A Norwegian's review of the WW2 TV Series Atlantic Crossing – Fact or Fiction?
hi there i’m Pål from Oslo Norway
i just finished
watching the atlantic crossing and in this episode
i’m going to give you some background info about
Norway during the war, i’m going to show you some
examples from the actual series and i’m going
to give you my opinion about this show
Norway was invaded by the nazis on the 9th of april 1940
and stayed occupied until the war ended in 1945.
Norway is a constitutional monarchy and the royal
family at the time during the war consisted of
our King, King Haakon, his son Crown Prince
Olav, the wife of Olav Crown Princess Märtha
and their three children princess Ragnhild, princess
Astrid and Prince Harald which is the current king
in norway today now as the war broke out in norway
King Haakon refused to accept the terms that were
given by nazi germany. Because of this it was not
safe for the royal family to stay in norway so
they had to escape after fleeing north, King Haakon
and Crown Prince Olav and the Norwegian government
eventually ended up in London from where
they led the Norwegian resistance movement
throughout the war while Crown Princess Märtha,
Olav’s wife and their three children goes to
live in the
US president himself at that time Franklin D Roosevelt
And he also helped them find a home just
outside of Washington dc
now Roosevelt and Märtha
had already met before the war, but during these
five years they developed a close relationship
and Roosevelt often invited Märtha for dinner
lunch and excursions and visited her family’s
home on several occasions and for instance when
the Soviet Union was attacked by the nazis back
in June 1941 everyone was waiting for Roosevelt
to give a speech where was he? He was having dinner
with Märtha, and when Pearl Harbor was attacked
Roosevelt had to make a call to cancel lunch
with Norway’s Crown Princess before declaring war
on japan
Sorry i couldn’t make it to lunch Märtha…
This story however about Märtha spending
these years in the US during the war
is not so well known outside of Norway and perhaps
it was about time we got a series that could bring
this story out to the rest of the world. But how
true is it and what is fiction was Crown Prince Olav
visibly drunk in a bar in London? Nope he
was not
Did Crown Princess Märtha really visit Roosevelt on his deathbed?
No she did not
did the Swedish King really like to embroider?
Yes he did.
I’m not going to go through and
analyze all the scenes in this series
but i’ve posted some links below where
you can find fact checks for each episode
When this series came out in Norway it sparked
a lot of debates concerning its authenticity
The Norwegian author Tor Bomann-Larsen who has
written several books about the Royal family
published an article called fake history
made in Norway. Many historians do admit
that yes the close relationship that the
Norwegian Royal family had to the White
House was of a political significance for
Norway since Märtha was an extension of the
Norwegian exile government in London and used
that position to Norway’s benefit since she had
such a direct access to the most powerful man
in the world. However the series claimed that
quote “she changed the course of war” and this
according to Tor Bomann-Larsen is far from the truth.
As an example let’s talk about the lend and lease
agreement from 1941. How it happened in real life
and how it played out in the series. In 1940 after
Roosevelt won the election he headed for a 14 days
cruise in the caribbean. After about a week into
the cruise he received a letter from Winston
Churchill with a cry for help. Great Britain was in
an acute need of ships planes and other munitions
according to Harry Hopkins who was a close
employee of Roosevelt. Roosevelt spent two long
days thinking hard about this and then he came
forward having decided on the plan for the lend
and lease agreement. Despite a massive opposition
from the public in the US to enter the second
world war, Roosevelt signed this act that gave the
President the authority to sell lend or lease out
munitions to other countries for defence purposes
this was a turning point in the US involvement
in the second world war.
In the Atlantic Crossing series
however they have replaced the
Caribbean sea cruise with the President’s office
instead of Winston Churchill writing a letter
Märtha is depicted storming in demanding ships
planes and munitions help Norway fight the nazis
not help for Britain in his original press
conference announcing the plan Roosevelt
used the example about the water hose and saving
your neighbor’s house when on fire in the series
the writers they give these words to Märtha
making Roosevelt’s words into Märtha’s words
and in no time neighbors came over not to watch
but to help put the fire out
This scene is
maybe in my opinion one of the biggest fictional
scenes since it so clearly gives the impression
that her need to serve Norway was to trigger for
Roosevelt’s lend and lease plan, which it was not…
I don’t know about you but when i saw this scene
i felt a bit disappointed it also made me think
what will the rest of the world think when they
watch this series? Yes it is a fictional drama
but isn’t this going a bit too far for a series
that claims to be inspired by true events?
aren’t they giving Märtha a much greater role
than she actually had during the second world war?
and how good are we really at setting
apart facts from fiction when the true story
is not so well known in the first place?
well the creator of the series Alexander Eik
says that it is of course a series based on
real characters and that they base it or are
inspired by real events but that to dramatize
the series they needed to add a fair amount of
fiction, and they also had to simplify and
change the storyline to give the series a good flow
I believe that when you watch the
Atlantic Crossing you have to keep in mind
that this is not a documentary. And despite being
inspired by true events and characters it holds
a lot of fiction and if you really want to get
closer to the truth you need to study the history
of the events that took place and also take a
closer look of the people that were involved
Now one of the big questions is whether there was
a romantic relationship that took place between
Märtha and Roosevelt? Many sources confirm
that Roosevelt was infatuated with Märtha
which i think there could be some truth
too, since he chose to spend so much time
with her some sources also claim that Roosevelt
was madly in love but there are very few clues of
what Märtha actually felt and we will never
know. But overall to give Märtha some credit
she did have a lot of access to Roosevelt during
the war. And she did make a significant effort to
help Norway she traveled around in the US,
and kept many speeches creating awareness
of the difficult situation in Europe. She
was also an active part of organizing aid
and worked with refugees and when she returned
to Norway after the war on the 7th of June 1945
she was received with a lot of enthusiasm and had
become even more popular
than she was before the war broke out.
Would i recommend you watching this
series? Yes i would i think it’s well played by the
actors it’s well directed and even though it’s not
going to be my favorite series from world war 2
I think it’s well worth your time. Maybe you watched
it already? Did you enjoy it? What’s your favorite
scene from the series? Leave a comment
below also if you enjoyed this episode
please hit the like button subscribe to
my channel and i’ll see you again soon
Ha det bra!
and if there is anyone who doubts the democratic
will to win again i say let him look to Norway
the beautiful and generous words just
expressed by you Mister President will ultimately
find their way to every Norwegian home yes
to everywhere on this globe where Norwegian
men and women are praying and working and
fighting to regain the free and happy Norway
