More from the Home Guard site:
https://www.hjv.dk/oe/HJK/nyheder/Sider/Udnavnelse-af-Kronprinsessen.aspx
Including some of Mary's speech:
"The Home Guard has given me many good and educational experiences. I have been a part of something that creates security and a feeling of safety for the Danes and that I'm proud of.
The promotion to major also mark my transition from active to non-active soldier. It is something special that the promotion happens on the 4th May. That date symbolize more than anything else, what the Home Guard is why it's important."
Nowadays volunteers in the Home Guard can reach to the rank of major or navy captain. Previously everyone over the rank of lieutenant were career officers.
The reason is that the Home Guard has gone from being a kind of citizens militia under the Defense Command, to a mix between a territorial army and a national guard - in the sense that members can be called upon or volunteer to serve abroad in Home Guard units. (Mainly base security.) Freeing up regular units to focus more on whatever task that is the reason for the deployment.
Mary is no longer an "active soldier" (she actually never has been. never having held a command on her own) because as a major she is now either a battalion commander, alternatively the second-in-command of a battalion or a staff officer. As Mary is mainly attached to a staff company in the Greater Copenhagen area, my guess is that she will "continue" being a staff officer.
Because the largest tactical Home Guard units are companies, commanded by a captain. Hence why she is no longer an active field officer.
In order to be promoted to major you have to pass the first of two staff courses. It is IMO likely she will attend the second course at some point, enabling her to eventually be promoted to lieutenant colonel and after that full colonel. But I doubt that will happen until she becomes queen.
Tonight is indeed a special night in Denmark.
It's 21:52 as I type this. On 4th May 1945 the whole of Denmark erupted into a nationwide street party, that lasted all night.
At 18:30 the Germans signed the capitulation for German forces in the Netherlands, North West Germany and Denmark.
And that was announced by BBC, Danish news, at 20:36.
That newsprogram started out as usually with various reports about the war, everybody knew it would end soon, so most who possibly could were clued to the wireless that evening - even though it was strictly illegal. Even German units listened in on BBC all day.
Then there was a sudden silence... before the announcement came. And Denmark exploded! People ran into the streets and celebrated. Blackout curtains were torn down and burned. Candles were placed in the windows. Lights were lit in every room in many places. (Normally German and HIPO = Hilfs Polizei = Danish collaborators - Collaborator is a very negative word in Europe! - would shoot through the windows if there was a crack in the black out.
That made an erasable impression in Sweden. Suddenly the dark Danish coast lit up by countless lights. No Swede who saw that would ever forget the sight.
The German troops were ordered back to their barracks. It was over. They were alive. They made it.
That included the German guards posted at Amalienborg. They vanished during the evening, never to be replaced. So for a few hours the DRF was actually unguarded. Until the Resistance organized a detachment to guard Amalienborg.
Even though my family (they are all dead now) told me about it many times, it is still impossible for me to fully comprehend the feelings on that evening. The five years of frustrations, anger, fear and humiliation. All those feelings were released that night in one big party.
- For most... Because Danish collaborators were not partying! Danes who had been profiteering were not partying. Danes who had reported other Danes, sometimes for nothing more than simple malice, were not celebrating. Danish women who were dating German soldiers were mostly not celebrating. (There were some who were so naive that they thought that nothing would happen to them. They were wrong...)
The Liberation, as we call it, was to take effect on 5th May so that is officially the Liberation Day and also a flag day.
The Resistance, some of whom had joined
very recently..., began taking up positions all over the country according to the orders they received via BBC. Because right after the announcement on BBC the special messages began - and there were
many that evening!
Herberts cup is cracked. - Jonas will climb the tree. - etc.
The celebrations continued for days. But it was also bad days! More people were killed in the days after the Liberation than during the entire five years of Occupation.
The Home Guard was established after the War under the motto never again a 9th April. (The day DK was occupied.)
Many of the first members of the Home Guard were former Resistance fighters and they vowed that if DK was ever attacked again, that they would fight on. As such most Home Guard members were issued their personal weapon and 100 rounds of ammunition to be stored in their homes, when possible. So that the Home Guard could move out and go into position right away.
That was still the case when I joined the Home Guard back in the 80's. Upon signing on, I also signed a pledge that I would
not obey a command to capitulate, even if it came from the government. That was at one of the most cold periods of the Cold War and at that time the membership of the Home Guard was at a record high, some 75.000 - or at the time 1½ % of the entire population.
Since then the Home Guard has been slimmed down, to around 30.000 I believe. Much better trained, much better equipped and much more professional. In my time most of us were really "weekend warriors". Well motivated but poorly trained amateurs.
I spend the years in Army Home Guard preparing to take on the East German divisions that were to have rolled up through Jutland. Would we have made a difference? Perhaps, but not in combat, I think. The nuclear missiles that were targeting Denmark were located in East Germany and they were to have been launched at the beginning of a war, we have later learned. They would have detonated less than ten minutes later.
Anyway, to this day many people still put two candles in the windows on this evening. So have some of our neighbors. I noticed it earlier when our dog took me for a walk.
https://cdn.east.bazo.dk/images/2506e001-31e0-4356-908e-86e88d8cd51d/d/16-9/s/2000
https://smooth-storage.aptoma.no/us...9745f5944be17c69056104dd3262731b74750d12929fb
Here is a short video depicting the days after the Liberation. You'll notice a couple of segments of British troops moving in. And quite a bit focusing on German troops moving out. (That took several months in fact. There were more than 200.000 German soldiers in DK.) Some of them don't look particular unhappy about losing the war...
And QMII talking about that night, when she woke up to a lot of commotion outside:
)
