Last stand of the Krag as a battle rifle

[jon_norstog]

The last Norwegian forces to surrender was the Telemark Infantry Regiment, an ad-hoc unit about 300 strong, organized and armed by Second Lt. Tor Hannevig, composed of a mix of regulars and Telemark hunters and farmers. They blocked the communications between Oslo and Bergen operating in the high country my family is from. They were never defeated, but gave up or went underground after the rest of the Norwegian military surrendered or disbanded. There isn’t much in English about this action, and everything I could find on the internet is word-for-word cut and paste identical. Wikipedia cites one source and it’s in Norwegian. There may be veterans still alive. Anyway here goes.

Once the Germans got moving, they rolled up the Norwegian forces pretty fast and the command structure broke down. Lt. Hannevig was pretty much on his own, I think – or he may have been acting under orders of a rapidly-disappearing command. He managed to requisition a large quantity of weapons, including Krag rifles, Madsen SMGs and Colt machine guns, as well as trench mortars and explosives. It was enough that he would have had to have manpower and transport to move the stuff. So I’m thinking at least some of the regulars under his command chose to stay with him and continue the fight. Norwegian volunteers had been just showing up for battles with their own weapons if they had them, or asking to be issued rifles and ammo; the extra stuff was probably in anticipation of a good volunteer turnout.

He formed the Telemark Regiment and set them to work blocking the main road from Oslo, through Telemark, to Bergen. This is rough country and there was one road through it. They conducted ambushes and blew up bridges along a forty-mile stretch of road from Vinje to Vagsli, also blocking the route from the canal port at Dalen to Vinje. This wasn’t just harassment; it was thought likely that the British and French would land major forces somewhere in southern Norway and holding the road would block German communications and prevent them concentrating forces against an Allied landing in the south.

In any case the invasion of France preempted any Allied action in Norway and the Germans brought major forces to bear on the Telemark Regimant. There was a pitched battle from May3-5. Wikipedia claims the Germans suffered heavy casualties but doesn’t provide numbers. The Panzers and Stukas were brought in. The Telemark Regiment negotiated a surrender and I’m assuming had to lay down arms. This was early in the occupation; later on the Germans would have shot every last one of them. Were prisoners taken? What about the Telemark citizen volunteers? How many of the veterans of this battle went underground?

Far as I know, this was the last infantry battle in which Krags were used as one side’s battle rifle. It was Krags vs KAR 98 Mausers. They gave as good as they got.

[m1ashooter]

Do you know what happened to the troops after the country surrendered. Were they held until wars end etc.

[jon_norstog]

It depended who they surrendered to. The Wehrmacht and professional soldier OICs, at5 least in the beginning, would disarm them. take their uniforms and let them go home. There were a lot of SS units and they might execute prisoners or not. Some people, including soldiers, got sent to camps. Some men, even whole units, got to Sweden and were interned.

A lot of the soldiers and volunteers joined up with MILORG, the home team military resistance. And got ratted out by informers, captured, tortured and executed or sent to camps in Germany. My cousin was in a unit put together by British intelligence; he trained in Scotland. His unit "Company Lingen," had British weapons, got their instructions from Britain, but coordinated with what was left of Milorg. They mostly stayed in the high country unless they were on an operation.

[free1954]

great write up. thanks for posting.