The aim of this tour was mainly to explore the final positions of the German armed forces in Arctic Europe, but on the way we also managed to visit a Soviet partisan base and a British Lancaster. Yours truly was accompanied by two British friends: Nigel Hirst and Simon Orchard.

Day one Nigel Hirst and I drove from Swedish Rosvik to Järämä in northwestern Finland. Here the German 20th Mountain Army created the Sturmbockstellung (which translates into the Ram Position) blocking all access to the only mountain pass and road to Norway. Construction was initiated in August 1944, thus a month before Finland turned against Germany. The work was directed by army pioneers and Organisation Todt engineers and the labor force to a high degree consisted of Soviet prisoners of war. All in all some 3 000 men took part in the construction, so you can imagine the size of the position.

Some of the shelters of the Sturmbockstellung have been restored and are as good as new. This is a typical sleeping shelter. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

The first large German formation to occupy the Sturmbockstellung was the 7th mountain division, hardened veterans of the Karelian forest fighting, consisting of almost 12 000 men. The pursuing Finnish troops consisted merely of two reinforced battalions of green conscripts, as the wartime Finnish army had been disbanded according to Soviet directives. The Finnish battalions halted in front of the Sturmbockstellung, by the village of Markkina and from there only sent out patrols towards the Germans. These became involved in skirmishes with the Germans, but no true attacks were directed against or from the German positions.

Altogether the Sturmbockstellung today has 1209 metres of restored trenches. Several firing points have been renovated, including two for rocket launchers and one for an anti-tank gun (a German 75 mm PaK is in place). Three look-out points and fire-command points have been completely re-built. There are five renovated shelters: two sheet-metal shelters and three different types of wooden shelters. The idea was to reconstruct only one of each of the types featured in this area. An additional eleven dug-outs have been left in their original state, so they can be compared with the restored ones.

A small but good museum with a large parking place lies at the start of the fortifications. It shows many objects used in the area, wartime photographs and an interesting documentary on video with e.g. footage of the 6th SS mountain division "Nord" when it passed through this area.

For the restoration work, help was sought from archaeologists, and information obtained from German military archives and veterans was also used.

The command shelter of the Sturmbockstellung. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

In the first days of 1945 the Germans withdrew from their Sturmbockstellung by Järämä and concentrated on the direct defence of the easternmost fjord in their posession, the Lyngenfjord. This fjord was sufficiently protected by holding the Lyngen (in Norway) and Kilpisjärvi (in Finland) positions.

The German army left Finnish soil for good only when they left the Kilpisjärvi positions in April 1945. In Kilpisjärvi , right by the main road (E8), we had a look at an armour plate pierced by some AP-rounds with text commemorating the last Finnish-German exchange of fire, the 27th of April 1945. It took place close to this site. Beside this memorial stands another one, but from the First World War. It was here that four Finnish rangers blew up a Russian arms depot. The depot included British weapons, transported from England via Norwegian Skibotn. The arms were on their way to reinforce the tsarist troops against the Kaiser´s army (a parallel to the lend-lease traffic of WWII). This event took place between 6-7 June 1916.

These contraptions were used for launching German rocket artillery and presumably are lying right where they were used, just some 400 metres from a major road. From left: Nigel Hirst and Simon Orchard. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

We proceeded across the border into Norway where we soon were waved off the E8 by…no, not the Norwegian police but by our friend Simon Orchard and set up our tent by his. Before dinner he showed us a spectacular find from his previous hike in the area - a metal hatch, presumably from a German infantry cart, with the yellow edelweiss insignia of the German 6th mountain division. It was mainly this division that held the line we were now exploring, in some books referred to as the Kitdalen position and in others as the Lyngen line or position. I prefer the term Lyngen line. At this point in WWII, i.e. during the last winter of the war, the 6th mountain division was one of Germany´s strongest and Hitler referred to it as one of his best. It was certainly one of the most complete divisions at this time, with some 14,500 men, mostly Austrians.

It must be one of the most remarkable finds ever made in Kitdalen: a hatch that still bears the yellow edelweiss insignia of the 6th German mountain division. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

Next day we climbed Kitdalen, a valley leading from (or to) the mighty Lyngenfjord. The weather was as good as it gets in this part of the world, almost Mediterranean, but we soon saw and walked upon snow.

Having retreated out of the Soviet Union and Finland since the 7th of October 1944, the main part of the 6th mountain division reached Skibotn by the Lyngenfjord shortly before Christmas. Advance parties of the division were already at work building the Lyngen line. Now the whole division was put to work on the line. Large numbers of Soviet prisoners of war were transferred to the area, e.g. from the Målselv area. They were to work all winter at an altitude of 800-1,200 metres, establishing the shelters of the line.

The German shelters in Kitdalen are in rather bad shape but they still tell many stories… Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

Along the route we took up into the valley we found the remains of a German cableway that surely transported some of the equipment we later came to see. Above 800 metres we started seeing them: German shelters built around wooden arches, some reinforced with sheet-metal. The first shelter we found even bore a sign with the name of the hut. The faint writing seemed to say "Lars bu", i.e. "Lars´ hut"! Less remained of the round "wooden tents" that also were used here. Still, it was in these former "tents" that we found most small objects such as "Esbit" and primus (gas) stoves, ink-pots, small-arms ammunition and, most astonishingly, pieces of Zeltbahns (camouflage coats) and paper with German writing on them and a while later novels, books on ethics and Christianity and books with tips for those about to marry...

The books had had minimal cover and were soggy wet but it was quite possible to read a sentence here and there. Most were part of a special line of books for soldiers. We were most surprised that books lying only beneath some planks (remains of their packing cases we believe) can survive for so long. Here follow some excerpts from two of the German novels we found, courtesy of Nigel Hirst and translated by yours truly.

From Wilhelm Beerrekamp´s book The Seamen in the Yaqui Valley:

- So, you have run away from your ship? You are a fine bunch. What can you do then?

- Isn´t that what you all say? And many pages later: When the agrarian reform failed (...) they became easy prey for marxist ideology.

From Carl von Bremen´s book The Shippers´ Craddle:

Only now had he really returned home and was accepted by the villagers! From then on he shared the struggle-filled existence with his companions and they counted him as one of theirs, not without pride. The Fischland-wife Trien however, gave Peter Hunke yet six more healthy children who all got to lie in the old black craddle of great-grandmother Jörk. Three sons became sailors in the naval town of Rostock, the two daughters got married in the church-towns of Wiek and Althagen. But Peter Hunke´s youngest son, Christian Hunke, inherited the(...).

We found that items of potential enemy use, like a jerry can, had been shot at. Only in the most forward (towards Sweden) positions did we find larger number of spent Mauser cartridges. One can perhaps relate this to the patrols sent out from the Swedish side of the border. These groups consisted of Norwegian SOE-trained rangers and Milorg resistance members directed by the combined US & UK Special Force Headquarters (SFHQ), financed and equipped by the OSS. Their closest base, Sepal base nr. 1 "Mons" was the cabin in Swedish Pältsa. It is known that these Norwegian soldiers on more than one occasion were involved in fire-fights with the Germans of the Lyngen line and that they also blew up at least one German depot in the area. Another, less dramatic, explanation re. the cartridges would be that the Germans in this area chose to expend all remaining ammunition at war´s end instead of carrying it back down to the bottom of the valley. The final find was a German bayonet scabbard complete with leather "frog", just lying in the open.

From the literature on the area it seems as if few mines were planted in front of the Lyngen line, due to the winter season. But we saw plenty of unused rolls of German barbed wire that presumably would have been used in conjunction with the laying of mines in the summer of 1945.

It seems as if the German army went to great lengths (note the bullet holes) to make sure that they left nothing useful behind them. Simon is holding a jerry can dated 1938. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

After two superb days and one night in the fjells (Norwegian mountains) Nigel and I drove on towards Varanger while Simon stayed on with his trusty dog and explored some more, finding among other things a Kettenkrad track link, pretty hard evidence that these half-track motorcycles were used here too.

The next stop for Nigel and me was Berlevåg on the Varanger Peninsula. The fastest route to get there leads back into Finland! We got around to sleeping only shortly after we again had entered Norway, not far from the Sami town of Kautokeino. The following day the landscape changed several times on the long, long way: from mountains to forests, to bogs and then finally to pure tundra with some breath-taking geological formations by the coast of the Barents Sea. In Berlevåg we visited the small port museum that has a few photos and objects regarding the German and Soviet presence in the area. Just before leaving we were given a baffling tip - an elderly gentleman nearby might still have a German ex-Polish tank in his yard... We immediately found it. The superstructure and many other parts are missing, but the Polish manufacturer´s plate has been left in place, clearly identifying it as a TKS. These quite typical 1930´s tankettes were used by the Germans in Finnish Lappland and Arctic Norway for defending convoys against Soviet partisans. They may also have been used by the Luftwaffe to protect airfields. Berlevåg had a German airfield, we learnt in the port museum.

This German, originally Polish, TKS tankette (light tank) on the Varanger Peninsula is owned by a gentleman who once figured he would convert it to something useful, but he never got around to it. The manufacturer´s plate is still in place. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

Driving back towards the mainland we searched for and also found a few remains of a Soviet coast-watching (espionage) base from 1943. The base was manned by Norwegians in Soviet service, referred to as partisans in Norway. According to Soviet sources much valuable intelligence about transports to the German forces in Kirkenes was gained through the signals from this station. Consequently some German ships could be sunk. The consequences for the Norwegians involved were also significant when this station was located by the Germans. Eleven Norwegians were executed on the 18th of August 1943 and over twenty more were arrested, many of them being sent off to concentration camps. The batteries from the Soviet radio transmitter are now in the Berlevåg port museum.

The chap in the blue cap is holding what once was a radio mast for sending signals to Murmansk from this Soviet coast-watching station by Lökvika on the Varanger Peninsula. Photo: Nigel Hirst

After a very quick dinner (eating was not such a high priority on this trip) we explored the fortified little peninsula of Veines by the Kongsfjord. We first stumbled upon a lorry wreck, with a tyre marked "War Department 1939". Could it be the remains of one of those British field-gun pulling lorries, captured in France at Dunkerque in 1940? Surely someone out there must know more - please tell us what you know.

"War department 1939" the text on the one remaining tyre reads. The engine seemed to be a General Motors (the engine is marked 8387 GM) but what make was the vehicle? Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

Thereafter we examined an anti-aircraft gun shield and a rather unique ex-French World War One era tank: an FT-17. During the war its hull was covered with stones, but these have been removed since. If my memory serves me right this was the first tank produced in any large numbers with a turret. The missing hatches and armour plates seem to lie in the steep ravines on both sides of the tank. Parts of the engine remain and the main gun lies on the floor of the vehicle. According to Thorbein Gamst´s book on the northern German fortifications, "Finnmark under hakekorset", another tank was previously guarding the most narrow part of the peninsula, but we found no trace of that one. Not far from the tank we found a German flame-thrower and some wooden ammo boxes and barbed wire

Yours truly with what I reckon must be the last Panzerkampfwagen that has not moved an inch since WWII. The only large remains of the camouflage scheme, behind my right shoulder, seem to be non-German. It might even be the first WWI layer of paint. Photo: Nigel Hirst

Stones have been arranged in two rows by the first incline on the Veines peninsula - we got the impression that this could be an improvised graveyard for foreign (Soviet or Yugoslav?) slaves (prisoners of war in slave labor). In the foreground is the only road on the peninsula, presumably of German origin. Along the road there are also several bomb craters, presumably made by bombs from Soviet aircraft. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

The track from a German halftrack vehicle is still lying on the tundra some 250 metres from the FT-17 tank. I believe it comes from a Citroen-Kegresse, used in e.g. Africa. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

After a race to the closest open petrol station we continued driving in the midnight sun until early morning, parking in a forest south of Skoganvarre. We had not intended to look for anything there but in the morning Nigel simply could not help noticing a German lorry wreck (Krupp Protze?) and a German motorcycle tyre from 1938 with very worn tread.

The lorry had evidently had e.g. a flare shot through its petrol tank to destroy it, but it still carried some of its original German camouflage paint.

Skoganvarre certainly must have one of the most moving WWII sites in Norway: a large military hospital left exactly as it was abandoned. The patients were mainly German soldiers from the Litsa front. Today the birch trees are growing through the hospital beds.

Birch trees are growing inside the hospital wards of the Skoganvarre hospital. Note the bedpans by the beds... Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

It is hard for me to imagine anyone walking through this former hospital not being touched by the utterly real presence of war and suffering. Evidently those visiting this place also show respect for it, as I did not notice any changes since my previous visit in 2001, although all items are loose and there are signs clearly pointing out the site by the E6, a kilometre or two south of Skoganvarre.

Driving on to Alta we stopped along what must have been German food and repair sites along the retreat southwards. In Alta we saw the Alta museum with its UNESCO-protected rock carvings and WWII section. They also show you a WWII documentary if you ask for it. The Alta museum bookshop has some litterature on Arctic Norway during the war.

These German 200 litre petrol barrels we found lying just some four metres from the E6 road on the way from Lakselv to Alta. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

In the Kåfjord just NW of Alta (not to be confused with other Kåfjords) we looked at the remains of the presence of the Tirpitz. Nigel came up with a good explanation for the amount of German china (most that I have seen is dated 1941) that one still finds on "Tirpitz beach". Bearing in mind that the British midget submarine (called X-craft) attacks lifted the battleship nearly two metres out of the water and gave her a 15 degree list to port a great deal of china must have been broken and subsequently dumped overboard into the fjord. Some, however, may also come from the smaller ships that were sunk around the Tirpitz. Several of these were sunk by the Germans themselves in November 1944 during the retreat from Finnmark. Nigel also found some pieces of what could be the Arado Ar 196 aircraft featured in After the Battle.

The Norwegian rangers that were running the Sepal-bases in northern Sweden were often dressed like this: US Army Arctic parkas with Norwegian armbands as the only insignia and Norwegian skicaps. This soldier is armed with a British Sten and is part of the exhibits in the Troms forsvarsmuseum (defense museum). Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

Our final night in Norway we slept by Nordkjosbotn and in the morning saw some generous Norwegian friends and fellow history buffs in Setermoen and then got a special tour of the Troms defense museum thanks to its most kind director, Finn Fossum, to whom we are indebted for many good tips.

Driving back to Rosvik we made a real quick stop by the destroyer Georg Thiele in Rombaksbotn and the British Lancaster outside Porjus that once bombed the Tirpitz. It is remarkable how well kept the RAF paint is after all these years in the open. These two latter WWII sites are described elsewhere on this website.

All in all another thought-provoking WWII tour with great company and I would like to heartily thank all those involved in making it the good experience that it was. But I do not recommend doing all the above in just six days, as we did! It was possible thanks to the ideal (unreal) driving conditions (basically perfect weather all the time), that very seldom occur in this part of the world. So, do please take your time and plan to do less or stay longer.

German field-kitchens were known as Gulaschkanonen. This one is just standing about in a Norwegian forest. Not far from the mobile kitchen lies what could be the remains of a staff car. Everything loose has been removed from that one. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal

Last modified 03-09-2002

© Lars and Ann-Sofie Gyllenhaal