“Atlantic Crossing”: accused of falsifying history

– That this is shown around the world is disgraceful. The creators of the series say that the rescue of England during the war was on Norway, and that Roosevelt was directly influenced by Märtha. It must be crazy for an Englishman to see this, one of Norway’s leading royal family history experts, Tor Bomann-Larsen, tells Dagbladet.

In a reader’s post on the NRK Ytring pages, the historian sacrifices much of the premise of NRK’s ​​main series “Atlantic Crossing.” A drama series valued at more than 150 million kronor that has been sold to a large number of countries around the world.

Bomann-Larsen believes that the creators of the series are engaged in falsifying history and writes, among other things:

“The present is struggling with ‘fake news’. The past must resurface as a drama. But this is something more and much more murky. The crown princess who changed the course of the war can only be described as ‘false history.’

Steepest from episode four

It’s episode four, which aired yesterday on NRK, which makes Bomann-Larsen especially react. The creators of the series have given Crown Princess Märtha the credit for a key historical war event, namely the beginning of the introduction in the United States of the famous war law “The Lend-Lease Act”.

In fact, it was a request for help in the form of a letter, from the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Winston Churchill, to the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, that was the beginning of the great flow of material war contributions to England. The enactment of the law saved the British from narrow capitulation.

The United States was neutral at the time (1940), which prevented the sale of ammunition, but the “Lease and Lease Act” was formulated so that the United States government could borrow or lease send munitions to strategically important nations like Great Britain and later the Soviet Union. Therefore, the United States remained neutral, but still made a strong contribution in the fight against Hitler.

– At the height of D-day

Towards the NRK series: – Embarrassing

According to Bomann-Larsen, the creators of “Atlantic Crossing” replace Churchill with Märtha and Great Britain with Norway. In the series, the Crown Princess convinces top US management to help Norway with ammunition. The argument he uses in the series is the same one that Roosevelt actually used when he convinced Congress.

– “The Loan and Leasing Law” is on par with D-Day in the historical sense. The law saved Great Britain and the Soviet Union. When it is then that Märtha convinces Roosevelt, even if it is to save Norway, it is a historical falsification that does not happen. She wasn’t there, she says, and continues:

– Later in the scene, key staff figures argue with the president against Märtha’s plan. The Roosevelt apparatus is thus placed in the opposite role to the one it actually had for our crown princess to have the main role.

In the NRK Ytring article, Bomann-Larsen claims this presentation is so crazy it would be just as bad Make Otto Ruge (not General Eisenhower) the true leader of the Normandy invasion. Or let Kjakan Sønsteby (not Claus von Stauffenberg) plant the bomb at Hitler’s headquarters. “

NRK responds to the carnage

– Non-documentary fiction

The director and creator of the series at the Cinenord production company, Alexander Eik, dismisses the criticism of NRK in today’s Nyhetsmorgen on P2.

– Precisely to indicate to the audience that it is a fiction series and not a documentary, we have chosen the term “inspired by”. I don’t think the audience will have a problem understanding that, says Eik.

He is convinced that Märtha played an important role in Roosevelt’s influence. He refers to an article in an American newspaper in which Eik claims that he says that the crown princess assisted the president with the speech in which Roosevelt introduced “The Lend-Lease Act.”

– It is up to the critics to prove that this did not happen, Eik believes to NRK.

– She was a political agent in the White House for Norwegian interests, he adds.

Bomann-Larsen criticizes the response of the creator of the series.

– Eik says this could have happened. No, history and facts say it couldn’t. That argument is serious. The presentation on “Atlantic Crossing” is fundamentally false. People who see this think it is close to the documentary, the historian tells Dagbladet.