Remembering Denmark April 9th 1940

Film poster (Image: Wikipedia)

Remembering the 80th anniversary of the brave Danish bicycle troops heading out to slow down the Nazi Blitzkreig as it rolled at dawn through Denmark, marking the end of the Phoney War.

Those unusual steel helmets (Film still / PRFoto)

If you have not seen the film, it is well worthwhile to track it down on DVD or online. I thought it was well handled, cleverly filmed and had real tension.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_9th_(film)

The uniforms are accurate as they were originals borrowed from a Danish Museum.

“The Mellem Slesvigs Grænser museum in Bylderup-Bov was approached by Nordisk Film in the autumn of 2013 with regards to assisting with uniforms and weapons. In March 2014, the film company collected 120 Danish steel helmets, 100 gas-mask canisters, 50 pairs of wool pants, 24 dummy-rifles, 32 cartridge belts, and a khaki officer coat. Moreover, the museum loaned two old Nimbus motorcycles with side-cars.” (Wikipedia article source)

See also the IMDB film website https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3542188/

I first head about this unusual film through Alan Gruber at the Tradgardmastre’s blog with his Duchy of Tradgardland interest in Danish things:

http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2017/01/1940-danish-bicycle-troops.html

http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2020/04/finished-danish-conversions.html

Alan has just finished some AIP figure conversions using heads with helmets moulded by the late Les White: https://littlewarsrevisited.boards.net/thread/488/remembering-les-white?page=1&scrollTo=3855

There was also a good blogpost from Bob Cordery at Wargaming Miscellany who has some useful screenshots of equipment http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2016/08/april-9th-interesting-film-about-german.html

It is also worth tracking down the similar Norwegian (subtitled in English) film The King’s Choice (recently shown on BBC IPlayer Films) about defending the King of Norway in 1940.

http://wargamingmiscellany.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-kings-choice.html

Both interesting films worth watching that give a different European experience of the fast moving events of April and May.

Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, April Ninth.