Columbus (CA 74) - Naval Cruise Book

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NORWAY Tfter embarking SACLANT at Rosyth. we returned to Malnbrace to spend the re- maining five days of the operation before proceeding to Oslo. Norway. The flagships WISCONSIN, MT OLYMPUS. SALERNO BAY. and hIMS EAGLE were present at Oslo and NATO leaders held conferences aboard them to talk over the recently completed exercise. Even though it rained almost every day we were there, the crew enjoyed the visit to Norway a great deal. The trip up the Oslo Fjord (pronounced fiord) was an experience that will be hard to forget. Its shores, lined with rocky cliffs interspersed with sheltered bays and stretches of level land, reflect the rugged beauty of the entire country. The 80- mile trip from the Skaggerak to Oslo, at the head of the fjord, took about six hours and every minute on deck that morning was an enjoyable one for salt and boot alike. Even though we anchored over three miles from the fleet landing, the liberty hounds throughout the visit. The first thing to catch the eye of the lens jockeys when they hit the beach was the magnificent new town hall building on the waterfront. In contrast to some ports, the waterfront in Oslo is not an undesir- able area. In fact, some of its better shops and businesses are located on Radhuset, near the town hall. That building, a handsome 13-story affair, covers a full city block and is a veritable museum of modern Norwegian arts and crafts. Cast in concrete and covered with a veneer of hand-moulded brick, its exterior is richly ornamented with detail work, bas-relief and statuary in hewn stone. Twenty years, including the period of the German occupation, were required to complete the structure. A large percentage of the people spoke English well so it was not hard to find such points of interest as the Viking ships, used by Leif Erikson and other explorers over 1000 years ago; Kon-Tiki Museum, where the balsa raft used in 1947 to make the historic 4300 mile trip across the Pacific is on display: Frogner Park, where sculptural project of one man Aerial View oi Oslo

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Newspapers were filled with stories of the impending exercises and carried many pictures of American sailors seeing the sights of Glasgow. One paper quoted a taxi driver as saying that, They must have learned about English money from their wartime brothers. The tips are good but nothing like during the war. The city ' s dance halls were jammed and reported their biggest nights since the war. It was a wonderful opportunity for relaxation fol- lowing the many days we had spent at sea after leaving the states. And it gave us an equally good opportunity to get in shape for the then forthcoming Operation Mainbrace . After leaving Helensburgh on 13 September, we steamed into the North Atlantic and headed for the northwest coast of Norway. It was our job, as a unit of the Blue armada, to find the Orange naval force. This was Operation Mainbrace , the largest joint naval exercise ever held. The navies of Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, New Zealand and the U.S. utilized the services of 85,000 men and 160 ships in waging the maneuvers over an area of a half million square miles. One of the highlights of the exercises was the mythical sinking of an enemy raider, the HMCS QUEBEC, by the COLUMBUS. Even though the QUEBEC tried to pose as a friendly ship by using radio code employed by the Blue forces, Captain Campbell received a well done for his keen judgment in disregarding the trick and for the subsequent sinking. The operation carried us north of the Arctic Circle, into the Royal Domain of the Polar Bear, and that made each of us a member of the Order of Bluenoses. But as it turned out, our noses hadn ' t even begun to turn blue. We kept going until we reached a point about 1300 miles from the North Pole before returning to Rosyth, Scotland, to embark Admiral Lynde D. McCormick, USN, Supreme Allied Commander, Atlantic. Low Bridge Chimney Tops

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covers 74 acres of land; and the Royal Palace, at the head of the city ' s main thoroughfare, Karl Johans gate. With a population of approximately half a million people, Oslo is the largest city in Norway and nearly half of the merchant ileet is centered there. Bearing in mind that Norwegian merchant shipping ranks third in the world, one can quickly realize that Oslo is the chief seaport of a seafaring nation. Many tours were arranged in Oslo, including one to the mountains which would have been particularly good except for the inclement weather. Those who selected the city tour reported that it was far above average. As one might imagine, a city with all these advantages makes an excellent location for the nation ' s capital. And therefore, Oslo has been the capital since 1814. Founded in 1060, the city was completely leveled by fire in 1624 and was replanned and built up by King Christian IV on a site west of the original city. It took eight years to build the new towa. The country remained neutral during World War I and from September 1939 to April 1940 tried painstakingly to do the same thing as hiitler marched into one country after another in Europe. German forces invaded Norwegian soil on 9 April 1940, however, and the German minister at Oslo demanded that the country be handed over. When the government refused to submit to the demands, the Invading armies swept across the country in two months, despite stubborn resistance. The king and the government fled to London and declared their intention of carrying on the war from there. Early in November 1944, Russian armies liberated parts of northern Norway from German occupation and she was officially freed of occupation on 8 May 1945. Now the country is a participant in the Marshall Plan and a member of the Atlantic Pact, which she joined in spite of a protest from the Soviet Union that It was an unfriendly move. Trygve Lie, the country ' s foreign minister became the flist Secretary General of the United Nations. The courageous and hardy people of Norway are a symbol for the free people of the world. Regardless of the fact that they are a small country In both size and population, they refused to surrender to the Nazis without a fight and will not be dictated to by the nearby Kremlin today. These were the kind of people we met when the COLUMBUS visited Oslo from 25-29 September. We ' ll remember it as a good city, inhabited by good people. The Monolith In Frogner Park New City Hall Scenic Norway