Altmark Incident: British Sailors Board German Ship, Free 300 Prisoners
British sailors from HMS Cossack boarded the German supply ship Altmark in Norwegian waters and liberated 299 British merchant seamen held captive below decks. The daring raid violated Norwegian neutrality and enraged Hitler, who used the incident to justify his invasion of Norway two months later, dramatically expanding the scope of the war in Scandinavia.
February 16, 1940
86 years ago
Key Figures & Places
World War II
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Altmark Incident
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German tanker Altmark
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destroyer
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HMS Cossack
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World War II
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Altmark incident
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German tanker Altmark
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Destroyer
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HMS Cossack
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Heinrich Himmler
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Warsaw Ghetto
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Cossack (Schiff, 1938)
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Geschichte Norwegens
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Operation Weserübung
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German occupation of Norway
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Third Battle of Kharkov
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Red Army
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