Friday 2 October 2009

King awards first War Cross in sixty years

During the State Council held at the Royal Palace earlier today the King of Norway awarded the nation’s highest decoration, the War Cross, posthumously to Captain Eiliv Austlid, who was killed fighting the invading Germans on 15 April 1940. The War Cross was instituted by King Haakon VII on 23 May 1941 and awarded to 273 persons, 147 of them Norwegians, until 1949. It was decided in June that the King would again award the War Cross for military gallantry, both to people who took part in the Second World War (living or dead) but also to soldiers serving in the wars Norway has taken part in during the last decade.

Dagbladet reports on the story of Eiliv Austlid and how his deeds were later smeared by, among others, Foreign Minister Trygve Lie:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2009/10/02/nyheter/innenriks/den_andre_verdenskrig/historie/8384938/

The government’s press release about the decoration of Captain Austlid:
http://www.regjeringen.no/nn/dep/fd/pressesenter/Pressemeldingar/2009/krigskorset-utdeles-for-forste-gang-pa-6.html?id=578776

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