Neutrality duty
The Alta battalion was mobilized 10 October 1939 to help guard Norway's neutrality in the Second World War and positioned in the border areas of eastern Finnmark during the Finnish Winter War to safeguard the northernmost areas of Norway against possible Soviet aggression. At the time the battalion consisted of around 900 soldiers. Guard and patrol duty in the border areas brought the battalion near the brutality of war and served to harden the men of the unit. After seeing the fighting and burning town in Petsamo the soldiers and officers of the Alta Battalion began to view war as a reality and not merely something found in the history books.
The Alta battalion was then demobilized on 15 January 1940. As the battalion deactivated, Lt. Col. Dahl realised that the international situation was still unstable and the unit might be needed again soon. Thus the soldiers were ordered to tag their uniforms and personal equipment before handing them in for storage. This precautionary measure helped the battalion greatly when it was again needed less than three months later.
After the return to Alta a ski company of ninety volunteers was formed and retained for another two months of training. On average the battalion was not considered especially ski-worthy and most of the soldiers had their only skiing experience from the neutrality duty.
The invasion
After the German invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940 the battalion was once more mobilized, the soldiers making their way to Alta by boats or reindeer sleds, then being transported to the front area by the Hurtigruten steamships SS Dronning Maud and Kong Haakon, and the cargo ship Senja. [1] The battalion departed the pier in Alta on 19 April 1940 and arrived at Sjøvegan on 21 April. [2]
During the coming two-month-long campaign in the mountains north and east of Narvik the battalion spearheaded the 6th Division's advance against the German 3rd Mountain Division in the Narvik area. The standard issue weapons of an infantry squad of the battalion during the campaign was one Madsen light machine gun and Krag–Jørgensen rifles.
When the battalion left for the front it consisted of around 830 men, with 112 horses and 100 ski sleds. [3]
Mountain warfare
The unit spent the entire two-month campaign conducting offensive operations against general Eduard Dietl's entrenched troops. The at first lightly armed infantrymen attacked through the extreme mountainous terrain of northern Nordland against far better trained German gebirgsjäger and fallschirmjäger troops; the unit was only occasionally supported by artillery or air power, usually only being backed up by the unit's 18 Colt M/29 heavy machine guns and its few 81 mm mortars. On the German side the Luftwaffe became progressively more active in the campaign as the Germans recruited collaborators who constructed new air bases in the more southerly regions of the country. Especially important for the Luftwaffe's ability to support the German forces on the Narvik Front was the rapid improvement of Værnes air base, giving the German bombers much more time to operate over the northern front lines.
Success on the Narvik front
Nevertheless, by early June 1940, in co-operation with French and Polish land forces, as well the RAF, the Royal Navy and the French and Polish navies, the 6th Division had pushed the German invaders out of the vital port of Narvik and forced them into a small pocket by the Swedish border. In the mountainous inland areas of the front the Alta Battalion was continuously on the attack, suffering many casualties in the process of throwing back the crack German troops. During the last phase of the fighting Luftwaffe bombers steadily increased their attacks against the allied forces, while the Norwegians deployed their few Fokker C.V light bombers and Heinkel He 115 and Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.11 seaplanes in support of the offensive. The elderly Fokker biplanes proved themselves to be surprisingly effective at low level bombing of German positions. The RAF provided a certain extent of fighter cover with the Gloster Gladiators of No. 263 Squadron RAF and the Hawker Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron RAF, although these were too few to continuously patrol the entire front line.
Use of captured weaponry
In the last weeks of the fighting the battalion was combat-hardened, and well-equipped because of the large amounts of German equipment captured by the advancing fishermen-farmers and reindeer herders of the Alta Battalion. For the first time ever Norwegian infantry advanced utilizing weapons such as submachine guns and hand grenades. During the last weeks of the campaign the battalion's mortars had been worn out by the constant use, with the base plates often being in need of replacement, hence the capture of German 50 mm and 81 mm mortars was very welcome. A number of German mountain guns that had been air dropped by the Luftwaffe to the besieged 3rd Mountain Division were also seized by the battalion and sent back to Alta. In Alta gunners began training with the captured pieces, the intention being deploying them on the front at the earliest opportunity.
The Training Battalion
While the Alta Battalion was fighting Dietl's men at the front a training battalion of three companies was formed at Altagård and Banak back in Finnmark. In addition Alta Battalion also formed smaller local forces in western Finnmark, including an air warning unit of fifteen men in Kårhamn. Although the training battalion was supposed to provide replacements and reinforcements for the active battalion the fighting ended before it could see any action.
Foreign volunteers
During the fighting a small number of trained foreigners joined the battalion, amongst these were nine Estonians that joined up on 19 May.
Allied evacuation of Norway
As the Alta Battalion and the other formations of the 6th Division prepared for one last push against the beleaguered Germans and Austrians of the 3rd Mountain Division, the Third Reich unleashed Fall Gelb and invaded France and the Low Countries. The German 10 May invasion, and the disastrous consequences of this operation for the Allies, led to the land, sea and air forces committed to the Norwegian Campaign being suddenly withdrawn, with notice given the Norwegian authorities only days before the evacuation.
Demobilization
Without the support of the RAF and the Royal Navy the Norwegian government lost all hope of prevailing against the Germans, and fled the country with the evacuating Allies. The last order of the evacuating government to the Norwegian units opposing the Nazis was: Demobilise.
End position of German forces on the Narvik front
After the conclusion of the campaign Eduard Dietl commented that at the time of the Norwegian capitulation his forces would have been able to hold out for only another 24 to 48 hours, after which they would have had to abandon the entire Narvik front and cross into Sweden.
As the still undefeated units of the 6th Division, amongst them the Alta Battalion, marched down from the snow-covered hills on 9 June 1940 many of the soldiers cried tears of bitterness and disappointment that victory had been snatched from them. At 0000hrs 10 June 1940 the ceasefire came into effect. During the early hours of the 10th the soldiers of the battalion marched to Grovfjord, under intermittent air attacks, from where they embarked fishing boats for the journey back to Altagård.
At the capitulation the battalion's archives were removed from Altagård and shipped into exile, initially to the Faroe Islands. [4]
The Norwegian Army is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway in 1628. The Army participated in various continental wars during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries as well, both in Norway and abroad, especially in World War II (1939–1945). It constitutes part of the Norwegian military contribution as a charter member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 1949.
The 6th Division is a former Norwegian military formation.
The Battles of Narvik were fought from 9 April to 8 June 1940, as a naval battle in Ofotfjord and as a land battle in the mountains surrounding the north Norwegian town of Narvik, as part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War.
Mountain Corps Norway was a German army unit during World War II. It saw action in Norway and Finland.
The German operation for the invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 was code-named Weserübung, or "Weser Exercise." Opposing the invasion were the partially mobilized Norwegian military, and an allied expeditionary force composed of British, French, and Free Polish formations. The following list formed the order of battle for this campaign.
The Norwegian campaign involved the attempt by Allied forces to defend northern Norway coupled with the resistance of the Norwegian military to the country's invasion by Nazi Germany in World War II.
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the capitulation of German forces in Europe on 8 May 1945. Throughout this period, a pro-German government named Den nasjonale regjering ruled Norway, while the Norwegian king Haakon VII and the prewar government escaped to London, where they formed a government in exile. Civil rule was effectively assumed by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, which acted in collaboration with the pro-German puppet government. This period of military occupation is, in Norway, referred to as the "war years", "occupation period" or simply "the war".
Carl Gustav Fleischer was a Norwegian general and the first land commander to win a major victory against the Germans in the Second World War. Having followed the Norwegian government into exile at the end of the Norwegian Campaign, Fleischer committed suicide after being bypassed for appointment as commander-in-chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces in exile and being sent to the insignificant post as commander of Norwegian forces in Canada.
Arne Dagfin Dahl was a Norwegian military officer most renowned as the commander of the Alta Battalion during the fighting at Narvik in Northern Norway in 1940.
The Battle of Gratangen occurred during the first Norwegian counter-attack in the Narvik Campaign. The Norwegian 6th Division gathered forces to push the Germans out of Gratangen Municipality and back towards the town of Narvik. The first attack failed disastrously when the Germans counter-attacked unprepared Norwegian forces, routing a battalion and blunting the first Norwegian advance.
Hans Julius Gabrielsen was a Norwegian jurist and politician for the Liberal Party. He is best known as County Governor of Finnmark and County Governor of Oppland, as well as Consultative Councillor of State for Finnmark Affairs in 1945.
The Norwegian armed forces in exile were remnants of the armed forces of Norway that continued to fight the Axis powers from Allied countries, such as Britain and Canada, after they had escaped the German conquest of Norway during World War II.
The Dornier Do 26 was an all-metal gull-winged flying boat produced before and during World War II by Dornier Flugzeugwerke of Germany. It was operated by a crew of four and was intended, in civilian service, to carry a payload of 500 kg (1,100 lb) or four passengers on the Lisbon to New York route. In military service it carried as many as eighteen passengers.
SS Dronning Maud was a 1,489 ton steel-hulled steamship built in 1925 by the Norwegian shipyard Fredrikstad Mekaniske Verksted in Fredrikstad. Dronning Maud was ordered by the Trondheim-based company Det Nordenfjeldske Dampskipsselskap for the passenger and freight service Hurtigruten along the coast of Norway. She served this route as the company flagship until she was sunk under controversial circumstances during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign.
Skorpa prisoner of war camp was a facility built by the Norwegian 6th Division to hold German prisoners of war during the 1940 Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War. It was located on the island of Skorpa in Kvænangen Municipality in Troms county, Norway. Skorpa was the main PoW camp in Northern Norway and held around 500 civilian and military prisoners when it was shut down at the end of the Norwegian Campaign.
Operation Weserübung was the invasion of Denmark and Norway by Nazi Germany during World War II. It was the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign.
Kristian Rikardsen Løken was a highly decorated Norwegian military officer who served in the Belgian Force Publique from 1907 to 1917, fighting German colonial forces in East Africa from 1914 to 1917, and went on to command a Norwegian Army infantry brigade during the 1940 Norwegian campaign of the Second World War.
Altenhus Fortress was a fortification built on the island of Årøya in Finnmark county in Norway in 1610. The area is part of the present-day Alta Municipality.
The Actions in Nordland were part of the 1940 Norwegian Campaign of World War II. They were a subsidiary part of the Allied attempt to recapture Narvik.
The Liberation of Finnmark was an Allied military operation lasting from 23 October 1944 until 26 April 1945, in which Soviet and Norwegian forces wrested away control of Finnmark, the northernmost county of Norway, from Germany. It began with a Soviet offensive that liberated Kirkenes.
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