William Steffens (5 November 1880 – 1964) was a Norwegian military officer, born in Christiania. He was Major General and commander of the Norwegian 4th Division from 1935. During the Norwegian Campaign in 1940 he was Head of the Armed Forces in

Western Norway Western Norway ( nb, Vestlandet, Vest-Norge; nn, Vest-Noreg) is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrativ ...

. He was a delegate in Canada for the Norwegian government-in-exile in London from 1940 to 1941, and was military attaché in the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945.

Biography

Steffens became an officer in 1901. Four years later he was in the General Staff, after attending a military college. From 1925 to 1927 he was military attaché in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He sat as a military expert on the committee that prepared disarmament in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

in 1930. In 1931, he became commander of Møre Infantry Regiment no. 11 (IR 11) at Molde. In 1932 and 1933, he was back in Geneva as a military expert, this time in the main negotiations on disarmament. In 1935, he became major general and commander of the 4th Division . At the same time, he became commander of Bergenhus fortress.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steffens, William 1880 births 1964 deaths Military personnel from Oslo Norwegian Army World War II generals Norwegian expatriates in Canada Norwegian expatriates in the Soviet Union Norwegian military attachés