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- The kvarstad vessels were a number of Norwegian ships held in arrest (Swedish: kvarstad) in Gothenburg during World War II. The ships had been visiting Swedish ports when the German invasion of Norway took place in April 1940. They were eventually claimed by Nortraship, which represented the Norwegian exile government and the British Government, but also by the Germany-supported Quisling regime in Norway. The fate of the ships was disputed through a number of diplomatic notes and trials between the involved parties. The disputed vessels originally numbered 42 ships, with a total of 170,000 ton dw. Some of the ships returned early to occupied Norway, some after recommendation from the Administrative Council. In January 1941 the British Operation Rubble succeeded in bringing five of the ships to the Orkney Islands. In March 1942 the British led involved an effort to bring ten ships to the British Islands. Only two of the ships, MV B.P. Newton and , reached Britain. Two ships, MV Storsten and were sunk by German aircraft. Four ships were scuttled by their own crews, after being confronted by German warships. These were , SS Skytteren, , and . Two ships, and returned to Gothenburg. The total number of crew on the ten involved ships was 471. Of these 19 perished during the escape operation, 124 reached the British islands. and the 85 persons from Dicto and Lionel returned to Sweden. More than 200 from the ships were captured by the Germans. These included more than 160 Norwegian men and seven women, more than fifty British, two Dutch and one Polish. The captured sailors were brought to German prisons, first to the prisoner-of-war camp Marlag und Milag Nord near Bremen, where they were treated relatively well. The women were later released. While the British remained in the Milag camp, the Norwegian sailors were subject to war trials (at the Sondergericht in Rendsburg), and were eventually transferred to other prisons, as Nacht und Nebel prisoners with much tougher conditions. Of these, 43 died during their imprisonment, while 125 survived. (en)
- Kvarstadsbåtarna är ett samlingsbegrepp för de norska handelsfartyg som låg i svenska hamnar vid det tyska angreppet på Norge den 9 april 1940 och som både den norska exilregeringen i London och den tyska ockupationsregeringen i Oslo gjorde anspråk på. Dragkampen om fartygen mellan de krigförande parterna, Storbritannien och Tyskland, ledde till att båtarna belades med kvarstad och inte fick lämna svenskt vatten förrän juridiska oklarheter utretts i svensk domstol. De norska handelsfartygen påverkade också Sveriges önskan att vara neutralt under andra världskriget, framförallt i samband med kvarstadsbåtarnas två dramatiska försök att från Göteborg under brittisk ledning bryta igenom den tyska Skagerrakspärren till England kallade Operation Rubble och Operation Performance. Vid hemliga förhandlingar mellan svenska myndigheter och de krigförande parterna kopplades frågan om kvarstadsbåtarnas möjlighet att lämna svenskt vatten också till frågan om lejdtrafiken, det vill säga tillåtelse för vissa svenska handelsfartyg att passera de krigförandes minfält i Nordsjön och Skagerrak, med last från andra inte krigförande länder in till Göteborg. Eftersom kvarstadsbåtarna lastades med för de allierade viktiga varor från Sverige, framförallt kullager, inför sina försök att bryta den tyska blockaden så var det också av stor betydelse för tyskarna att hindra dem från att nå fram med sin last. (sv)
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