Thursday, August 12, 2010

Norwegian Crown Princess and children en route to the US

August 12, 1940

Crown Princess Martha of Norway has accepted the personal invitation of President Franklin Roosevelt, and left Stockholm today for Petsamo, Finland, where she and her three children will board "the United States Army transport American Legion en route to the United States."
The Princess will be accompanied by her three children, Prince Harald, 3 years old, and Princesses Ragnhild and Astrid, 10 and 8 years old. The Princess is "traveling incognito," according to the New York Times. Traveling with the Princess are her lady-in-waiting, Mrs. Oestgord, whose husband, a navy commander, who is an aide-de-camp to Crown Prince Olav, now in London, and a nurse.
Crown Princess Martha crossed into Sweden on April 11, two days after the German invasion of Norway. Twp days earlier, the royal family and the government were on board a train that had been "heavily bombed and machine-gunned by German planes near Elverum."
Martha spent several days in a hotel at Saelen, near the Norwegian border, where she received she received frequent messages from her husband, who was still in Norway, Martha traveled to Stockholm to stay with her parents, Prince Carl and Princess Ingeborg of Sweden.
Last year, the Crown Princess and the Crown Prince toured the United States, and met President Roosevelt at Hyde Park.

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