About a week ago I got an invitation to join a group of local diggers, "Norsk Rustjegerforbund", for a dig. Yesterday I drove to meet them on a very interesting site where they have found all sorts of goodies. A few miles outside Narvik is the village of Bjerkvik. Here was a small and quiet coastal farmer society and a big military camp in April 1940 when Alois Windisch with two of his battalions from 139th Gebirgsjäger Regiment took the place meeting no resistance. Much of the local population fled to summer barns, cottages and neighbouring valleys as the invaders filled the village and moved into their houses. After a few days the soldiers moved out of the houses and made positions a bit above the village and the locals moved back home. In the fjord they could see British warships patrol and it was sometimes fired from them on the German positions.
An evening some days later the ships came closer. The battleship "Resolution", five destroyers and the cruisers "Aurora" and "Effingham" filled the fjord. Suddenly they all opened fire on the village. House after house went up in flames or was totally wiped out from direct hits. The fire on the civillians didnt stop before three small boats reached the ships explaining that there was no soldiers in the houses. 14 civillians have been killed and many more wounded.
The Allied fire concentrated now on German positions mostly manned by Kriegsmarine troops while the landing of French Foreign Legioneers supported by three tanks began. They soon fought down the Germans who was pressed also from the North and took control over the village and the Army camp with its large supplies of weapons and ammo.

​Base plugs from British grenades and shrapnels blankets the area.

The guys from "Norsk Rustjegerforbund" has a good relation with the landowners and have been digging here a few seasons and have found many interesting things. In 1945 huge numbers of soldiers retreated through the area and many were interned in makeshift camps on the military area and surrounding fields. From this the diggers have found several german awards and medals, rings, coins, Narvik shields and all sorts of bling the soldiers discarded. 
We began the day with a coffee and a chat before we turned on the detectors and began searching. Sure enough, proof of the British shelling was found all over. Lots of shrapnel came out of the soil and also bits from the blown up houses was dug up. The Army camp is still in use so we also find leftovers from exercises held in the area, from old wooden plug rifle casings to the modern plastic ones. 
Its a large area we are spread out on but we meet up by the "base" now and again for a coffee or something to eat and to show what we have found so far.

Hours of searching and digging into the day I had gotten used to great signals turning out to be a bit of copper wire, rifle casings and shrapnel so I didnt have any expectations when I yet again opened up a small piece of the land with my trusted Fiskars shovel. I turned the lump of soil over and I just had to shout one of the guys over to share the moment. It was no shrapnel but it was a nice piece of Norwegian Army bling. A Sharshooter badge! That really made my day. The Norwegian riflemen was feared by the Germans and they often created panic by shooting soldier after soldier right in the head often from large distances. Many of the Norwegian soldiers was hunters and sportshooters and used to the mountains so probably not the best enemy.
Other than that I found a few coins,two German wartime ones and one Norwegian from 1960. The other guys also picked a ton of shrapnel mixed with a few nicer bits, like coins,ring fragments and a small piece of a silver pendant. As evening approached our energy seemed to have died out so we called it quits, gathered our things and made plans for new meetings, which will be great:)
A big thanks to you guys for bringing me along, looking forward to dig again soon:)

​Marked "J.Tostrup Oslo"