You don't have to travel to Russia to find plenty of wreckage from WWII still in situ. Only some hundred metres away from the Swedish border we found German WWII equipment and in the first Norwegian fiord after the border we camped right beside a German destroyer.
I had seen the rusty hulk of the Georg Thiele destroyer on the web and in books but seeing it in real life was something different. When first seeing it from the parking lot it seemed to be either close, or rather small. The long, steep and slippery walk to actually reach it made us, i.e. Nicolas von Schmidt-Laussitz and I (Lars Gyllenhaal), think otherwise. It was BIG and it was really something to see it up close: hatches open, dangling chains and hearing the eerie sounds it made from the wind, or was it the waves?
Troops of the 3rd German Mountain division were transported by the destroyer "Georg Thiele". It still lies in the innermost part of Rombaksbotn, where its was deliberately stranded in 1940. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal
In the Red Cross War Memorial Museum of Narvik we especially looked at objects related to Georg Thiele, Tirpitz and the Norwegian OSS-groups that operated from bases in Sweden. A new item among the allied small arms was also the customized Sten-gun of the Swedish SOE-volunteer Allan Mann.
These weapons of the Norwegian OSS Sepal-groups were until recently stored in the Swedish town of Kiruna. Note the unusual agent gun with silencer: the Welrod, and also a Soviet Nagant! The white paint on the Lee-Enfield was typical of the OSS-groups in Sweden/Norway. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal
Hiking around the Bjørnfjell area, right beside Sweden, we found much evidence of the German presence in 1940-1945: several ruins of German huts; plenty of the very same sardine cans that can be found on Kola; German porcelain, a Wehrmacht-marked fuel barrel, batteries, some Mauser ammunition clips and a few Mauser rounds. A friendly Norwegian hut-owner showed us a German water pump in his garden, with an original metal plate giving instructions how to use it.
Nicolas is holding the door-lock of the German sentry hut, the ruins of which are to be seen behind him. In the middle of the hut floor the frames of a German bed protrude. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal
Best-preserved of all was colonel-general Eduard Dietl´s 1940 home and HQ right beside a rail tunnel. Today there is even an informative sign telling about the general. The house must have been one of the most posh ones in the area in 1940. Entering the grounds of the house we found what may have been a check-point for visitors.
The home and HQ of Eduard Dietl during the battle for Narvik is still standing in excellent condition in the western part of Bjørnfjell village. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal
Finally I hitch-hiked on my own to Setermoen in the Bardu municipality, some 70 km north of Narvik to meet a Norwegian WWII veteran. Setermoen has been a garrison town for generations and today has e.g. an armoured battalion. Still, I had not been aware of the fact that Setermoen has a most interesting museum - the Troms Forsvarsmuseum on Blokkveien 5. The museum has an indoor exhibition focused on the German occupation, resistance work and the post-war Norwegian army and its peace-keeping operations.
Outside there are a dozen military vehicles, many still working. The most well-preserved are a British Humber scout car, US M-24 tank and a US White Scout Car. The most unusual weapon is certainly a WWI French Renault FT-17 tank of such an early model that it has oak-tree wheels! It was taken to Norway by the Germans in WWII and put on a Norwegian island to serve as coastal defence. Unfortunately the turret is missing. But there still is an almost complete FT-17 in Norwegian Finnmark - for more on this tank see the "Last Stand" REPORT.
This ex-French WWI Renault FT-17 tank was used by the WWII German army on a Norwegian island as mobile coastal defence. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal
Additionally the museum has a small but good militaria store and Norwegian and WWII German artillery pieces on open-air display.
The manufacturer´s plate is still visible on the Renault tank, showing that it was made in Billancourt, France. Photo: Lars Gyllenhaal
Published 07-10-2001
© Lars and Ann-Sofie Gyllenhaal