In late May 1940 a strengthened company of Irish Guards and a couple Norwegian troops had dug their positions some miles North of the Polar Circle. They was supposed to be a larger force but the troop transport ship "Chobry" and the cruiser "Effingham" bringing more troops to the area was attacked and ran ashore making it impossible to get reinforcements to the frontline in time.
 On both sides of the valley there was defensive positions with riflemen , mortar crews , machinegun nests and a battery of 25 pounder guns. The main force was dug down on a hill to the East of the river running through the valley to the Fjord. On the morning of 25th May the shooting started. Experienced Gebirgsjäger troops attacked along the river and road driving the defenders away but the Germans was halted by mortar and artillery shelling. Later in the afternoon 5 Heinkel bombers made several attacks on the hill while at the same time the mountain troops managed to use a very difficult terrain and sneak up close to the trenches on top of the hill. The Irish troops was surprised to suddenly have the enemy coming out of nowhere just in front of the trenches. They also saw the Germans trying to flank them and in close combat they began to retreat.
 They crossed the river and blew up the bridges behind them. It took the Germans a few hours to make a pontoon bridge and the morning 26th a steady stream of troops was crossing the river. There was still a troop of Irish Guards holding positions on the slope of the hill but at 11.30 Brigadier Gubbins gave the call for retreat. The German shooting was so intense that the troops couldn`t get loose until 19.00. The next 24 hours the Allied troops steadily withdrew down the valley towards the Fjord where boats was waiting to bring them to Bodø. During this retreat they had support from a couple of Gloster fighter planes attacking German ground targets.
 As they evacuated the valley they had high morale and hoped to continue the fight reinforced with fresh troops , but as soon as they arrived in Bodø the 27th may it became clear to them that the Allied High Command had the 25th already decided to evacuate all troops and give up the fighting in Northern Norway. The German war machine had now a clear path to the Narvik front.

I had long wanted to make a trip up to the hill and see if there was any left from the dramatic days there. It is a walk that`ll make most folks a bit sweaty and sure enough some 500 meters in I wondered if it wouldn`t have been better to stay in the sofa today. But soon I was warm and it didn`t feel so exhausting and before I knew it I had reached the top. Here I took a short break and made a pic of the sign someone put up there years ago. Some of the trenches and positions was also marked with signs.
 I turned the metaldetector on and started searching. By the amount of casings and shrapnel I found it couldn`t have been a long firefight when the troops suddenly had the germans in front of them. I found a few casings scattered here and there , and some more of them in the trenches. There was also the typical rusted food tin garbage in the positions.

I soon saw that someone else had been searching here and decided to check if they had left anything behind. I had a really good signal and removed the loose soil and checked it again , still a signal. I removed a few rocks and soil and saw something shiny. It looked like three aluminium boxes. I removed the soil around them and carefully got them loose from the ground. It was 3 British food containers. All of them missing their other part , but in very nice condition. If only the guy before me had dug 5 more centimeters..

Now I wanted to see if I could find any evidence of the advancing German troops. I started some 50 meters in front of the trenches and searched a while without a signal. Then I moved to the northwest side of the hill and sort of moved towards the trenches , and there it was. If it wasn`t for the vegetation I would be able to see the trench from where I had the signal. I dug it and there was some German ammo. I then made a flanking manouver towards the trenches and soon had another signal. More German ammo. All of the casings had a little ding on the neck , which casings does when they are fired with a Mg , so I had found the route one of the German machinegunners made.

When I was tired of finding ammo I started the stroll down. Now I moved on the side where the Heinkel bombers made their attack and soon found some large pieces of shrapnel , probably from both the bombs and the 25 pounder shells. There is several big craters around and in one of them a large piece of a bomb is to be found.
 I shall be honest and say I had hoped to find more stuff here , but Im very happy with the result anyway. I always wondered what route the Gebirgsjãgers attacked and now I know. Next time Im in this area I`ll check if I can find the Irish Guards river crossing point and the positions on the oposite side of the valley.

I had to continue the dig I started yesterday where I found the Gebirgsjäger boot sole so when the morning routine was done I headed out there. I removed the rocks and loose soil quickly and started to carefully chip away the clay. This stuff was almost as hard as the Kurland soil so it went slowly. The rubbish seemed to be in a 20-30 cm deep layer and metal detector indicates it cover several meters wide so again I have some digging ahead the next week.
 I dug out leather parts for boots and found the other gebirgsjäger sole. I kept pulling out all sorts of bottles but very little metal other than boot heels and some unidentified bits which I will clean to figure out what it is. There was also a small glass disc there which might have been for a game of some sort. When I was brushing away some clay with my hand I felt something slice through my finger and before I could get the glove off it was soaked. The third reich is still drawing partizan blood.

Well , it wasn`t the pit of edelweiss badges and soldiers gear I was hoping for but still not a waste of a day and I had a good time and there is still lots to be dug. When I decided to leave I filled the hole and covered it with loose branches and dead leaves. Then I moved a meter and opened up another hole which I dug for a while but there was only broken pieces of rust , probably where they ditched empty food tins.
 So I guess I will be back here soon and continue.

Weather fine , no work today , coffeepot emptied so there was no reason to sit inside. I drove off towards one of the camp sites I have been searching many times. During the war it was a POW camp for Soviets and after the Liberation german troops was interned here. I started off with the metaldetector on "All Metal" and had a signal straight away. I felt a solid rounded shape when I scraped away sand with my hands and ofcourse I thought it was a helmet , but as the object came loose I saw it was a oil can :)

I moved along and found some electrical cable , several spent K98 shells and the obligatory barbed wire bits , nails and rusted tins. In an area with grey clay I dug a signal and found a small burning pit where a few pieces of cloth had survived in a suprisingly well condition , boot heel irons , a broken spoon and a few white bakelite(?) buttons was also among the charcoal and broken glass.

The next spot I found was very promising. It looked like a filled dumping pit. I saw a large iron piece and I could feel there was metal under the moss when I stepped down into the pit. The Fisher screamed all sorts of signals as well. I got loose the iron part which was the feet of a cast iron oven and underneath it I saw a bucket with a coffee tin inside , in super condition! It didn`t take many objects before I understood this was a farmers dumping pit from the 60`s or 70`s. I dug it to the bottom just to make sure it wasn`t a "wartime layer" under there.

I was a bit dissapointed about the modern garbage but I brushed a regiment of ants from my clothes and hair and struggled on to find the next signal to dig. As the relic fairy has been very generous with this area I was digging again in no time. It was becoming late so I started to move towards the starting point. Here and there I opened up the forest floor to have a peek but no interesting finds really. As I got closer to the car I had tangled myself into some shrubbery and suddenly I was in a small clearing I had never noticed before. I sweeped across it with the detector on high discrimination , and it beeped and screamed everywhere , nice , a big dumpng pit or fireplace. I decided to make a test dig on one of the signals because I had no energy or daylight hours left to do a bigger dig at this point. Not very deep down some leather parts came out like new from the ground and next a german bottle and what made me look forward to tomorrow , a gebirgsjäger boot sole. Ofcourse it can be the "standard" dumping pit , but with all the good signals I`m hoping this is the pit where the soldiers gear was discarded. We`ll see tomorrow.

I went out to the ammo depot after work. Large parts of the area is still unsearched so I chose a corner by the fence and started a systematic search but there was almost no signals anywhere. The first signal I got was a metal band from a wooden barrel and later a few nails. At one point I got a nice scream from the F5 but when I checked the number on the display I was pretty sure it was ammo casings , which it was.

I kept walking around the forest getting no more signals so when I had ruled out the section I walked to the oposite side to start another search. Here I took a break and started picking some blueberries when I noticed a reflection in the edge of the forest. Using my binoculars I thought it looked like a old building behind the trees so I went over to check it out. Sure enough , I found a rotten old shed half fallen over. I love old ruins and this being so close to the military area it was impossible not peeking inside. And there it was , stuff to make any day perfect. Several Heeres Verpflegungs bags hanging on the far standing wall! I dropped all sense of personal safety and snuk under the fallen roof and saw that in the corner was more than just the bags. Two pair of german army shoes , a winter jacket , winter cap , carbide lamp , 2 parts for grenade cases and lots of belt support hooks and uniform button clasps. Im so happy I checked this ruin because I am sure it won`t be standing for so many more storms. Tomorrow I will be back there to give it another search and prehaps I`ll move all the collapsed materials to see if there is some stuff under it.

After coffee this morning I went out searching. I had long been planning to investigate a patch of forest where I knew there was remnants of some dugouts which had been part of a disposal area for a small German air strip. I did have big expectations to this area but after an hour I gave up digging modern times foil and beer cans. There was lots of signals but everyone of them was rubbish the winds have brought in from the neighbourhood next to the forest. When digging signals I  noticed the forest floor was kind of blue because of all the blueberries. The warm summer has certainly made these little bushes produce big time. I spent the next hour picking around a kilo berries before I decided to visit one of my unfinished dumping pits.

At the dumping pit I spent a couple of hours and even though the ground was full of rust and bottles there wasn`t many good finds. I was about to give up and go home when a uniform button appeared so I continued until I got to the bottom of the ditch where a dog tag was waiting for me. Now finally I could go home to clean the finds and make fresh bread and jam for the after-dig meal.

It look like it is Stalag II D

I had plans to find a POW site today but reading the news this morning  I had reason to change the plans. Late last night a trailer had crashed with a bear which ran off into the forest. Ofcourse this happened where I was about to go , but I thought it best to follow the advice to stay away from the forest there as wounded bears is not what you want to encounter and the forest will be full of hunters trying to track it down. Instead I thought I could start another project , to photograph the Soviet memorials which is scattered around the valley. These monuments was put up on the POW/KZ camps burial grounds just after the war , but not many of them has survived and few know they exists.
  In the early 1950`s the Norwegian government decided to exhume and rebury all Soviets from all the different camp sites all over Norway. They was going to be reburied on a few centralized memorial sites. This project was tried done in secrecy and the reasoning of it all  was fear of spies since many of the sites was close to sensitive military areas. But I am working on a whole article about this operation so lets get back to today.
 First place I went to I have been several times before but never with a camera. Here was a rather large camp for Soviet POWs and for a short periode also Yugoslav prisoners. On a small hill near the camp was the burial ground where the original monument still stand. In the forest one can see traces of the graves that was exhumed in 1951.

Next stop was only a few kilometers away. Here there was a smaller camp for Soviet POWs , around 300 if my memory is correct. There is no trace of the camp today as it was erected on a farmers land which have been used for farming after the camp was dismanteled shortly after the Liberation. I know there is supposed to be a memorial in the forest there and went on the search for it.

It is a pretty steep climb up there , but a brilliant view from the top makes it worth the sweat. When I reached the top I started looking around for the memorial but the only thing I noticed was a fairly strong smell and it wasn`t from some sheep. I was clearly on the wrong place. I counted four spots in the grass where something big had been laying and it couldn`t have been very long ago and I started to realize there might be not just one,but maybe as many as four bears around me somewhere! To get my suspicion confirmed I almost stepped on a fresh big bear turd and decided it was time to leave before I became someones lunch.

In late May 1940 Allied forces was fighting the German invasion force several places in Norway. In a valley just North of the Polar Circle a mixed group of British and Norwegian troops tried to halt experienced Gebirgsjägers. The troops stood their ground for several days but as they lacked equipment they was ordered to retreat. In these fightings many of the Allied soldiers fell and was buried in fieldgraves. After the war they were exhumed and reburied at the local cemetery where they still lay. I brought the camera today and photographed each grave and also did a trip to a couple of the spots where some of them fell , where some local enthusiasts put up signs marking the places.

The war graves at the cemetery:

At the cemetery there is also a memorial for civillians that lost their lives during the war.