LITTLE NORWAY SALUTE TODAY HONOURS VE-DAY AND END OF SECOND WORLD WAR

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — As Apeldoorn today warmly welcomed Canadian veterans who liberated the Netherlands 80 years ago, Norwegian officials were equally greeted at the Muskoka Airport where “Little Norway” fighter pilots trained to help end the Second World War.

Deputy Ambassador Jon-Age Oyslebo led a deputation in which Air Attaché and Assistant Defence Attaché Atle Braaten laid a wreath commemorating airmen and women who served at the airport camp in Gravenhurst from 1942 to 1945.

They were joined by Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz, Bracebridge Mayor Rick Maloney and District Chair Jeff Lehman.

Col. Attle Braaten lays a wreath this afternoon at the Muskoka Airport Little Norway war memorial marking VE-Day and the end of the Second World War. Photos Mark Clairmont

On May 4, 1942, Crown Prince Olav officially opened Little Norway’s Muskoka camp, which was moved north from its Toronto location at the end of Bathurst Street in Toronto near the Island Airport. A recreational camp was located farther north just east of Huntsville at Limberlost.

Olav’s son King Harald returned to Gravenhurst in 2002 for a state visit, unveiling a corner stone for a small museum room in the newly revamped district airport opened in 2007.

In 2007 former Norwegian prime minister and recently former NATO secretary general Jon Stoltenberg visited the airport and memorial. He’s now the country’s finance minister.

Yesterday’s hour-long ceremony at 5 p.m. was just days before May 8 when the Western world celebrates “VE-Day” — Victory in Europe — the day allies declared an end to one the worst wars ever.

On May 17 Norwegians also mark the second world victory over Germany by combining it with their Constitution Day, which commemorates its constitution signing in 1814. It’s done in a very non-military nature with big parades and their flag the centrepiece.

Col. Atle Braaten, Deputy Ambassador Jon-Age Oyslebo, District Chair Jeff Lehman, Honourary Consul General Marianne Koritzinsky, Gravenhurst Mayor Heidi Lorenz, Lynne and Town Crier Bruce Kruger and Bracebridge Mayor Rick Maloney.

The plaque outside the airport terminal reads:

“Norwegian Training in Canada During the Second World War. Located near here, Little Norway, one of the Norwegian Armed Forces training centres in Canada during the Second World War, was officially opened by Crown Prince Olav in May 1942.

“It embodies for Canadians the importance of the alliance of nations fighting for freedom. Between 1940 and 1945, more than 3,000 Norwegian airmen, sailors and soldiers and up to 3,000 merchant seamen and civilians trained in Canada for the struggle to liberate their occupied homeland.

“The strong bond between the two countries, forged in the experience of those years, has become a symbol of Canada‘s continuing friendship with its wartime allies.”

More tomorrow.

A large party of Norwegian dignitaries and local municipal officials gathered late Monday afternoon to honour the end of the Second World War the part Little Norway pilots played 80 years ago.

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