1.Kirkenes, Lakselv, Alta	2.Murmansk, Litsa, Pechenga
3.Kandalaksha, Apatity, Alakurtti	4.Rovaniemi, Salla, Ivalo
5.Boden, Luleå	6.Porjus, Sepal bases
7.Harstad, Narvik, Steigen	8.Bodø
9.Svalbard (further north)	10.Lien

More places than those shown on the map are described below. This map only gives a rough idea of the location of the mentioned towns and places. You will have to use a proper map for planning your trips.You may see all the photos of WWII sites in the Arctic at one glance on this page.

Ivalo
At least some years ago there was a wreck of a German Ju 88 bomber in the area. Check out the pictures of it on the Aeroplane Crash Sites of Lapland homepage.

Järämä
Sections of the Sturmbockstellung, i.e. position for the German 7th mountain division, have been conserved in their original state and other sections have been restored. The "Järämä WWII Fortification Camp" position/museum was opened in 1997. The museum is open to the public from June until the end of September and features mainly German equipment. A documentary with German newsreels of the area (incl. Hotchkiss tanks and soldiers of the "Nord" division) is shown on request. You can see the position itself also when the museum is closed - but then the restored shelters are mostly closed. It is possible to get a guided tour of the position. Järämä lies right by the border, close to the Swedish village of Karesuando, on the road to Norway.

Kaamanen
There are some remains of a Luftwaffe airfield outside this village. The author has not visited Kaamanen yet but has seen photos of the former airfield in the FORUM and it seems worth visiting. Not very far from Kaamanen there is also a memorial to the war in Lapland 1944-1945 consisting of armour plate that has been pierced by AP-rounds. The memorial is along the main road from Kaamanen to Norway. Exact location unknown but the author saw it swishing by when on a bus from Norway to Ivalo.

Kilpisjärvi
This small village in the northwestern corner of Finland is the place to park your vehicle for tours to the Sepal I base in Sweden. The Sturmbockstellung website informs about several WWI and WWII memorials that can be reached from Kilpisjärvi. Some remains of a Ju 88 can be reached by walking/skiing from the Shell gas station just north of the village. The plane is even marked on the local tourist map as the "lentokone", i.e. aircraft wreck. Read more about this wreck on the Aeroplane Crash Sites of Lapland homepage.

Kittilä
At least some years ago there was a wreck of a German Ju 52 transport aircraft in this area. Check out the pictures of it on the Aeroplane Crash Sites of Lapland homepage.

Rovaniemi
In the Arcticum museum and information centre there is a permanent section about Finnish Lapland during WWII incl. a large model showing what Rovaniemi looked like in 1944.

Saariselkä
Some kilometres south of this village there is a preserved stretch of the old Arctic Ocean Road running parallel with the modern road. This is called a museum road, in Finnish "museontie" (as the signs read). On the "museontie" you will find the "Magnet Slope" where there is a monument to the drivers of the so-called "Petsamo-Traffic" between Petsamo and Sweden. A few kilometres south of Saariselkä along the modern road by Laanila there is also a monument to the memory of the victims of a partisan raid against a civilian bus including a memorial to the killed, a map and multi-lingual text.

Salla (formerly Märkäjärvi)
Today´s Salla was called Märkäjärvi before and during WWII. After Salla was finally lost to the Soviet Union in 1944 it was decided to change Märkäjärvi´s name to Salla. There are numerous memorials re. WWII around the town. The Salla Tourist Centre sells a relevant book in English/Finnish/Russian: War Memorials in Eastern Lapland and Towards Kantalahti, or in Finnish Sotamuistomerkit Itä-Lapissa ja Kantalahden alueella.

Tennilä
At least in 1998 there were small remains of a Soviet SB-2 by this village, lying some 40 km southeast of Rovaniemi. The plane was shot down by German fighter planes already on the 25 of June 1941, the first day of the Continuation War. This is how to get to the site. The coordinates are 66.25N and 26.26E. First find the Tennilä village on the northern bank of the Kemijoki river. Then aim for the Karhuvaara mountain southern slope. Take the northern forestroad about 2.8 km, then the left hand road and use this road until you see a little pond. The crash site is about 200 m north of the pond. The pond is so small that it hardly shows up on any maps. What remains of the plane is burnt and no big parts are left.

Tornio
At least some years ago there was a wreck of a German Ju 88 bomber in the area. Check out the pictures of it on the Aeroplane Crash Sites of Lapland homepage.

Alakurtti
There are two WWII AFVs on permanent open-air display in this formerly Finnish and now Russian town: a T-27 tankette and a T-34 tank.

Apatity
There are several aircraft wrecks around this city. The wreck which is the easiest to visit is the Heinkel 111 some ten kilometres north of the city in the Chibiny mountains. More information about this wreck can be found in our aircraft section and in After the Battle, issue 99.

Kandalaksha
There is a well-preserved T-34 in the main town square of Kandalaksha. In the town museum, some 100 metres from the square, there is a small section on WWII incl. battlefield findings. A local school, Elementary School No. 9, has a small museum on the Soviet 19th Army during WWII.

Kirovsk
In the local history museum there is a small section on WWII. This museum is not in the actual town of Kirovsk but in the suburb called "25th kilometer" (sic!) some 10 km north of Kirovsk.

Kovdor
There is a partisan base memorial on the road about midway between Kovdor and the M 18 highway. In the town museum there is a small section conc. WWII. Some 10 km northwest of the town there lies the wreck of a A 20 Boston that crashed on the 8th of May 1945. The aircraft belonged to the Northern Fleet. Today only the original USAAF insignia remain.

Kuolajärvi (formerly Finnish Salla)
This town was formerly known as Salla but was renamed after having been captured by the Red Army. Today it is part of Kandalaksha municipality, just like Alakurtti. On the other side of the border lies todays Salla, formerly Märkäjärvi. In Kuolajärvi there are several ruins of Finnish homes. In the cellars there are still some remains of the fighting that went on in the area during 1939-1944. There is a large German cemetery just beside the town - now somewhat refurbished.

Lapland nature reserve
This large chunk of Monchegorsk municipality is reached by travelling some kilometres south of the M 18 - Apatity road intersection. A Ju 88 wreck, portrayed in After the Battle 99 used to be here but is now on display in Moscow. However, there may still be a crashed Soviet DB bomber here. The park can only be visited with several month´s notice and by paying for a guide. The responsible organization is the Lapland nature reserve, which has its headquarters in Monchegorsk.

Litsa (river)
Here, some kilometres east of the Zapadnaya Litsa river mouth, the Germans were stopped in 1941. Henceforth the area was fortified on both sides until the great Soviet offensive of October 1944. The hills and fields around the mouth of the Zapadnaya Litsa (or simply Litsa) are still full of traces of fighting. The Germans made great efforts to build a modern and even comfortable system of strong points, trenches and barriers on the inhospitable tundra. Bunkers, trenches and even some anti-tank guns are still there. On the ground there is shrapnel, unexploded mortar rounds, soldier´s boots with the feet still inside and the most common trace of all: tins stamped "Norvege" (Norway in French). Norwegian canned fish seems to have been the main course among Dietl´s troops.
Some four kilometres east of the Litsa bridge, on the A-138 road, a Josef Stalin 2 (IS-2) heavy tank stands beside a memorial commemorating the Soviet heroes of the Valley of Glory, known as the Valley of Death during the war. Some 100 metres to the east of the tank lies a graveyard that is continually growing in size. Every summer around fifty Soviet soldiers are recovered by the half dozen search groups that work on the battlefields with the permission of the Murmansk county administration. Thus each "search season" ends with a burial of soldiers missing in action. According to the searchers there are so many men still out there on the battlefield that they will be working for several decades more until all have been found and buried. Very rarely German soldiers are found. When found they are buried in the German war cemetery outside Pechenga.
More photos of the Litsa area can be found in the photo album!
Please note that you should not even try to visit the battlefields on your own. There is plenty of still lethal unexploded ammunition, both from World War II and the Cold War. Many parts of the battlefields are also prohibited to foreigners. If you should wish to visit these areas you should therefore travel with either a certified tourist firm or one of the certified search groups. If you try to visit these areas on your own you risk injury, death, or being arrested. And don´t say we didn´t warn you.

Monchegorsk
In the museum of local lore (southern part of town) there is a small section on crashed WWII aircraft. On the far northern end of the prospekt Metallurgov (main street) there is an impressive WWII memorial depicting Soviet infantry.

Murmansk
The main symbol of Murmansk is the huge "Alyosha" concrete soldier that perpetually stands guard over the city. The Museum of the Red Banner Northern Fleet on ulitsa Tortseva 15 (northern outskirts) has a large collection of World War II displays incl. land warfare, i.e. the use of naval infantry and naval scouts. The museum of local lore, situated on prospekt Lenina 90, also has a section on WWII. There are several statues and memorials all over the town commemorating the Great Patriotic War (WWII). Visit e.g. the Arctic convoy memorial in the park just northwest of the Arktika hotel. The previous Arktika hotel would have been the site of the German victory celebrations, according to local tradition. The Soviet 14th army has a small museum in Elementary School No. 43 on ulitsa Knipovicha. Contact tel: 54 03 97

Nikel (formerly Finnish Kolosjoki in the Petsamo district)
The local lore museum has some interesting WWII equipment on display.

Pechenga (formerly Finnish Parkkina in the Petsamo district)
There is a T-34 tank memorial on the sourthern outskirts and northwest of the town some 12 000 German (mainly Austrian) soldiers lie in the war cemetery called "Gebirgsjaegerdenkmal" that was refurbished in the 1990´s mainly by Austrian veterans. There is a large German cross and Edelweiss in the centre of the cemetery.

Polyarny
This small town opposite and northwest of Murmansk has one of the best, albeit small, WWII museums in the Murmansk region, if you are interested of Soviet special forces and battlefield relics. It is housed in the the Polyarny Youth Sports School named in memory of twice hero of the Soviet Union Viktor Nikolaevich Leonov, commander of the 181st ORO (naval spetsnaz) unit within the Northern Fleet. The museum mainly contains a large collection of Leonov memorabilia but also various German and Soviet weapons and odd bits and pieces found on the tundra. Unfortunately Polyarny is a closed military base and you may only visit the town after having obtained special permission from the Russian military. If you are interested there are no short-cuts: you will have to deal yourself with your local Russian embassy who will direct you further, hopefully.

Safonovo/Severomorsk
The municipality of Severomorsk is still off-limits unless you apply for entry months in advance. And still you can´t be sure of being granted permission to enter. It has two major WWII attractions: the aircraft collection in the village of Safonovo, with many WWII Soviet, German, British aircraft and even some twenty tanks including at least one US M4 Sherman; and the K-21 memorial submarine, famous for its WWII exploits. Safonovo village lies inbetween Murmansk and the city of Severomorsk.