Fg Off. Ernst Schalburg

Ernst Schalburg was a Danish business owner in London at the outbreak of war. He volunteered for the RAF in 1941. From March 1944 he headed the Recruiting Office, Danish Nationals in London. Schalburg’s nephew was one of the most well-known Danes in the Waffen-SS and his niece arrested as a German spy. Two sons and a daughter served in the Allied forces.

Ernst Schalburg was born on 25 February 1888 in Nyborg, Denmark, the son of Christian Frederik Schalburg and Augusta Schalburg (née Jørgensen).^[1]

After completing his education in Denmark, he went to Siberia. He trained in the dairy business and controlled the production of milk and butter from four villages in the area. He then worked as an interpreter at a danish salt factory before taking on a position as clerk in an import/export business. Schalburg returned to Denmark in 1910. He secured some agricultural agencies in England and, in 1911, he moved to the United Kingdom; Birmingham in 1911 and later London setting up the company Schalburg & Co., Ltd. in London.^[2]

In 1912 he married Beatrice Ridgway in the parish of Kings Norton (Birmingham). They had a son, Conrad, and a daughter, Annette Augusta Schalburg, but divorced in 1921. Beatrice Schalburg married professor Albert Edward Prince of Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, in 1924, and she moved to Canada with the children. Schalburg married Marion Glover Watson in 1922. They had three children: Charles Peter Ernesto, Donald David Ian and Marion Augusta Schalburg. Annette A. Schalburg was commissioned as Section Officer in the RCAF, Women's Division, Charles Peter Ernesto Schalburg was commissioned as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, and Donald David Ian Schalburg was commissioned as Lieutenant in the Devonshire Regiment.

Family ties raises suspicion

In the history of Denmark during the Second World War, the family name Schalburg is synonymous with Nazism. Ernst Schalburg was the uncle of SS-Sturmbannführer Christian Frederik von Schalburg—one of the most well-known Danes in the Waffen-SS—who was killed on the Eastern Front on 2 June 1942. The nephew was the only Danish Nazi around whom an actual cult arose. The SS-Schalburgkorps—a corps of Danes in German service established in 1943—was named in his honour. They were among other things responsible for a series of contra sabotage attacks in 1943-45, which is remembered as Schalburgtage (an analogy from sabotage).^[3] Furthermore, Ernst Schalburg’s niece Vera Schalburg was arrested as a German spy in September 1940 as she arrived in a rubber dinghy at the Scottish coast.^[4]

Because of the family relations, Schalburg—and his children—were vetted by the British intelligence services from 1941 and into the early 1950s. They suspected Schalburg for having had German sympathies before the war, but they were not able to provide a thread of evidence.^[5]

In Royal Air Force service

On the contrary, Ernst Schalburg was eager to enter military service. On 22 August 1941, he applied for service in the RAF Marine Craft Section. The documents shows that he applied to a Sqn Ldr Rudd. Sqn Ldr Harry Leslie Rudd (77479) was a retired Lieutenant in the Royal Navy Reserve, who was commissioned in the Royal Air Force at the beginning of the war. He became the first director of the RAF Marine Branch in 1947 and was promoted to Grp Cdr. Schalburg seems to have been found suitable for a commission in the Marine Craft Section by the interviewing board.

On 7 January 1942, he reported to RAF Station Calshot.^[6] His exact activities here are not known. In his application, Schalburg explained that

In Denmark, I sailed as a boy, and I have now lived in England over 20 years and have owned a number of smaller and bigger ships - from 9 foot dinghies to a 46 ton schooner. For five years I had a 14 footer on the Sussex beach and we crossed to France in same.^[7]

RAF Calshot near Southampton had been a Marine Craft Section station since the creation of this service, and from mid-1941 the air sea rescue (ASR) operations of the RAF were greatly expanded.^[8]

RAF Station Benson

He also applied for service in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch. He wanted to work in intelligence, but this was turned down with reference to the fact that he was not British national. On 24 November, he was commissioned as Pilot Officer (115513, RAFVR) in the Administrative and Special Duties Branch. He was later promoted to Flying Officer.

In August 1943, he is known to have been stationed at RAF Station Benson.^[9] In a post-war interview he mentioned that he had served as Commanding Adjudant at a Aircraft Despatch Unit. This could be 309 Ferry Training Unit and Aircraft Despatch Unit established at Benson in April 1943.

Rectruitment Officer

Schalburg was part of the Danish community in London and the Danish Council of Free Danes. In early 1944 they were looking for an officer to replace Major Eyvind Knauer as the officer in charge of the Recruiting Office, Danish Nationals. The Air Ministry was asked for permission for Schalburg to enter into the position from 1 March 1944. However, once again Schalburg’s name was a disadvantage. Emil Blytgen-Petersen, who headed the Danish Council’s Information Office, “pointed out a number of propaganda challenges in having a man with this name as head of the Danish Council's recruitment office,” and therefore, “it was agreed that the chairman - in his capacity as chairman of the military committee - could for the time being head the recruitment office in his own name.”^[10]

At the next meeting, on 15 March 1944, there had been no conclusion from the Air Ministry. It was decided that, if the Air Ministry did not allow Schalburg to take up the position, steps would be taken to appoint a Danish officer in exile in Sweden.^[11] Schalburg seems to have been granted the permission. From 28 March 1944 onwards he represents the office at the committee meetings,, and on 7 June 1944 he delivers a report on the activities of the office for the past two months.^[12] Schalburg remained in the position until the end of the war. On 29 August 1945 the activities of the recruiting office were transferred to the Danish Military Attaché in London.^[13]

In August 1945, the Danish and British governments concluded an agreement allowing for Danish nationals to be able to join the British Army. A Danish-British Recruiting Office was set up in Copenhagen in September 1945 under the authority of Col. Christian Lunn. Schalburg participated in the negotiations of the final details of the agreement and attached to the office, which was operational for fourteenth months. A total of 2,500 Danes joined the British forces in 1945-1948.^[14]

Endnotes

[1] DNA: Parish register, Nyborg sogn.

[2] NA: KV 2/1307.

[3] Brandt, Ulrik: Christian Frederik von Schalburg in Den Store Danske at lex.dk,, https://denstoredanske.lex.dk/Christian_Frederik_von_Schalburg (accessed on 6 April 2023).

[4] KV 2/14-16.

[5] NA: KV 2/1307.

[6] NA: KV 2/1307.

[7] NA: KV 2/1307.

[8] Sutherland, J., & Canwell, D. (2005). The RAF Air Sea Rescue service 1918-1986.

[9] NA: KV 2/1307.

[10] DNA: 10194, 0180-037 - Det danske Råd i London, 002, Arbejdsudvalgets forhandlingsprotokol, Minutes of the 155th meeting of the working committee on 29 February 1944.

[11] DNA: 10194, 0180-037 - Det danske Råd i London, 002, Arbejdsudvalgets forhandlingsprotokol, Minutes of the 156th meeting of the working committee on 15 March 1944.

[12] DNA: 10194, 0180-037 - Det danske Råd i London, 002, Arbejdsudvalgets forhandlingsprotokol, Minutes of the 163rd meeting of the working committee on 7 June 1944.

[13] DNA: 10194, 0180-037 - Det danske Råd i London, 002, Arbejdsudvalgets forhandlingsprotokol, Minutes of the 189th meeting of the working committee on 29 August 1945.

[14] Lorenzen and Lønborg, De frivilliges sociale profil. In: Jakobsen and Mariager (red.) (2006). Hvor som helst i det Britiske Verdensrige: danske frivillige i britisk tjeneste 1945-48.