Is ‘War Sailor’ on Netflix Based On a True Story?

The new Norwegian series War Sailor, which is currently in Netflix’s Top 10, is a grim drama about what war can do to a person, both during and after battle. In the three-part series, Alfred “Freddy” Garnes (Kristoffer Joner) and his friend Sigbjørn “Wally” Kvalvåg (Pål Sverre Hagen) take jobs on a merchant ship sailing out of Norway mere months before Germany invades their country.

Things are difficult for Freddy, who leaves behind a wife Cecilia and three children, including a toddler son, and what was meant to be an 18-month stint at sea turns into several years away from his hometown of Bergen, and the ships carrying the men face relentless attacks from the Nazis. In 1944, Bergen is bombed and Freddy mistakenly believes that his entire family is killed in the attack on his city. At the same time, Freddy and Wally’s ship is torpedoed and his family believes him to be dead. Freddy, believing he has nothing left to live for, goes AWOL, moving to Singapore and becoming a drug addict, only for Sigbjørn to track him down and return him to his family. Freddy is no longer the same person that he once was, and he finds that the return to his family is difficult. He fails to reconnect with his once-loving wife, and his children, especially his youngest son Olav, have grown up without him and he struggles to be a part of their lives.

The show delicately depicts the nuances and psychological struggles of what we would now call PTSD, but it also highlights a segment of the population that included men, women, and even children, who were essentially conscripted into doing wartime jobs at sea without actually being soldiers.

Is War Sailor on Netflix Based On a True Story?

Sigbjørn and Freddy are not real people, but the basic premise of War Sailor is indeed based in true events. Norway was occupied by Germany in the spring of 1940, and the area in and around Bergen was bombed multiple times. At the time that much of the North Atlantic was under siege by Germany, the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (also known as Nortraship) was established and it provided more than 1,000 ships that were manned by merchant sailors rather than military personnel, to aid the allies. Many of these sailors were untrained and thrust into battle, realizing the danger they faced but unable to escape the fighting.

The show’s epilogue states that “30,000 Norwegians sailed for the allies in the Norwegian merchant fleet. Among them were 4,000 children and more than 100 women. Half of the Norwegian merchant ships were lost. One out of nine seamen died. Many more were hurt and traumatised. During the bombing of Laksevag October 4, 1944, 193 civilians were killed. 61 of them were children at Holen School.”

Though Norway was technically neutral during World War II, a quote from Sir Philip Noel-Baker, the recipient of the 1959 Nobel Peace Prize, reads, “Without the Norwegian merchant fleet, England and the allies would have lost.” War Soldier may not have been the true story of two real men, but it does honor the real-life events and importance of the sailors they were inspired by.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.