In 1940, after the Germans invaded Norway, the King of Norway, Haakon 7, led a govenment in exile and escaped to Britain.

Shortly after, arrangements were made to set up a training camp in Canada just outside of Toronto. This camp, called Little Norway, was set up for the sole purpose of training Norwegian flight crew to fly planes to fight against the Germans. The graduates of this flight school went on to Britain where most of them ended up in Norwegian designated units of the RAF. During its existence, from 1940 until shut down in 1952, 2500 men were trained at Little Norway. In total, the RNAF, the Royal Norwegian Air Force, in Britain lost 335 men during the course of the war.

Here are some links to this topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Norway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Norwegian_Air_Force

http://www.arkivverket.no/eng/Themes/World-War-II/Norway-in-exile/The-Air-Force

There were two training camps in Canada that made up Little Norway, the camp on the outskirts of Toronto and another camp, established in 1942 in the Muskokas, north of Toronto. This northern camp was also knows as 'Vesle Skaugum'.

Over the next while, I will post for you a neat collection that I just acquired with a Little Norway theme.

There will be no method to my postings, as I figure out what is what, they will appear here.

First up is an RNAF veteran pin. It is tamped in the back as NO 456.

John

MVC-546S.JPG (39.97 KB, 149 downloads)
MVC-547S.JPG (39.82 KB, 150 downloads)

Always looking for Eickhorns and etched bayonets.