Accomodation of Commandos In Oslo, June 7th 1945

I have a few pictures of my grandparents with two unknown British Commandos taken around June 7th 1945 at the time of the victory parade in Oslo. I have reason to believe that one of them is George Webb of No 3 Commando. My grandparents told me that they housed two commandos during the celebration.

My question is: How would that have come about? For safety reasons, British servicemen would not be assigned just any random private housing, I guess.

Hi and welcome to our website.

Sadly I personally cannot answer your question other than to say I noted your words "they housed two commandos during the celebration." So did they stay just for one night of celebration after the parade, or for a period of time ? We would obviously welcome seeing the photos you mention so feel free to scan and add them as attachments to this message thread and include any additional detail you may know. We have as you may know photos in our gallery of the George Webb you mentioned and they can be viewed here http://gallery.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/units/3/webb/

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 16/09/2017 10:15:28

Hello Stein and thank you for your email with the photos. I am posting two of them here initially as I would like people to view the cap badges that are worn in order to identify the Regiment. I note on the photo it is annotated George Webb but there is no mention of No 3 Commando, and I have to say that I do not think it is the George Webb whose images I posted above. In fact No 3 Commando as part of the 1st Commando Bde. I believe were in Kiel or Hamburg readying themselves for their return to the UK on the 8/9th June.

Where was the information about 3 Commando from ?

Couple more images and cropped facial images

This message was edited 6 times. Last update was at 16/09/2017 17:48:51

Pete & Stein,
Both men have a South Staffordshire Regiment cap badge. I believe that they were attached to 2nd Battalion South Staffordshire Regiment of the 1st Airborne Division. The 1st Airborne Divison were deployed to Norway during Operation Doomsday, they were to oversee the surrender of German forces.

https://paradata.org.uk/events/norway-operation-doomsday

Thank you very much for identifying the cap badge. A very welcome fact in my sea of hypotheses.

From what I read about operation Doomsday, this means that the pictures may have been taken a few weeks earlier (May'45) than I originally anticipated (June'45).

Perhaps as early as May 13th, when Crown Prince Olav arrived back in Oslo after five years in exile.