On the morning of April 9th, 1940, Nazi Germany began a massive invasion of Norway with the objective of stealing the National Treasury, a massive hoard of 50 tons of gold and gold coins. But the Nordic government had a detailed plan to save Norway's gold and the royal family.
The Night Before the Invasion
As the German invasion began, Luftwaffe war planes landed at the Oslo, Norway airport, and Hitler's soldiers marched victoriously into the capital city. Meanwhile, the gold hoard headed out of town, barely escaping the invading Germans. On the night before the Nazis arrived, officials of the Bank of Norway loaded 26 trucks with 50 tons of gold. The trucks sagged under the weight of the precious cargo — the National Treasury of Norway. But, the invading Nazi army was relentless. They chased and bombed the gold convoy every step of the way. Cleverly, the Norwegians split up the truck convoy. Part of the gold was loaded aboard the ship Driva amid a rain of Luftwaffe gunfire. Before the transfer could be completed, the Germans attacked. Two-thirds of the gold was reloaded onto trucks and driven west to the city of Molde, where Norway's King Haakon VII had fled to await a British cruiser to evacuate them to England.
The Royal Navy to the Rescue
German airplanes were attacking as the gold, along with the King and the crown prince, was being brought onboard the "Glasgow." Three Royal Navy cruisers — HMS Enterprise, HMS Galatea, and HMS Glasgow — rescued the gold under appalling conditions. They were attacked in port and then constantly chased, harassed, and bombed by the Luftwaffe as they made their way back to the UK. However, all three cruisers safely made it to their designated ports: Enterprise docked at Devonport, whilst Galatea and Glasgow off-loaded their precious cargo on the Clyde. 'Pimpernel Gold,' a terrific book by Dorothy Baden Powell, explains how Norway's gold reserves were taken out of the country in April 1940, under the noses of the Germans through the snow, by lorries, and finally by three separate ships.
The National Treasury
The National Treasury of Norway consisted of NOK 240 million in 1940 value worth of gold (approximately $54.5 million in 1940 American currency, or $670 million in 2007) weighing around 50 tons. The entire gold deposit was stored at Norges Bank's main vault at their headquarters in Oslo. During the increasing tension of the 1930s, plans were made to make the deposit more mobile. When the Second World War broke out, these plans were accelerated, and the gold was packed into 818 crates of 40 kg, 685 crates of 25 kg, and 39 barrels of gold coins weighing 80 kg each.
The Fight North
When news reached the government in the early hours of 9 April 1940 that the patrol boat Pol III had been attacked and that enemy ships were approaching Oslo, orders went out to evacuate the deposit to the vault in Lillehammer. Civilian transport was requisitioned, and some heavies from nearby businesses were called in to help load the gold onto the lorries. The lorries left one after the other as they were fully loaded, some far over their maximum weight. Just as the last trucks left Oslo, the Wehrmacht marched into the city. At Lillehammer, the gold stayed for a few days until reports came in that the advancing Germans were approaching. It was decided that the gold was to be loaded onto the train that was also to carry the King and the government of Norway.
Safe in Britain
The HMS Glasgow, later in the campaign, transferred King Haakon and Crown Prince Olav of Norway and part of the Norwegian gold reserves when they fled from Molde to Tromsø, escaping the advancing German forces in their country. The two fishing vessels arrived in Tromsø on Saturday, 24 May. Here the gold was loaded on the British cruiser HMS Enterprise which departed Harstad the same day with the last 19 tons of treasury gold. The cruiser first sailed to Scapa Flow, surviving two German air attacks on the way, then proceeded to Greenock, where the gold was brought ashore. Once in Britain, it was rapidly brought by train to London and stored in the vault of the Bank of England. It was later decided to bring the gold to America, and it was shipped over the Atlantic in installments and arrived in Canada. The Norwegian Minister of Finance happily reported to the government that of the 50 tons of gold that initially left Oslo, only 297 gold coins were missing.