Faroe Islands in the War 1939-1945

Life in the Faroe Islands

Tórshavn, capital of the Faroe Islands.

Ólöf accompanied her father, Páll Ólafsson, to the Faroe Islands where he had business interests, and where he was later appointed Iceland’s first consul. With the outbreak of World War II, it was impossible for people to travel to Denmark, which was under nazi occupation, and sailing to Iceland also had its risks because of German submarine activity. Even so, father and daughter made two trips to Iceland by boat during the war.

Ólöf and Páll, Tórshavn, 1942.
Ólöf wearing the traditional Icelandic festival costume.
On her way to music class.
By Thórshavn theater.
Lis and Lóla.
Margrét, Bengtsens, Laufey Ingólfsdóttir, Ólöf, Adalheidur.
Adalheidur and Lóla.
Didda í Tubak, Ebba Debes, Lóla and Páll Bogason.
Didda Í Tubak, Páll Bogason and Lóla.
Hunting sea birds with the Faroese.

TRAPPED BY War in the Prime of Life

…..? Ólöf, Axel Olsen, Patric Wouten.

Armas Manninin was the name of this Finnish orphan, a war refugee who was shipwrecked. Páll and Ólöf took Armas in and offered him a permanent home, but Armas chose to go in search of his relatives. Only a day or two after Armas set sail from the port, the people of Tórshavn were informed that his ship had been sunk by the Germans and there were no survivors.
Armas Manninin.

Dangerous Voyages

The Faroese ship bound for Iceland.

As mentioned earlier, father and daughter sailed back and forth to Iceland on two separate occasions. German submarine telescopes would track even smaller vessels sailing to and from Iceland, but sometimes didn’t think it was worth wasting a torpedo on them. Ólöf recalled the sole weapon the Faroese had on board was a kind of a gun that fired potatoes.

F.l. Páll Patursson, unknown shipmate, captain of the vessel, Ólöf, unknown deckhand.
Páll Patursson and Ólöf.
The car in the background was owned by Páll Ólafsson. On arriving in Iceland it was used among other things to take Páll and Ólöf and some of the ship’s crew to witness the historic declaration of the Icelandic Republic at Thingvellir in 1944.
Ólöf and the captain.

Sheltered by Boulders

During the war years, whenever people were out and about on the Faroe Islands, it was considered advisable always to pinpoint out a nearby boulder or large rock. The Germans were in the habit of flying over the Faroe Islands to use up the bombs and ammunition they had been unable to unleash on the British. Many inhabitants of Tórshavn, including Ólöf, owed their lives to the various rocks and boulders on the slopes around Tórshavn.

Ólöf and her papa examine a bomb crater made by a German warplane.
Two of Goering’s demon aces held prisoner in Tórshavn.

The Family Reunited at the End of the War

Hildur, Páll, Ólöf and her younger brother Jens in Tórshavn at the end of the war.
F.l. older brother Stefán, Ólöf, Jens.
Jens and Ólöf. Tórshavn in the background.
Páll, Stefán and Hildur.
Páll, Hildur, Ólöf and Stefán.
Jens, Ólöf, Inga Hansen.
Hildur, Lóla and Stefán.
Daughter and mother, Ólöf and Hildur.
Ólöf began to attend art classes during the war in the Faroes. Here she is with a portrait of her nephew Páll, Stefán’s son.