Hitler’s Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 by Henrik Lunde (popular e readers .TXT) 📗

2nd Battalions. Lieutenant Colonel Józef Kobylecki, another Tsarist army officer, commanded the 2nd Half-Brigade, consisting of the 3rd and 4th Battalions. The troops were a mixture of escapees from Poland, Poles residing in France, and volunteers from other countries, including a detachment of veterans from the Spanish Civil War.7

General Bohusz-Szyszko’s orders were to defend Ankenes Peninsula after relieving the British and French forces. The planned relief of the 12th Bn CA was delayed because of a strong German infantry attack on May 17 against its positions on the ridgeline overlooking Narvik harbor and Beisfjord. The Germans had two companies in this area: Co 6 in the north, holding a bridgehead around the village of Ankenes; and Co 7 in the south, holding Hills 650 (Skarvtuva), and Hill 773 (Hestefjell). The Germans attacked Hills 605 and 668. The surprise attacks almost succeeded in driving the French from the mountain ridge. The Germans reached within 100 meters of the summit of Hill 605 when the attack faltered under heavy French fire. The attack against Hill 668 was only stopped after the French committed all available resources, including a counterattack by the battalion reserve, the 12th S.E.S. The Germans lost six killed and five seriously wounded.

The South Wales Borderers were still located on Ankenes Peninsula, apparently in a defensive perimeter from somewhere southwest of Hill 405 to Haavik. The French occupied the area from Hill 405 to Hill 668. The only information about the enemy situation that the South Wales Borderers could give to Lieutenant Colonel Wladyslaw Dec, commander of the 2nd Polish Bn, was “The Germans are up there somewhere.”8

Dec occupied a line of almost five kilometers along the ridge from Baatberget to, and including, Hill 405. The 1st Polish Bn, commanded by Major Waclaw Kobylińsky, occupied the ridgeline from Hill 677 to Hill 668. Lieutenant Colonel Chlusewiez was the overall commander of these forward forces. His reserve consisted of the 4th Polish Bn, which was moved from Sjøvegan to Tjeldebotn, west of Ballangen, on May 19. It was moved to Ankenes Peninsula in the period 22–24 May. The 3rd Polish Bn remained in the Ballangen area along with the headquarters of the 2nd Half-Brigade.

The Ankenes Peninsula became an area of bitter positional warfare until May 27. The 2nd Polish Bn tried to move its positions forward in the evening of May 17 and on May 18. With the exception of a minor forward adjustment by the left flank company, the Germans repelled these attempts at the cost to the Poles of nine killed and 15 wounded.

Biegański writes that during this period, the Germans constantly improved their positions and their strength grew to two battalions. This is a considerable overstatement of the actual forces involved. The Germans only had one battalion of mountain troops and some naval units in the whole Narvik area.

Company 7 was reinforced by an assortment of naval personnel but its strength never exceeded that of a reinforced company. The main Polish effort after May 18 was directed against the Ankenes pocket. Company 7’s thin, convex line, covering about five kilometers from Hill 650 to Hill 606 was left relatively unmolested until May 27.

Company 8 relieved Co 6 during the night of May 18-19. The company was reinforced and supplied by boats on a nightly basis in the week that followed, but all these had to be scraped together from Major Haussels’ forces in Narvik, since Group Windisch was given priority in the allocation of all other forces. Parts of Major Haussels’ engineer and reconnaissance platoons were brought into the pocket along with various groups of naval personnel. These reinforcements increased the strength of the defenders to between 160 and 180 men. One hundred and eighteen men from Co 2, 137th Regiment parachuted into the area near Bjørnefjell on May 25, and were sent into the Ankenes pocket by Major Haussels on May 27.

Company 8 was already engaged in heavy action on its first day at Ankenes, repelling several Polish attacks. The Germans were in an unenviable position with their backs to the sea, a numerically superior enemy on the high ground to their front, and under frequent and heavy naval gunfire from British ships in the fjord. The situation improved on May 20 when heavy German air attacks were launched against the Poles on the ridgeline. However, as soon as the planes disappeared the Poles launched another unsuccessful attack against the Ankenes pocket.

One of the greatest German fears in May was a possible Allied threat against the Bjørnefjell base area from the south. The Germans knew from prisoners that the entire Polish brigade was located on Ankenes Peninsula or in other locations on the south side of Ofotfjord. The Germans also knew that total Allied strength was approximately 20,000 and they had a hard time understanding why most of the fighting had been left to the Norwegians and French. Dietl, like Fleischer, considered Bjørnefjell the key to the survival of German forces and he and his staff had to assume that the Allies were of a like mind. A thrust from the south in combination with heavy pressure from the north and threatening gestures against Narvik could lead to a quick collapse.

The Germans knew that a road ran southeast from Elvegård, near the village of Skjomen. This road turned into a summer road when it reached the east-west valley of Norddal and continued eastward in this valley towards the Swedish border until it reached the north-south valley of Hunddal. This valley leads directly to Bjørnefjell. The route was difficult and long for troops not accustomed to mountains and snow, but even a minor threat from this direction would trouble the Germans since their reserves in this period never exceeded a company and even less than that during the last weeks of May.

The heavy Allied activities on the south side of Ofotfjord after May 10 caused the Germans to suspect that a wide envelopment could be in progress. The Luftwaffe was requested to make reconnaissance flights in this sector.