Freden tok kjærestene:
the peace took their sweethearts
In 2000 and 2001, after the occupation of Norway, there was renewed interest in the stories of those who came to live in Scotland and particularly those who came to Buckie. Much of this interest took the form of journalists searching out stories which connected the two sides of the North Sea. This article (The peace took our sweethearts) appeared in Stavanger Aftenblad on 20 January 2001 told the story of the Buckie girls left behind at the end of the war when their Norwegian sweethearts went home. The same text had appeared as Glemmer aldri nordmennene (Never forget the Norwegians) in Bergens Tidende on 30 December 2000. The article is slightly saccharine in tone in places, implying there was a generation of women pining for lost Norwegian sweethearts and factual errors have been noted and corrected in the translation below. In a fishing town in North Scotland, you will find old ladies looking longingly across the North Sea. |
Buckie: There was a big colony of Norwegian fishermen here during the Second World War. We travelled to Buckie, sixty years later and discovered Scottish women thinking about Norwegian sweethearts they never saw again.
Many thousands of Norwegians escaped across the North Sea when the Germans occupied Norway in 1940, and many landed in Buckie, where a Norwegian community was established early on in the war. Soon the little fishing town had welcomed between two and three hundred Norwegian fishermen and coastal people, mostly young men, who settled for the five long years of war.
When peace arrived in 1945, the men returned to Norway with a promise to come back and fetch their Scottish sweethearts. Most of them never came back.
Triste jenter: sad quines
The peace made many Buckie girls sad. The happy news about peace made the Norwegian boys go back to Norway and many a romance ended abruptly" recalled Jane Geddes Cowie (83), who worked for the Norwegian consul in Buckie during the war.
Jane Geddes Cowie had learnt a little Norwegian through her job at the consulate, and after the war many a young Buckie girl came to her to get their love-letters from Norway translated. "I did not translate everything", says Cowie. She understood that they would never meet again and therefore wanted to spare them of the details. |
One girl was even engaged and sent all the expensive cutlery and dinner services in a big box which her fiancé took back to Norway on the fishing boat, recalled Cowie. The North Sea separated them forever and she never saw him again. So that means a Norwegian family, most likely in Western Norway, have drunk their coffee from a Buckie cup for sixty years.
Ble værende i Buckie: stayed in Buckie
Not all Norwegian men left Buckie when the peace arrived. Ingvald Olai Sulen (87) was one of them. He was 28 years old when he came to Buckie in September 1941. He was the skipper on the fishing boat 'Alf' from Fedje and escaped to Shetland along with 26 other people. After the compulsory trip to London to check that they were 'Good Norwegians', Sulen travelled back to Buckie and got a job, alternating between a fisherman and an engineering worker before he had to join the navy in 1944.
The young man from Fedje rented a room from the Menroe [sic; but it was the Brown] family in Buckie where he got quite keen on the families 16 year old daughter who soon became pregnant. "I decided to take full responsibility for what I had done", said Ingvald Olai Sulen, who therefore got married and stayed on in Buckie for the rest of his life. |
Little Norway
The fishing town of Buckie reminded the Norwegians of the conditions back home Norway, so it was very easy for them to make it their home. Many of the runaways who came to Shetland in their small fishing boats were sent on to Buckie where their boats were left at the harbour, and sent to London by train. The cutters and the motorised vessels found a natural space in the roomy harbour and many Norwegian fishermen found their way back to the small town that housed both men and boats during the war.
In Buckie, the Norwegians could continue their daily life as fishermen and in 1942, the Norwegian authorities started a boat yard under Frank Mohn from Bergen, who himself came across in a fishing boat in 1941.
Soon Buckie got their Norwegian Consulate, doctor, reading room and their own clubroom named 'Buckie 1940 Norwegian Club'. Buckie had become a Norwegian exile and many referred to it as 'Little Norway' during the war.
In Buckie, the Norwegians could continue their daily life as fishermen and in 1942, the Norwegian authorities started a boat yard under Frank Mohn from Bergen, who himself came across in a fishing boat in 1941.
Soon Buckie got their Norwegian Consulate, doctor, reading room and their own clubroom named 'Buckie 1940 Norwegian Club'. Buckie had become a Norwegian exile and many referred to it as 'Little Norway' during the war.
Mange minner: many memories
Today, Buckie is a sleepy country town with about 7,000 inhabitants. The fishing activities have nearly ended and unemployment is high. There is no trace of the Norwegian boatyard, but memories of the 'Norwegian Buckie' are strong amongst the people there.
Mother said yes for Karsten to come and visit at the weekend. He stayed for five years" |
Maria Marshall Johnston (74) remembered that the Norwegian boys were very well liked. Karsten and his brother Ola Markussen moved in with this new 'mother and sister' on the outskirts of Buckie, they took over as the men of the house as both father and sons were fighting in the war. "I got two extra brothers", said Maria Marshall Johnston.
Jeg fikk to ekstra brødre
"The minister asked the people to show hospitality and invite the Norwegians for Sunday dinner. We had two young men for Sunday dinner for a very long time", remembered Margaret Olive Bannerman, who made Lapkaus [similar to stovies] at the Norwegian Club.
"We could understand some of the Norwegian words", said Eric Simpson (69), who remembered that the Norwegian boys at school could not speak English. But before the war was over they all spoke fluent Scots with that special Buckie dialect..
"I have a souvenir from Norway", said Eric Simpson, who explained that at his home hangs a Norwegian goat hook from Bergen. My father got it as a gift from one of the fishing boats which came to Buckie. His father was the chief of the police in Buckie and it was his job to interrogate the exiles that came to the town.
"We could understand some of the Norwegian words", said Eric Simpson (69), who remembered that the Norwegian boys at school could not speak English. But before the war was over they all spoke fluent Scots with that special Buckie dialect..
"I have a souvenir from Norway", said Eric Simpson, who explained that at his home hangs a Norwegian goat hook from Bergen. My father got it as a gift from one of the fishing boats which came to Buckie. His father was the chief of the police in Buckie and it was his job to interrogate the exiles that came to the town.
Tredje generasjon: third generation
Down in the peaceful Buckie harbour is a living proof of the many contacts that were established during the war. The fisherman Jan Huldal has grown up in Buckie as the son of Norwegian wartime exile who married a girl from Buckie. He has just come back from Ålesund where he has bought a 32-meter long fishing boat along with his sons Paul and Nicholas. With English sounding names Paul and Nicholas are a new generation of Norwegians in Buckie.