. The gold was transferred to five fishing vessels from Bud and Hustad. These were Heimdal, Barden, Svanen, Leif and Gudrun, captained by Hans M. Inderhaug, Harald Tungehaug, Engvald Sunde, Emil Skottheim and Alfred Skottheim respectively. As hoped, the fishing vessels did not draw attention and they arrived at Gjemnes without incident, and the 30 crates brought north by road were picked up.

The five boats continued north to Titran, arriving at the island of Frøya in Trøndelag on Saturday, 3 May. The soldiers from Jørstadmoen were sent home, and the gold was transferred to two larger fishing vessels. The two ships left on 4 May and arrived in Tromsø four days later.

All of the gold was successfully transferred to the UK, with the exception of a bag of approx 1000 coins. The coins were stolen whilst aboard HMS Glasgow, taken by a Royal Marine. The majority of the coins were later recovered by Liverpool police, although nearly 300 coins remain missing to this day. During June and July 1940, the Norwegian gold reserves were taken across the Atlantic for safe keeping in the US and Canada.

On the 1st December 1987 the Norwegian Government finally brought home the remaining gold that had been residing in the US Federal Reserve Bank since 1940. SAS, Norway’s principal airline was tasked with the job of transporting the remaining bullion back to Norway. The occasion was made even auspicious with the then King of Norway, King Olav, accompanying the bullion on the non-stop flight to Oslo landing at Fornebu airport. The following day a second flight arrived carrying bullion, but this time from Ottawa in Canada. After 47 years of being cared for abroad the gold of Norway was finally home.

The story of Marie McSwigan's Snow Treasure is pure fiction, but based a little on some fact. It was intended as a propaganda book, and in that respect it has been very successful. The book is standard reading US schools. However the story of children being involved might of been a story to mask who was involved taking the gold out of the country?

As you can see the fictional version of the story became more well known than the real story.

The money ticket is not bulk of Norwegian gold treasury but 300 missing coins perhaps still in Liverpool UK?

norwayface.jpg

300 coins approximately worth 238500.00 USD. The fate of those coins remains a mystery? Was the coins dispersed through the local population of Liverpool during WW2? Or was the coins cached for after the war by the marine that stole them? Did the marine survive the war?

Many unanswered Questions... But an excellent example of economies of scale such as cost to research and physically search for more information. The Prov archives in UK might reveal the name of Marine in which it might be possible to find through Census records a family address that coins may of been hidden? That is of course based on premise he hid the coins in a family members house and did not recover them? However a lot of variables involved.

And thus we have to revert to determine if the missing coins is an asset or a liability? Since the coins are stolen and not abandoned assets in which is not covered by British potable antiquity laws. Any discovery of coins could be claimed by the Norwegian Government.

Kanacki
 

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BillA

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kinda like fishing, open the tackle box and select a lure (story) with good color and action (treasure and people)
post it with some blah blah - wait - wait - BIG fish coming . . . .

a Kanacki !!

my joke, Thanks Kanacki for the real scoop
(yes, premeditated, lol)

I like Jeff's posts of clippings, but suspect most are trash in fact.
 

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KANACKI

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kinda like fishing, open the tackle box and select a lure (story) with good color and action (treasure and people)
post it with some blah blah - wait - wait - BIG fish coming . . . .

a Kanacki !!

my joke, Thanks Kanacki for the real scoop
(yes, premeditated, lol)

I like Jeff's posts of clippings, but suspect most are trash in fact.

Yes BillA

If I was a fish I would be on a dinner plate by now. :tongue3:

I have love for all these treasure stories. Finding truths half truth and the down right lies. For me its a treasure in its own right. And sharing them is another.

Kanacki
 

tinpan

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Hi Thanks for sharing . SO WHO from North America witness any of the events in WW2 before December 1941 ? TP
 

tinpan

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Hi , Those gold coins where blow up with the whole city and people who lived there by German bombing raids .Liverpool Bombings . Photos and live film and 1000,s of accounts is called materal evidence TP
 

BillA

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tp, just what material evidence do you have regarding the 300 gold coins ?
yes, we do understand that the Germans bombed some parts of England - but the interest here is quite focused on 300 gold coins

anything ?
 

KANACKI

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Do you not love the twist and turns of such stories?:laughing7:

TP in answer to your questions. The Americans not fully involved in the war in Europe at preset no doubt never got the full story at the time. And the reporter only got a version from a partly informed sea captain of ship arriving in the United State with gold.

As for Liverpool being obliterated yes it was heavily damaged by bombing. Which is a very good point. But fact remains not all houses was destroyed either. We have no evidence that any coins was actually hidden as I stated just one of many possibilities.

The Key for us is find the name of this alleged perpetrator of this alleged theft?
And confirm if the actual theft actually happened to begin with?

In one online history of HMS Glasgow there is no mention of the theft? In the newspapers I searched by no means comprehensive there was no mention of that event. Wiki gives no clear version of loss just stating 297 was lost? While it is possible censors of day hushed up an embarrassing scandal? Nothing is certain.

The principle authors give versions similar stories but quite different?

For example Chasing Gold: The Incredible Story of How the Nazis Stole Europe's Bullion By George M. Taber 2014 states the following.....

297 bags stolen.JPG

You will notice this version was not a Royal Marine but a Sailor that spent the money not in Liverpool but Glasgow and they was not Norwegian coins but Hungarian gold coins?

Very different version from another Author about coins Micheal Alexander claimed....

Only 297 gold coins were missing due to a barrel which was damaged during transportation in a British vessel. Norway’s gold remained in Canada, and was gradually sold there – partly to fund operations of the government in exile. Ten tons of gold coins were eventually repatriated to Norway in 1987.

In the book Gold Run: The Rescue of Norways Gold Bullion from the Nazis, 1940 By Robert Pearson in 2015 claims the following on page 166 that Jack hall serving on the ship had no knowledge at all of any gold being stolen by a marine or sailor?

gold robbery on the glascow.JPG

However that may be the case for that above sailor that might never have been involved or even knew coins had been stolen?

However Robert Pearson in the same book, All of the gold was successfully transferred to the UK, with the exception of a bag of approx 1000 coins. The coins were stolen whilst aboard HMS Glasgow, taken by a Royal Marine. The majority of the coins were later recovered by Liverpool police, although nearly 300 coins remain missing to this day. During June and July 1940, the Norwegian gold reserves were taken across the Atlantic for safe keeping in the US and Canada.

So in effect we have conflicting versions of what actually happened? Are any of the versions true? That is why one must search the official records of ship Glasgow and possibly the Liverpool Police records? Possibly the bank records for the Norwegian account held in the Bank of England? Without a dedicated search through those archives we are at risk of making too assumptions for an alleged event "the stolen 300 coins" May never of happened?

Kanacki
 

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KANACKI

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Kanacki

perhaps the "90 days of detention" could be followed ?

Hello BillA

Good point but where do we start without a name? How many sailors or marines in 1940 got locked up? Was they prosecuted under civil or military court?

Perhaps the easiest way is to contact the author Robert Pearson and get a source reference from him?

Kanacki
 

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