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North Norway north of Bodø, and the Narvik Campaign
This article will be an part of an forthcoming article on the Battle of Narvik
 

6th Division - Strength 8/4-40 
(Commander: Gen. Fleischer)

In East Finnmark (commander: Col. Faye)

In South Varanger
1st Battalion / Inf. Rgt 12
2nd Battalion / Inf. Rgt. 14
One motorised artillery battery
One platoon from Signal Company 6
One Field Hospital
One platoon from Car Company 6

At Nyborg
Varanger Battalion

In Troms (commander: Col. Löken)
2nd Battalion / Inf. Rgt. 15 (Maj. Spjeldæs, at Bardufoss. Ordered to Elvegaardsmoen 8th April)
Mountain Artillery Battalion III (2 Mountain Batteries and 1 motorised battery, the latter was ordered to Øyjord 8/4-99)
Signals Company 6 (- 1 platoon)
Medical Company 6
Infantry Rifle Company 6
Car Company 6 (- 1 platoon)
The 6th Division NCO School

In Ofoten (commander: Col. Sundlo, after 9th April-May. Omdahl)

At Elvegaardsmoen 
1st Battalion / Inf. Rgt. 13 (- one company)

In Narvik
One Rifle company from Inf. Rgt 13
Machine Gun Battery 6 (Eriksen) 
Engineer Company 6 (Capt. Gundersen)
4 x 40 m.m AA guns (Lt Munthe-Kaas)
2 x 6,5 m.m Mountain guns w/ crew
2 armoured ships, ”Norge” (Kommandørkaptein Askim) and ”Eidsvold” (Kommandørkaptein Willoch)
Coastal Guard vessels “Michael Sars” (Capt. Jackwitz), “Senja”, and “Kelt” (Lt. Mathiesen)
Submarines B1 and B3.

DIVISIONAL AIRCRAFT (Army only)
Haalogaland Flying Unit participated in exercises in Finnmark 8/4-40 with these aircraft:
(at least one was lost in an accident)

3 Fokker C-VD a/c at Tana
3 Fokker C-VD a/c at Porsanger

Usually they were stationed at Bardufoss and Banak.

Navy aircraft
Royal Norwegian Navy Airforce, 3rd Flying Squadron w/ 3 He 115 in Tromsø. Commander: Lt. Jørgensen. Also 2 MF 11 at Vadsø.

These forces were also mobilised:

Alta Battalion
1st Battalion / Inf. Rgt 16
2nd Battalion / Inf. Rgt 16

During the war operations, two new battle groups were formed. These were called ”Brigades”, even If they really never were such. (It was really the British commanders that started using this term) These “Brigades” did however not have more than 50 % of the usual international Brigade strength:

At Gratangseidet
7th Brigade (commander: Col. Faye)

Alta Battalion (Lt.Col. Dahl)
2nd Battalion / Inf. Rgt. 15 (Maj. Hyldmo)
Mountain Artillery Battalion III (Lt.Col. Hornslien)
One Motorised Artillery Battery (Capt. Landmark)
One platoon from Signal Company 6
One platoon from Engineer Company 6
One platoon from Medical Company
One National Guards (Territorials) rifle Company (2 / I.R 6)

At Gressdalen and Raudalen
6th Brigade (commander: Col. Löken)

1st Platoon / Inf. Rgt. 12 (Maj. Böckmann)
1st Battalion / Inf. Rgt. 16 (Maj. Hunstad)
2nd Battalion / Inf. Rgt 16 (Maj. Munthe-Kaas)
One battery from Mountain Artillery Battalion III
One platoon from Signals Company 6
Medical Company 6 (- one platoon)
One National Guards (Territorials) rifle Company from I.R 16
 

Allied commander at the Ankenes region: (from 17th May) Gen. Bohusz-Szyszko.
Allied Commander all land forces: Gen. Behouart

The only Allied tank force present in Norway
in 1940 was the French 342nd and 343rd ”Compagnie Autonome de Chars” (Independent
Tank Company), equipped with 15 Hotchkiss H-39 light tanks (342rd, Capt. Dublineau) and 15 Renault FT-17 (343rd).

Three Battalions from the French “1st. Légerère de Chasseurs Alpins” (arriving 27th April in Foldvik and Skånland), without most of their ski equipment).

Two Battalions French Foreign Legion, Commander: Col. Magrin-Verneret, the  “13th Legion d´Etranger Demi-Brigade”, arrived 5th May, (1st Batallion: Maj. Boyer-Resses, 2nd Battalion: Maj. Gueninchaut)
Most of the men were Germans, Spanish, and English, and some had participated in the Spanish Civil War) 

Four Battalions Polish ”Chasseur de Nord”, the Carpathian “Podhale” Brigade
1st Demi-Brigade (Col. Chlusevic) w/ 1st Battallion (Maj. Kobylinski) and 2nd Battalion (Col. Dec)
2nd Demi-Brigade (Col. Kobylecki) w/ 3rd Battalion (Lt.Col. Mackowski) and 4th Battalion (Maj. Jasowski) 
 

Two Companies of “The South Wales Borderers”, (landed at Harstad April 14th, and Ballangen 26th April)

“24th (Scots & Irish) Guards Brigade”, Gen. Mackesy. (The Brigade lost all their heavy equipment on May 14th, when Hauptmann Kowalski from” X-Fliegerkorps” got an direct bomb hit with his He 111 on the Polish liner ”Chowdry” (”Chobry”) in the Vestfjord.)

One RAF squadron (46th Sqn.) equipped w/ Hurricanes, first at Skånland, later Bardufoss Arrived 26th May.
One RAF squadron (263rd Sqn.) equipped w/ Fairey Swordfish, also at Bardufoss. Arrived 21st May.

These aircraft were transported on the carrier “Glorious” when the Allied retreated; it was shortly after attacked and sunk by “Scharnhorst”

All together 25 000 men.
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German OOB

Commanding officer: Gen. Dietl

“Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 139 / 3. Gebirgsjäger-Division” (about 2000 men)
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Gebirgsjaegers near Narvik.

“1st Battallion / Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 1” (arriving May 15th as reinforcement)

“Gebirgsjäger-Regiment 137 / 3. Gebirgsjäger-Division” (2 companies, arriving May 21st by parachute after attending a crash course at “Fallschirmjägerschule Stendal”)

About 2500 sailors from sunken German ships (“Marine-Battalion Erdmenger”) A.K.A ”die Gebirgsmarine”) This included the surviving crewmembers of “U64”, who later adapted the “Edelweiss” as their symbol of their next U-boat.

All together about 6000 men.
 

Military losses during the Norwegian Campaign:

Norway  1 335 killed (Army and Navy)
Allied Forces 6 100 killed or missing. (British losses at land: 1869, French/Polish: 530)
Germany 5 636 killed (Army, navy and airforce)

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Bjoern Jervaas is one of the major contributors to this site,
and has written many articles for other ww2 sites.

 
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