Altmark Incident

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Altmark Incident

Part of World War II

The German tanker Altmark in Jøssingfjord, Norway, February 1940.

Date	16 February 1940
Location	Jøssingfjord, Norway
Result	British Victory

Combatants

Germany

United Kingdom

Commanders

Unknown

Philip Vian

Strength

One supply ship

One destroyer

Casualties

Prisoners lost, 7 killed

Boarding party casualties

Atlantic Campaign
River Plate – Altmark Incident - SC-7 - HX-84 - HX-106 - Operation Berlin - Denmark Strait – The Bismarck Chase - Mediterranean – Channel Dash – St. Lawrence - Laconia Incident - PQ-17 – Barents Sea – North Cape

The Altmark Incident (Norwegian: Altmark-saken) was a naval skirmish of World War II between United Kingdom and Nazi Germany, which happened on 16 February 1940 in what, at that time, were neutral Norwegian waters. The Altmark, a German supply ship, was returning to Germany with 299 (other sources: 303) British merchant sailors on board, who had been picked up from ships sunk by the heavy cruiser Graf Spee, herself scuttled after the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939. It has the unique distinction of being the last major boarding action fought by the Royal Navy.

On her way from Southern Atlantic to Germany, Altmark found herself on Norwegian waters. She was investigated there by Norwegian patrol vessels, but they did not find a reason to arrest the ship. She was then spotted by a British plane, which raised the alarm in the Royal Navy. After being intercepted by the destroyer HMS Cossack, captained by Philip Vian, the Altmark sought refuge in the fjord Jøssingfjord, but Cossack followed her in and forced her to ground. The British then boarded the Altmark and after some hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets, overwhelmed the ship's crew and released the prisoners. It is supposedly the last incident in which cutlasses were used in anger by a boarding party. The Norwegian escorts protested, but did not intervene. The official explanation later given by the Norwegian government was that, according to international treaty, a neutral country was not obliged to resist a vastly superior force.

The Norwegians were angered that their neutrality had been infringed and did not want to be dragged into a European war. Yet, the Altmark incident sowed doubts about the Norwegian neutrality among the allies, as well as in Germany. Both sides had contingency plans for military action against Norway, primarily to control the traffic of Swedish iron ore, on which German armament industry depended in the early stages of the war. The Altmark incident convinced Hitler that the allies would not respect Norwegian neutrality, and on 19 February decided to intensify the planning for Operation Weserübung, the occupation of Denmark and Norway, which eventually took place on 9 April 1940.

The Altmark incident gave the British a short-lived but sorely needed morale boost during the "Phony War". The incident also had a more lasting propaganda effect in German-occupied Norway during the war, when the Norwegian collaborationist government tried to neutralize their nickname Quislings by using the location of the skirmish (Jøssingfjord) to coin the derogatory term jøssing, referring to pro-allies and anti-nazis. Their efforts backfired, as jøssing was immediately adopted as a positive term by the general public, and the word was finally banned from official use by 1943.