Colbjørnsen and Haslund traveled to Falmouth on June 10, and inspected the cargo. The cases had been repacked in London, and the numbers were registered on a new manifest. Ten tons of gold was packed into 120 small boxes and 130 larger ones. They were then put on a towboat and carried out to the Bomma, which was anchored in the outer harbor. Colbjørnsen, Haslund, and Captain Johannesen watched over the cargo until it was safely in the hold under lock and key.47
The Bomma left Falmouth at 2:00 in the morning on June 15. Three hours and forty minutes later, it joined a convoy near Lizard Point, the southern-most spot in Britain. The formation consisted of thirteen vessels, mostly armed. One small destroyer served as escort. The Bomma was unarmed, but had anti-magnetic equipment to protect it against mines. After setting out, the convoy poked along on a zigzag course at eight knots to lessen the danger of being attacked.
The weather on the crossing was good, and the trip smooth. After nine days at sea, the convoy was broken up, with each ship going its own way. The Bomma increased its speed to thirteen knots and headed toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence with plans to make a first stop in Montreal. Soon, however, heavy fog rolled in, and the temperature fell rapidly. Colbjørnsen was fearful of hitting an iceberg and ordered the captain to change the course to due south. The captain suggested landing in either Boston or New York City, but the banker overruled him in favor of Baltimore. He thought that the arrival of the gold would be less conspicuous there, and he also wanted to be near the Federal Reserve’s headquarters.
While the Bomma was still in the Atlantic, Wilhelm Morgenstierne, the Norwegian Minister in Washington, hastened to set up a gold account with the Federal Reserve in New York so that the cargo could be deposited upon arrival. He had been in frequent contact with American officials in both Washington and New York for several days about the imminent arrived of the valuable cargo. On June 24, the minister sent a special delivery letter to L. Werner Knoke, a vice president of the Federal Reserve, asking to open a gold account in the name of the Royal Norwegian Government. He explained that he had the power of attorney to “operate all accounts and other assets in the United States belonging to the Norwegian Government.”48
When the Bomma arrived in Baltimore at 5:30 A.M. on June 28, Captain Johannesen and his crew ran into problems because the Norwegians didn’t have any document giving them permission to import gold. So the captain declared that the ship had no cargo on board and only had ballast for stability. Armed U.S. Customs officials boarded the Bomma and forbid everyone except the captain from leaving the ship.49
With the help of Morgenstierne, Colbjørnsen and Haslund were finally allowed to travel to Washington. Not knowing what to expect in the U.S., they took with them two bags that each contained one thousand twenty-kroner gold coins. They figured that would cover any expenses, but left them temporarily at the Federal Reserve’s Baltimore office. Once in Washington, they arranged to ship 130 cases of gold to the Federal Reserve Bank in New York and 120 cases to the Bank of Canada in Montreal. The Federal Reserve board finally approved the Norwegian gold account the same day the bullion arrived.
The evening of July 1, the Bomma moved to Canton Pier 3 and with a small army of police and customs agents standing guard, the ship’s crew moved the gold into three armored trucks. Captain Johannesen wrote in his log that the disembarkation was finished at 10:00 P.M. The gold went to the Camden railroad station, where a special one-car train carried it to New York City. The rest of the shipment left by train for Canada. That same day, Minister Morgenstierne sent the Federal Reserve’s Knocke a letter asking that the gold from the Bomma be put in the Norwegian account. The minister gave the value of the gold as “approximately” $6 million. Following an agreement with the Federal Reserve, Colbjørnsen stayed in the U.S., while Haslund traveled to Montreal to meet with Norwegian and Canadian officials about the gold that would be arriving there.50 Following that first successful trip, a Norwegian armada began bringing gold to North America. Later shipments were limited to a maximum of six tons. By the end of July 1940, eleven Norwegian ships had successfully carried the entire Norwegian gold horde, with the exception of the ton kept in London, across the North Atlantic. Thirty-four tons went to the Bank of Canada and were stored in Ottawa, while 14.7 tons eventually went to the New York Federal Reserve Bank.51
Only one stray bag of Norwegian gold was lost in the whole transport, when a box was damaged aboard the HMS Glasgow on its way to Britain. A sailor on board stole a bag of Hungarian gold coins from the box. He then went on a drinking spree on the Glasgow waterfront, paying for drinks with his new wealth. He was quickly arrested, and given ninety days of detention. The remaining coins were sent to the Norwegian account at the Bank of England.52
While still in Washington in early August 1940, Fredrik Haslund wrote an official report on the rescue of the Norwegian gold. At the end of it, he modestly stated that his success “would not have been possible without the energy and the devotion to duty of many persons.” He suggested that after the war everyone who helped him should be awarded a gold 20 kroner coin with a picture of the Norwegian king on one side and a “suitable inscription” on the other. No rewards, though, were ever given out to the courageous men who saved Norway’s gold.53
Chapter Fourteen
ITALY CRUSHES ALBANIA
Albania has spent most of its history being kicked around by its bigger neighbors. Greece, Rome, and the Byzantine Empire at various times ruled the poor, rugged land torn between the western and eastern cultures. Ismail Qemali, a veteran leader of the Albanian nationalist movement, declared his country’s independence on November 28, 1912, and he became its first head of state. The London Peace Conference of 1912-1913 recognized it as an independent country, but then World War I turned the Balkans into a bloody battlefield. After the war, the Versailles Conference initially split up Albania’s territory among Greece, Italy, and Yugoslavia. Woodrow Wilson in the name of national self-determination, however, torpedoed that plan.
In its early years, Albania endured a series of unstable governments. Ahmed Bey Zogu, the son of a prominent landowner, became the country’s first president in January 1925 and turned it into a police state. On September 1, 1928, the Albanian parliament declared the country a kingdom, and Zogu named himself King Zog of the Albanians. He aligned his nation with Mussolini as a way to protect it from other neighbors. Italy is only forty miles east across the Adriatic Sea.1
Albania remained a poor country with virtually no industry that survived mostly on peasant farming. It was anxious, though, to get on the fast track to the modern world. Italy became an important partner in its financial development. Albania also tried to have close relations with Britain because of its financial center and as a counterbalance to Italy. Neville Chamberlain called Albania a Baltic Belgium, meaning that it was a small country that had to be protected from powerful neighbors. Zog was aware of the danger of getting too close to Mussolini, and once told the British minister, “Never will I fall into the hands of Italy.”2
For a young country with an undeveloped economy and little financial experience, Albania had a surprisingly sophisticated central bank. The National Bank of Albania (Banka e Shqipërisë) was established in the summer of 1925 with capital of 12.5 million gold francs. Italian financiers put up three-quarters of the start-up money, which gave them the dominant role in the country’s economy. The other investors were Yugoslav, Swiss, and Belgian banks.3
Not surprisingly since foreign bankers ran the financial institutions, the Albanian government and its central bank were very conservative. They kept a tight hand on the economy, and inflation was almost nonexistent. The nation’s founders believed strongly in gold. The currency was the lek, and the monetary system was based on the Albanian gold franc. The central bank issued gold coins in denominations of 10, 20, and 100 francs in addition to silver and nickel pieces in smaller denominations. Paper money was backed by forty percent gold. The bank’s bullion holdings increased from 1.9 million gold franc
s in 1927 to 9.2 million in 1938.4 Looking back at that era, the International Currency Review of 1977 wrote, “Before the Second World War, the Albanian franc was one of the strongest currencies in Europe. The notes of the Albanian National Bank issued from March 1926 onwards were, in effect, bullion certificates.”5
Once the central bank was established, the government worked hard to build up the gold holdings even more by having private citizens turn in their jewelry and other gold pieces in exchange for the country’s new paper currency. That private gold was then put into the central bank reserves. Whenever possible, the bank also bought more gold in London.
Albania had the unfortunate experience to be in the middle of European politics between the wars. Mussolini was both nearby and on the march. His early success in conquering Ethiopia in 1935 had turned him into a new international figure, but Hitler’s rapid rise to power around the same time eclipsed Il Duce. Mussolini viewed his Fascist rival with admiration, envy, and suspicion. German intentions in the Balkans, which he considered to be his own sphere of influence, also worried him. By 1938, Albania looked like a close and an easy target for Rome and a way for Italy to reestablish its leadership of Europe’s fascist movement.
Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law and foreign minister, took the lead within the Rome government in advocating an invasion of Albania. Ciano also promised Mussolini great mineral resources in the undeveloped country, although he had little research to back that up. The Italian leader, though, was a reluctant warrior, and Italy’s Albanian adventure eventually became largely Ciano’s war.6
The count hoped that the king would be slow to fight because of his concern for the impending arrival of an heir to his throne. Zog in April 1938 married Géraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, a half American and half Hungarian princess, in a lavish wedding. Count Ciano attended the ceremony, and Hitler sent a red Mercedes as a wedding present. Queen Geraldine’s main job was to provide the new kingdom with an heir, and she was soon pregnant. Ciano believed the pregnancy would be a distraction and keep the king’s mind off politics, writing in his diary, “There is, above all, an act on which I am counting: the coming birth of Zog’s child. The king loves his wife very much, as well as his whole family. I believe that he will prefer to insure to his dear ones a quiet future. And frankly I cannot imagine Geraldine running around fighting through the mountains of Unthi or the Mirdizu in her ninth month of pregnancy.”7
Zog sensed that the Italians might cause trouble and tried to recruit allies, but he had little success. Britain’s Neville Chamberlain showed no interest in standing up to the Nazis. The United States was trying to stay out of all foreign commitments despite recent German aggression. Neither Greece nor Yugoslavia was about to offer any help to their former enemy.
In December 1938, Count Ciano presented an invasion plan to Mussolini. The Italian leader tentatively approved it, but did not set a date for its implementation. Zog soon got wind of the danger, and in March of 1939 sent a message pleading, “Albania now is in Italy’s hands, for Italy controls every sector of the national activity. The king is devoted. The people are grateful. Why do you want anything more?” Zog also sent a request for help to Hitler, but received no sympathy.8
By late March and after the Germans had overrun both Austria and Czechoslovakia, Mussolini drew up an eight-point list of demands that was sent to Zog. It included giving Italy access to all of Albania’s ports, airports, and communication facilities. Albania would have become a vassal state totally under Italy’s control. Zog might survive, but only as a puppet king. It was clear that failure to implement the demands would be the grounds for an invasion, and likely a brutal one at that for a small nation still recovering from war.9
Zog immediately began playing for time and told Ciano that he was willing to go along with the demands, but said that his government was refusing. The Italians at that point concluded that it was going to be impossible to browbeat the king into capitulation, and so Italian troops prepared to invade. Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the country’s military leader and the hero of the invasions of Libya and Ethiopia, opposed the move, but other Italian generals were willing to go along. A new demand was then set to King Zog, with the warning that if he did not accept it the Italians would invade on April 7. Mussolini this time sent his own personal ultimatum.10
The Italians purposely did not consult Hitler on any of their moves against Albania. Mussolini and Ciano were not really interested in any peaceful solution with Albania. They wanted to show Hitler their country’s military might in order to have a more powerful hand in European politics. Ciano wrote in his diary on April 4 that Il Duce “would prefer a solution by force of arms.”11
On April 5, Her Majesty Queen Geraldine gave birth to a son, who was named Crown Prince Leka. The king ordered a 101-gun salute. The Albanian royal family now had its heir. The king asked the U.S. minister in Tirana, Hugh Grant, whether mother and child could obtain political asylum in America. The U.S. agreed. The birth had been complicated, but the queen still received a doctor’s permission to travel, and so she and her two-day old son headed south toward Greece.12
Shortly after seeing his heir, Zog received a new ultimatum from Rome. He also learned about the attitude of the British toward the Italian-Albania situation. Prime Minister Chamberlain in response to a question in Parliament on whether Britain had any interest in Albania said, “No direct interest, but a general interest in the peace of the world.” He then left for a week of fishing in Scotland. Ciano was pleased.13
The Italian invasion began on April 7 at 5:00 A.M. and met virtually no resistance. Zog wanted to retreat into the hills and lead a guerilla fight against the Italians, but the Albanian parliament told him to leave the country. The Italian offensive turned into something of a circus fire drill. The invading force consisted of twenty-two thousand men and four hundred planes, three hundred small tanks, and a dozen warships. The Albanians had about four thousand poorly trained soldiers and a few policemen. Yet in the port city of Durres, locals and a few soldiers drove the first invaders back into the sea. The Italians, though, successfully landed in a second attempt. The capital of Tirana fell at 10:30 A.M. on the day of the invasion without a shot being fired. Historian Bernd Fischer wrote, “The bungled invasion did the fascist leadership a great service; it made clear to them how totally unprepared Italy was to fight a major war.”14 Count Ciano, though, triumphantly flew his own plane to the capital of Tirana, where he found the streets empty.
King Zog went on the radio at 2:00 in the afternoon to make a brave appeal for national unity and resistance, saying, “I invite the whole Albanian people to stand united today, in this moment of danger, to defend the safety of the country and its independence to the last drop of blood.” The only trouble was that Albania at the time had less than two thousand radios, and the Italians soon jammed the airways.15
Not long after giving the speech, the king left and the following afternoon he arrived in Florina, a small town in northern Greece. Italian radio claimed that he had stolen 550,000 gold francs from the central bank before leaving. The British foreign office later learned that Zog had £50,000 in gold as well as $2 million in a Chase Manhattan Bank account. Whatever he had was enough to pay for a long life in exile. He and his wife and child traveled first to France and then to Britain. After the war he ended up in Egypt as the guest of King Farouk. Rumors were that Zog paid him $20 million for that refuge.16
In the years leading up to the war, the Albanian Central Bank, which was largely under the influence of Italian bankers, had been shipping its gold to the Bank of Italy in Rome for safekeeping. By the time Mussolini’s forces invaded, the vast majority of it was already in Italy, and the ownership was turned over to the Bank of Italy after the fall of Zog. That amounted to eight million gold francs weighing in at 2.4 tons. The Italians got only 280 gold francs when they took over the Albanian Central Bank in Tirana plus five million more in coins and jewelry from residents.17
Following the Al
lied invasion of Italy in September 1943, the Italians ousted Mussolini, but the soon Nazis put him back in power. On April 16, 1944 Berlin ordered Albanian officials to sign a protocol giving the Germans fifty-five cases of gold that had been stored at the Bank of Italy. They were sealed with steel strips and stored in secret tunnels. Germany military units near the end of that year picked up both the Italian and Albanian central bank gold and sent it to the Reichsbank in Berlin. It remained there until February 1945, when it was evacuated with other seized Nazi gold and art treasures to the salt mine in Merkers, Germany.18
Chapter Fifteen
HOLLAND FALLS IN FOUR DAYS
The period between the fall of Poland in October 1939 and the invasion of Western Europe in May 1940 has gone into history with many names. It was a time of peace, but the world was waiting anxiously for more war. Americans called it the Phony War; the French named it the drôle de guerre (funny war); Churchill deemed it the Twilight War; and to cynics it was the Sitzkrieg (sitting war) or the Bore War. Semantics aside, Hitler, after securing his truce with Russia in the east, used the next few months to prepare a major military offensive in the west.
Originally Nazi generals planned to invade Western Europe in November 1939, with a war strategy similar to that of World War I. Hitler was not too happy with the plan, considering it insufficiently daring. Then on January 10, 1940, that document accidently fell into Allied hands. German regulations forbade officers from taking secret papers on flights near enemy or neutral territory. But as we now know, the newly wed major who was ordered to take the war plans between two locations in Germany, went by plane instead of train so that he could spend an extra night with his bride. And thus the Allies were able to get a hold of the invasion plans via the Belgians who intercepted the major’s lost aircraft. Hitler was not all that unhappy because he had never liked the original proposal.1
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