ABSTRACT
Barely recovering from the global effects of the Great Depression, the ‘hard thirties’ came to an end in cautious economic optimism, but at the same time extreme international political turmoil. The new decade was only 99 days old when Norway was invaded and thrown headlong into World War II. The Norwegian armed forces were caught off guard and were dwarfed by the German invasion troops. The king and government fled the country and spent the war in exile in London, from where they sought to coordinate the resistance and encourage their people. The extraordinary political and social conditions of war and military occupation comprise the backdrop to this chapter.
