Alta Battalion

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Alta Battalion was an independent battalion within the Norwegian 6th Division based in the village of Alta, Norway in west Finnmark and commanded by Lt. Colonel Arne Dagfin Dahl.

The battalion was mobilized in October 1939 to help guard Norway's neutrality in World War II and positioned in the border areas of eastern Finnmark during the Finnish Winter War to safeguard the northernmost areas of Norway against Soviet aggression. The Alta battalion was then demobilized January 15, 1940.

After the German invasion of Norway on the April 9, 1940 the battalion was once more mobilized, the soldiers making their way to Alta by boats or reindeer sleds, then being to the front area by fishing vessels. During the coming two month campaign in the mountains north and east of Narvik the battalion spearheaded the 6th Division's advance against the German 3rd Mountain Division in the Narvik area.

The unit spent the entire two month campaign conducting offensive operations against general Eduard Dietl's entrenched troops. The at first lighly armed infantrymen attacked through the extreme mountainous terrain of northern Nordland against far better educated and trained German alpine troops and paratroopers; the unit was only occasionally supported by artillery or air power, while the Luftwaffe became progressively more active in the campaign as the Germans recruited collaborators who constructed new air bases in the more southerly regions of the country. Especially important for the Luftwaffe's ability to support the German forces on the Narvik Front was the rapid improvement of Værnes air base, giving the German bombers much more time to operate over the northern front lines.

Nevertheless, by early June 1940, in co-operation with French and Polish land forces, as well the RAF, the Royal Navy and the French and Polish navies, the 6th Division had pushed the German invaders out of the vital port of Narvik and forced them into a small pocket by the Swedish border. In the mountainous inland areas of the front the Alta Battalion was continuously on the attack, suffering many casualties in the process of throwing back the crack German troops.

In the last weeks of the fighting the battalion was combat-hardened, and well-equipped because of the large amounts of German equipment captured by the advancing fishermen-farmers and Sami reindeer herders of the Alta Battalion. For the first time ever Norwegian infantry advanced utilizing weapons such as submachine guns and hand grenades.

As the Alta Battalion and the other formations of the 6th Division prepared for one last push against the beleaguered Germans and Austrians of the 3rd Mountain Division, the Third Reich unleashed Fall Gelb and invaded France and the Low Countries. The German May 10 invasion, and the disastrous consequences of this operation for the Allies, led to the land, sea and air forces committed to the Norwegian Campaign being suddenly withdrawn, with notice given the Norwegian authorities only days before the evacuation.

Without the support of the RAF and the Royal Navy the Norwegian government lost all hope of prevailing against the Germans, and fled the country with the evacuating Allies. The last order of the evacuating government to the Norwegian units opposing the Nazis was: Demobilize.

After the conclusion of the campaign Eduard Dietl commented that at the time of the Norwegian capitulation his forces would have been able to hold out for only another 24 to 48 hours, after which they would have had to abandon the entire Narvik front and cross into Sweden.

As the still undefeated units of the 6th Division, amongst them the Alta Battalion, marched down from the snow-covered hills on June 9, 1940 many of the soldiers cried tears of bitterness and disappointment that victory had been snatched from them.