In the footsteps of the Finnmark Partisans

Summary: The Finnmark Partisans – A Forgotten Resistance Group

This book uses the term partisan to refer to a group of agents sent from the Soviet Union to Finnmark during the Second World War. This partisan movement was formed when approximately 100 people fled from East Finnmark to the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1940. Most of them came from the fishing village of Kiberg by the Varanger Fjord, but people from Sør-Varanger and Troms were also among those who fled to the east. 

The reasons for leaving Finnmark were many: For almost 200 years the region had been closely linked to the Russians through the Pomor trade. Also, poverty and hardship among the fishermen along the coast of Finnmark in the interwar period was a factor and at the same time news of the emergence of a new Soviet state and a classless society established after the revolution in 1917 made many Norwegians curious as to what sort of society and life could be offered across the border.

In August 1940 the Communist Party was the first party in Norway to be banned by the German occupying forces. This probably made many people with communist sympathies uneasy about their own and their family’s future. The fear of staying in Norway under those circumstances and the curious and optimistic attitude towards the country to the east, and perhaps also a longing for adventure, were some of the reasons that led nearly 100 people fleeing to the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1940.

At first, the Norwegian refugees were arrested for illegally crossing the border to the Soviet Union. They were also accused of being German spies. After interrogations these suspicions were dismissed. The Soviet Union was in great need of inside information from Finnmark, and realised that this group of Norwegians presented an excellent opportunity to recruit intelligence personnel for agency work in Finnmark. The Norwegian refugees were divided into two groups: women and children were sent to the fruit and berry station of Plodojagodnaja outside the city of Sjadrinsk behind the Ural Mountains, while the men were sent to a training base in Lavna outside Murmansk.

The first group of partisans to be sent out consisted of 13 men. The expedition did not have luck on its side. Several of the members of the group were killed, the partisan’s network was dissolved and many of their helpers arrested. It was then decided to send out smaller units of three agents who would observe German activity and report back to the Russians. These units typically consisted of two Norwegians and one Russian, where the Norwegians would use their local connections to gain information, while the Russian was in charge of radio communication.

Most of the groups were transported by submarines, while some of the groups were dropped by parachute. Several, but not all, of the partisans were forced to make a declaration of loyalty, the so-called Murmansk oath. It went something like the following:

I hereby declare to voluntarily serve the Soviet Union intelligence service, and never disclose to anyone what I might see or hear, and never forget that punishment from the Soviet Union will reach me wherever in the world I may be, should I break this contract.

Many of the partisan groups faced serious problems during their period of activity. There were potential complications in the transportation of both people and equipment; the radio communication with Murmansk might be poor and on several occasions groups were not picked up at the arranged time. Airdrops with supplies to the groups were often dropped at the wrong locations, and often at times of the year and day when the drops could be observed by many who should not have seen them – thus the supply drops often had unfortunate consequences.

The purpose of the Russian partisan work was to gain intelligence about German activity on land as well as German sea transportations eastwards along the Norwegian coast. This information could be used to bomb strategic locations on land and to attack German shipping convoys. It is however uncertain how good the Soviet Union was at using the partisan intelligence in targeted military attacks. Previously, the estimated number of ships sunk due to partisan intelligence was approximately 80, but in recent years the number has been reduced to 10-15 vessels.

Much of the partisan activity was revealed and ended in the summer and autumn of 1943. During the war, 23 partisans were killed, and 23 civilian helpers were executed for cooperating with the partisans, while 30 were sentenced to prison in Germany. Those who were arrested by the Germans were usually subject to severe torture during interrogation. The partisans and their helpers, in other words, suffered tragic fates during the war.

Multiple sources have stated that approximately 45 Norwegians were recruited as partisans during the war. This number, however, is contested. It is possible that approximately 45 Norwegians were directly recruited by the Northern Fleet. But in addition to these, another 30 Norwegians were recruited by the Russian intelligence service NKVD (later KGB). If you also include the Norwegian radio telegraphists in Lavna, the submarine pilots, agents in Norway, and all the complicit helpers and informants in Norway, the number of Norwegians involved in the resistance movement associated with the Soviet Union could amount to well over 250 people.

For the surviving partisans, the years after the war were difficult. Some were detained for years in prison camps in the Soviet Union due to alleged breaches of loyalty and confidentiality, or due to suspicions of counterespionage for the Germans. Many of those who were detained in the Soviet Union never returned to Norway. The partisans who survived the war and returned to a liberated Norway also had a hard time. Norwegian defence and police authorities kept them under close surveillance for decades due to suspicion of espionage for the Russians. These people had suffered many losses and great hardship during the war. But for many of them, the post-war era offered no relief.

After 25 years, the first book about the partisan movement was written by Hans Kristian Eriksen from Kiberg. His book Partisaner i Finnmark [Partisans in Finnmark] in 1969, was the first of many books on the topic. Kjell Fjørtoft followed with the book “Lille-Moskva” [Little Moscow] in 1983. Since then, several books have been published on the topic.

An important turning point in the public attitude to the partisans, occurred when King Olav laid a wreath at the memorial place for the partisans in the summer 1983, and later when King Harald followed with his famous speech at the same place 3^rd of August 1992.

This book gives a description of the different groups of agents and their efforts: who they were, when they established their base, what their destiny was. The stories are illustrated with pictures, maps and GPS references from field trips in the summer 2017 and 2018. The motivation for the book is my concern that the resistance fight and the memory and bravery of the Finnmark partisans should never be forgotten. 

Chapter 1, page 10: Lavna, Russia.

At the beginning of World War II, many Norwegians fled across the border from Norway to the Soviet Union. The Norwegians who crossed the Sea to the Fisherman’s Peninsula in 1940 came from the area around the Varangerfjord. A further migration from the Norwegian side came at the end of September 1940. At that time, a total of between 60 and 70 people fled; men, women and children from the fishing village of Kiberg.

Most of the Norwegians were arrested when they arrived in the Soviet Union, they were suspected of illegal border crossing and espionage. Eventually, the Russians realized that the country needed an intelligence network in the Finnmark area of Norway. The Russians thought it was appropriate to recruit for this activity from the newly arrived Norwegians – through them the Soviet Union had people who knew the language and were well known in Finnmark. The Northern Fleet, the Red Army and the NKVD (later KGB) therefore established a joint training camp for men in Lavna, a little west of the Murmansk Fjord, in July 1941. The partisans received training in self-defense, the use of weapons, orientation with a map and compass, radio telegraphy, parachute jumping, espionage, sabotage and the use of hand grenades and other explosives. The base also arranged money and fake documents such as passports, local border traffic permits, residence permits and ration cards. In total, there were close to 50 partisans who received their training in Lavna. A training course usually lasted 3-4 months. Some Norwegians were also trained to become submarine pilots, while others received telegraph operator training.

The commander of the Lavna camp was Lieutenant Commander Pavel Sutjagin. Nikolai Lobanov was responsible for parachute instruction. Nina Krymova was hired as an interpreter and welfare manager for the Norwegian refugees who had come from Finnmark. She was also a link between the Norwegians and the Soviet authorities and acted as a unifying, supportive mother figure for those who were accommodated in Lavna.

Several women received training in telegraphy. Together with other women and children, they had first been transported to an agricultural collective behind the Ural Mountains. In the summer of 1942, they were offered an opportunity to travel to Lavna by the Murmansk Fjord and work in the partisan camp there. Their job was to receive coded messages that the partisans sent from their lookouts along the coast of Finnmark. The messages contained information about German shipping traffic that the partisans had observed passing eastwards, in addition to other information about German activity and force build-up. The messages were coded by the partisans. The women who received the messages did not understand the content, but could see which group had sent the respective messages. The messages were then deciphered by the Northern Fleet, which in turn could use the information to direct submarines to attack German convoys or planes to bomb relevant targets. In July 1943, the Germans began bombing the camp in Lavna, which meant that the Russians moved the camp to Retinski, further out in the Murmansk fjord.

Picture descriptions

• P 10: The Alyosha monument in Murmansk, facing west towards the Litsa valley – where as many as 100.000 Soviet soldiers died during WWII.
• P 13: The memorial park in Lavna, where the partisan training camp was located.
• P 14: The memorial walls in the Litsa valley – between Kirkenes and Murmansk

Chapter 2, page 16: Kirkenes

On Skytterhusfjellet outside Kirkenes, one of the war’s most brutal and tragic events in partisan history unfolded. During the campaign against partisan activities in Berlevåg and Persfjord in the summer of 1943, a number of arrests were made of civilian helpers, and those arrested were taken to Kirkenes. On the 17^th of August 1943, a court-martial was held in Bjørnevatn. The trial took only a couple of hours with the following result:

• Eleven partisan helpers received the death penalty, while three received prison sentences.

The execution of the eleven condemned to death was carried out on the morning of August 18^th, 1943. The prisoners had been ordered out with shovels to dig their own common grave. With them were about 30 German soldiers and non-commissioned officers. The German officer who was in charge of the work was drunk, he taunted the prisoners to speed up their work. The prisoners were aware that they were assigned to dig their own grave and were therefore in no hurry to do the job. The officer continued to harass the prisoners and eventually, he spat in the face of one of the Norwegians sentenced to death. The story goes that one of the prisoners, Egil Bertheussen from Berlevåg, sprang forward in anger and killed the senior officer with a sharp shovel blow to the head.

As a result of the murder of the German officer, the method of killing the prisoners was changed. Instead of a planned shot in the neck, the prisoners were instead beaten to death with shovels by the German soldiers; one by one. The bodies were then placed in a common grave. None of those condemned survived and there were no other Norwegians present during the execution.

The grave was located and opened in 1946. A medical examination of the bodies found that none of the dead showed signs of having been shot, while all of the skulls had been crushed with an impact weapon. Norwegian authorities never succeeded in finding the culprits behind this crime.

The remains were later transported back to their home municipalities for burial there.

Later in 1943, five more Norwegian partisan helpers were sentenced to prison sentences.

The campaign against partisan activities throughout the autumn of 1943 also led to the arrest of people who had assisted the Gallok group (see Chapter 8). Ten civilians were brought before the Field War Tribunal in Bjørnevatn as a result of the capture of this group. The sentence was handed down on 1 December and resulted in seven of the ten being sentenced to a penitentiary, while three were sentenced to death. On the morning of December 3rd, the three were taken to “Signalhøyda” [The Signal Elevation] just outside Kirkenes in a terrible snowstorm. The execution took place at 10.13 in the morning.

Picture descriptions

• P 17: The memorial stone south of Kirkenes where 11 partisan helpers were beaten to death on August 18th 1943.
• P 18: The exhibition at the Grenseland Museum in Kirkenes displaying items from Øretoppen and other partisan sites.
• P 20: The grave where the 11 partisan helpers were buried. After 80 years nature has still not taken over the site. It is as if nature guards the place and ensures that the terrible war crime is not forgotten. 

Chapter 3, page 22: Beallječohkka / Øretoppen.

In September 1944, a group consisting of three Norwegians was put ashore in Storbukt on the south side of the Holmengråfjord outside Kirkenes. The group brought rations for three months. The partisans’ mission was to find a vantage point on the mountain of Øretoppen [The Ear Peak], where they would monitor German ship activity in and out of Bøkfjorden and other German activity.

The group found a cave northeast of Øretoppen and used this as a residence, a source of radio broadcasts and a starting point for reconnaissance. The partisan work consisted of reconnaissance from Øretoppen – the Russians were particularly interested in shipping in and out of Bøkfjorden.

From the east side of Øretoppen, the partisans had a panoramic view to the east and could see for themselves how the Soviet offensive that had started on the 7^th of October gradually moved westwards towards the place where they were staying. On the 26^th of October, they were told that they were in liberated territory. They then packed up their things, went to Ropelv where they joined landed Soviet troops and marched into Kirkenes with them.

The three partisans agreed among themselves not to tell anyone about the expedition of which they had been part. Information about the partisan group at Øretoppen was therefore not known until the last survivor in 2004 spoke about what he had been involved in.

Picture descriptions

• P 23-25: Pictures from the day the cave was rediscovered in 2005.
• P 29: From Øretoppen the view towards Kirkenes is excellent – whether you are a partisan agent or a hiking tourist.
• P 31: Today the partisan cave at Øretoppen is like an outdoor museum with an information board and a place to sit down. 

Chapter 4, page 32: Bøkfjorden and Holmengråfjorden.

In the first years of the war, the fjord areas in Sør-Varanger were important transport arteries for the partisans from the south side of the Varangerfjord.

Several Norwegians fled out of Bøkfjorden before heading east towards the Fishermen’s Peninsula. Harry Jensen and Aksel Fagervik were responsible for much of this transport with the boat M/K Gudvar. The two were arrested in early June 1941. Harry Jensen was sentenced to death and shot at Thomasdalen in Vadsø on the 30^th of September the same year. Aksel Fagervik was sentenced to ten years in a penitentiary in Germany, he survived the war.

The Holmengråfjord was also used as a transport route to and from the Soviet Union during the early war years. The fjord faces east and is hidden from Bøkfjorden, which made it ideal as a transport route between Murmansk and Kirkenes. The bottom of the fjord is also said to have been used as a mailbox during the war, in that the Norwegians put pictures, maps and information at certain places in the bottom of the fjord. This information was then retrieved by Russian boats after they had been informed via the Pasvik partisan group’s radio transmitter.

Picture descriptions

• P 33: The Bøkfjord (also known as the Kirkenes fjord).
• P 32, 34, 35: Pictures from The Holmengrå fjord. 

Chapter 5, page 36: The Pasvik Valley.

In the Pasvik valley, on the Norwegian side of the mighty Pasvik river, partisan groups were active in the first years of the war.

In September 1941, a group of 34 men walked on foot from Murmashi south of Murmansk through the Finnish Corridor. There were two Norwegians in the group that continued further into Norway. They made their observations especially in the Kirkenes area, they made many contacts and then tried to get back to Murmansk on foot. They had to make a return trip at Litsa due to fighting, and after much drama, the two finally made it back to the Soviet Union by “borrowing” a boat at Jakobsnes and using it to get over to the Fisherman’s Peninsula.

In the summer of 1942, the partisans returned to the Pasvik valley. This time they were flown in with three small seaplanes that landed on a lake in Finnish territory, in the so-called Petsamo corridor. From there, they entered Norway.

Accused of espionage against the German occupiers, the partisan helper Osvald Harjo was arrested on the 17^th of August 1942. He was subjected to severe torture in Kirkenes, and it was on the cards that he would probably soon be sentenced to death by the Germans. A plan was therefore made by Harjo’s acquaintances to free him from his prison cell in Kirkenes. On the evening of 6th of October, policeman Hans Harald Rygh was to lock Harjo in his cell after he had come back from interrogation by the Gestapo. But instead of locking Harjo in his cell, Rygh let him take the few belongings he had in his cell and together they ran away to Rygh’s dormitory, which was across the street from the police station. They had two backpacks already prepared. From Kirkenes, the two walked along the main road south out of Kirkenes, they got a car ride to Langvasseid and from there they made their escape on foot. They managed to make it unseen further up the Pasvik valley and on the 8^th of October they arrived at the partisan camp at Rørvannet in Pasvik. Another partisan group was located just a kilometer further north.

The two fugitives joined forces with the partisan groups, which eventually joined together in a turf hut large enough to accommodate the entire nine-man group. It is said of the Pasvik partisans that they were rather careless in getting to the village and showing themselves to people. They are said to have been to a sauna at Hauge farm and to a shop at Skogfoss. Through such contact, they received both food and useful information about the Germans’ activities.

After Harjo’s escape from prison, he was wanted by the German police in Sør-Varanger and the members of the group realized that it was necessary to escape. They first waited for the Russians to come and pick them up by plane. Due to unfavorable weather conditions and eventually snow, this could not be carried out. In mid-December 1942, this partisan group of nine men therefore set off on skis eastwards through Finland towards the Soviet Union. After five days of arduous skiing and 320 kilometers traveled, they made it through to the Soviet front lines.

The group was first interned in Murmansk. The detention for Harjo was changed to arrest on February 8^th in Kirovsk. He was then told that he was suspected of being a German spy and of having revealed the names of several key members of the partisan movement in Sør-Varanger. Later, Harald Rygh was also arrested.

Harjo was sentenced to 15 years in prison camp for espionage, connection with the enemy and helping a foreign power that was an enemy of the Soviet Union, while Rygh was sentenced to five years of labor camp for having voluntarily joined Quisling’s police and thus participated in the Gestapo’s actions in Norway.

Harald Rygh died of dysentery in the Kodina camp in Arkhangelsk County on the 26^th of August 1943 at only 23 years of age. Osvald Harjo miraculously survived his imprisonment in the Soviet prison camps, and returned home to Norway in 1955. He wrote the book titled “Moskva kjenner ingen tårer” [Moscow knows no tears] after returning to Norway.

The Murmansk Prosecutor General acquitted Harald Rygh of the charges in 1989, while the Prosecutor General of the Soviet Northern Fleet cleared Harjo in 1990.

Picture descriptions

• P 40-49: Pictures from various partisan sites in the Pasvik valley. Note that the forest, bogs and lakes made the valley a good hiding place for the locals, at the same time a place where someone unfamiliar with the area could easily get lost.
• P 47: Pictures of the turf hut for the nine men taken in the late 1940s, 1960s, 1996 and 2017. The hut is now barely visible.

Chapter 6, page 52: Stonga.

A Russian partisan group was located at Munkvassbekken, 20 miles west of Kirkenes, in the late autumn of 1943 to March 1944. There was a lot of activity in the Neiden fjord; among other things, the workshop ship Südmeer was in the area at this time.

The partisans first established themselves in a rock crack that they covered to create a hiding place. Eventually, they moved into a turf hut that they had built. The partisans also had to resort to theft of food to survive; the locals in Stonga experienced both that grouse snares had been emptied and that a sheep could go missing from the barn. The locals also noticed that there were often German cars with tracking equipment in the area. The Germans probably thought that the group were further up in the mountains, but they never discovered them, despite them only being situated a short kilometer above the national road.

In March 1944 (probably on the 23^th of March), the partisans were picked up by an airplane that landed on the ice on a lake just northeast of Munkvassbekken. On the lake-ice, remains of signal lights (bonfires), footprints, cigarette butts and marks from landing gears or floats were found.

Picture descriptions

• P 52-55: The pictures show remnants of a partisan hut and the view over the Neiden fjord. 

Chapter 7, page 56: Upper Neiden.

On the 24^th of March 1944, two partisans were parachuted out at Suopumajärvi (Sámi: Suohppunjávri), just south of the Norwegian-Finnish border a few kilometres west of upper Neiden. They were to replace the groups that had been located at Gallok in 1943 (chapter 8) and in 1943-44 in Stonga (chapter 6). The purpose of the group was – in the same way as the previous groups in the area – to contribute information about German movements in the Kirkenes area. The two partisans skied a few miles northeast, crossed the border into Norway, and established themselves in a log cabin at Haukkajärvi (Sámi: Hávgajávri). There, after only a few days, they were discovered by two hunters and reported to German authorities. The two partisans were shot by Germans as early as the 1^st of April 1944, before they had time to carry out any intelligence work.

Picture descriptions

• P 56-59: Pictures showing remnants of the hut where the partisans were ambushed and killed. A memorial stone has been erected. 

Chapter 8, page 60: Gallok.

At the beginning of April 1943, a group of partisans were parachuted at the Gallok area west of Kirkenes. Several containers with weapons, ammunition, food and other equipment were dropped to supply them.

The agents relied on information obtained from their assistants, and with the help of people in Bugøyfjord, they collected a number of maps showing German activity and installations. The partisans could then send radio messages eastwards with information about gasoline stocks, gun positions, and a large ammunition ship that was at Bugøyfjord. The information meant that the Soviet Union could accurately bomb these locations.

The group broke up in early September 1943 and began to move eastwards towards the Soviet Union. They managed to get past the battle lines on the Litsa River and to safety to Murmansk.

The group from Gallok was the only one of the five operational partisan groups that escaped the Germans unscathed in the autumn of 1943. However, the group’s civilian helpers were severely affected. In the summer of 1943, arrests had been made after the German activity at Arnøya, Berlevåg, Syltevik and in Persfjord. In interrogations made in these cases, information about the group in Gallok was leaked to the Gestapo. On the 1^st of December 1943, ten Norwegians were therefore charged with helping the three partisans who were in Gallok.

Three partisan helpers were sentenced to death, while seven helpers were sentenced to prison sentences in German prison camps.

Those condemned to death were executed outside Kirkenes on the 3^rd of December in a terrific snowstorm. A memorial to the three was erected in October 2019 (see chapter 2).

Picture descriptions

• P 60, 65, 66, 67: Pictures show remnants of the partisan camp found in 2017.
• P 68-69: An expedition from Varanger Museum and Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) recovered all items which were of historical interest to the museum. 

Chapter 9, page 72: Vadsø

Towards the latter part of the war, on the night of the 25^th of October 1944, two Norwegians were parachuted out over the marshes north of Vadsø.

The plan was for the two to act as interpreters for the Russian crews who were to be disembarked on the Varanger Peninsula a few days later. However, the two parachutists were dropped in the wrong place, northeast of Svanevannet north of Vadsø, which was clearly visible to the Germans who were stationed south of the same lake. The Germans therefore launched a search for the partisans using tracking dogs. However, the two managed to pack away their parachutes and miraculously hide out on a marsh and stay hidden while the Germans combed the area for three days. They lay still in the marsh during the day, while at night they could move around a bit and find some berries to eat.

When later, due to lack of food, they felt compelled to seek out people, Eastern Finnmark was already liberated and the Germans had fled westwards. The two could then move down to a free Vadsø without danger.

Picture descriptions

• P 72-74: The area where the two partisans landed and hid.

Chapter 10, page 76: Komagdalen.

I. September 1941.

Between Kiberg and Komagvær, on the south side of the Varanger peninsula, lies the headland of Langbunes. The headland is rugged and barren, like most of this weather-harsh coast, and it is also uninhabited. It was here that the very first landing of a partisan group in Finnmark took place. On the evening of September 26^th, 1941 – just two months after Germany had violated the German-Soviet non-aggression pact – a total of 13 men disembarked here; six Norwegians and seven Soviet citizens. The purpose of the expedition was to conduct reconnaissance and intelligence, establish contact with the Norwegian resistance movement and plan sabotage actions.

The group came packed with radio transmitters and weapons as well as food and supplies for two weeks. They made it ashore smoothly and made their way up into Komagdalen. There they went into the cabin Frostborg and in a turf hut, both of which were located by the marsh area of Kirojänkä – 10 km up in the valley. There, the partisans established a base where they contacted people to obtain information about the area. The group made contact with many civilians from the Kiberg area. At the beginning of October, the partisan group moved to Bjørneskarhytta, which was located 25 km from the sea.

On the evening of the 6^th of October, four of the partisans came down from Bjørneskarhytta to meet two civilian contacts in Kirojänkä, by the hut they had left a few days earlier. There they were discovered by the Germans, and a battle ensued. Five of the six escaped, but the partisan Håkon Øien was left by the others after being shot in the leg. He took his own life with a gun so as not to end up in German captivity.

The other five on the run escaped into the plateau and managed to find Bjørneskarhytta and join the remaining nine members of the group who were still there. The group later moved another 10 km into the Varanger peninsula to the cabin Kjølstua.

The 14 in the cabin sent messages to Murmansk and asked for supplies. Planes were sent out and supplies were released, but these were dropped in the wrong place and were never found by the partisans. Food shortages arose and the situation started to become precarious. However, the group had snatched a transmitter at Kirojänkä. The partisans carved skis out of the bunk tables and horse stalls at Kjølstua, ski bindings were made from rucksack straps, and they then set out on skis. The group agreed with Murmansk that a submarine would come and pick them up at Langbunes at midnight on the 17^th of October. The distance from Bjørneskarhytta via Finngammen to Langbunes was 35 km. The group made it down to Langbunes at the right time, on October 17^th at 11.30 p.m., but then found that the submarine did not show up. The group went into an abandoned house at Langbunes and waited for a day. But no submarine arrived the next night either.

On October 20^th, the partisans were attacked by a group of about 15 German soldiers. In the shooting that occurred, three men in the group were killed. Several Germans also died in this battle. Due to a misunderstanding between the two German teams, both units withdrew. The partisans took advantage of this pause, and the eight remaining partisans fled in two groups. One group made their way into the sea and miraculously managed to get away from the Germans. Soaking wet, cold and tired, they walked towards Persfjord. The rest went to Kramvik. There they were hidden under the floor of a house. The Germans later came to Kramvik and searched the house, but never found the partisans hiding under the floor.

The six partisans who lay under the floor in Kramvik were allowed to borrow the master’s boat and at 9 p.m. on the evening of October 22^nd, 1941, they headed east. The next day, the boat’s owner reported “loss of boat” to the police, but by then the six partisans, with the good help of the northwest gale, had already made it safely over to Vaidaguba on the Fisherman’s Peninsula, a voyage of eleven hours over the open foaming sea with only a pocket compass for navigation, quite a feat!

The group that had gone towards Persfjord was given provisions from the plane. They were all picked up by a submarine at Seglodden in Persfjord on the 15^th of November 1941 (chapter 12), and could thus be united with the rest of the group in the Lavna camp.

II. August 1943.

Komagdalen was also at the centre of partisan events in August 1943 when the three partisans who had been in Berlevåg (chapter 14) were on the run. They were arrested in Langedalen, a side valley of Komagdalen. The Germans wanted to arrest the three partisans on August 27^th. Frantz Mathisen knew what awaited them in the event of an arrest; his brother Alfred had been executed in June of the same year after several months of torture. He therefore shot himself instead of being arrested. The other two partisans were arrested.

III. November 1943.

Bjørneskarhytta in Komagdalen was also the scene of a drama that came as a result of fake radio messages sent to the Soviet Union.

On the 5^th of October, a Norwegian and a Russian partisan were parachuted over the Varanger peninsula to help a partisan group that was supposed to be in Bjørneskarhytta. The two never found the partisan group they were expected to assist, and they asked to be picked up by a submarine – which never came. They were then told by the Soviet base to return to Murmansk via Finland.

The two began to walk across the Varanger peninsula. On the 30^th of October, they arrived at Bjørneskarhytta, where they stayed there for a few days. On the 6^th of November, they were spotted outside Bjørneskarhytta by a German patrol. The next morning – November 7^th at 05.15 – the Germans carried out a surprise attack on the two in the cabin. The Norwegian partisan was killed by the Germans in the shootout and was buried at the cabin, while the Russian was taken prisoner.

When Norwegians arrived at the site in the spring of 1944, they found Bjørneskarhytta bloody and riddled with bullets.

IV. October 1944

On the night of the 27^th of October, ten men parachuted out over Komagdalen. The background for the operation was to find out about the German presence in the area. Were there still Germans present and how many were they? Were there larger German garrisons along the Nord-Varanger coast? As soon as the area was mapped, preparations were to be made for a major Soviet landing from the sea.

Around 04:30 in the morning, the ten jumped from the plane into a terrible storm. Because of the wind, the ten were scattered over a large area. Several of the partisans were injured during the landing and two died, one of them was Nikolai Lobanov – the leader of the group. 

Picture descriptions

• P 77, 89: The mighty Komagelva river.
• P 79, 88: The Kjølstua hut.
• P 81: The Memorial obelisk at Langbunes.
• P 82, 83: Langedalen, a side valley from Komagdalen.
• P 85, 86: The Bjørneskarhytta hut.
• P 91: The white house where partisans hid at Kramvik before fleeing across the sea to the Soviet Union in October 1941.
• P 91: The two lower pictures show the group of hikers finding Lobanovs gravestone in 2022. 

Chapter 11, page 94: Kiberg.

From Kiberg, about 70 people fled across the sea to the Fisherman’s Peninsula in the Soviet Union in 1940. It was these citizens of Kiberg who were to constitute the majority of people involved with partisan activity throughout the war.

Of the approximately 50 Norwegians who were sent out as partisans from the Soviet Union, 30 were from Kiberg. The mayor of Vardø district at the outbreak of the war was elected to the communists’ list. He was mayor until he fled east on the 25^th of September 1940. The village was known for its support of communist thinking and was therefore known by the nickname “Little Moscow”.

During the war, the Germans built a huge military facility, “Festung Kiberg”, at Kibergneset, just east of the village of Kiberg. The entire headland was one big fortress with cannons, mortars, flamethrowers, searchlights, mines, radars and advanced rangefinders. The largest guns bore the names Scharnhorst, Moltke and Gneisenau. The fortress was militarily operational already from the autumn of 1942. Together with the fortifications that were built on Ekkerøya, Kjelmøya and eventually Liinahamari in Petsamo, these facilities effectively blocked all unwanted transport in the Varangerfjord. Around 700 German soldiers were stationed at the German fortifications.

Picture descriptions

• P 94: Kiberg.
• P 97, 98: The partisan museum, Kiberg.
• P 98: The Kiberg cape (Kibergneset) with the massive German war constructione still very visible.

Chapter 12, page 100: Persfjord.

I. October 1941.

The first time Persfjord is described in a partisan context is after the battles at Langbunes in October 1941 (chapter 10). From Langbunes, four of the original 13-man partisan group went towards Persfjord. They were later helped with the supply of provisions by aircraft. The partisans were picked up by a submarine at Seglodden in Persfjord on 15 November 1941.

II. Winter 1943.

In the autumn of 1942/winter of 1943, the NKVD (later called KGB) established a partisan group at Seglodden just west of Vardø. The group was briefly operational for periods as early as January 1942, but it was not until October 1942 that the group was permanently established.

Many have asked why a group was established only 15 km away from the nearest group in Syltevika. It is also unclear why both the Northern Fleet and the NKVD established separate partisan groups, instead of cooperating on the use of reports that came from the groups.

The partisans at Seglodden built themselves a stone hut, but the location was not optimal for viewing. They also had to be careful about moving outside the cave in the winter since they would leave tracks that could reveal the position of the group. They therefore also established a lookout at Seglodden.

On the 14^th of July 1943, another three partisans arrived at the residence at Blåsenborg. The three had hastily moved from Syltevika due to a heavy German presence. On the morning of July 15^th, the five Norwegians decided to make a reconnaissance trip on the mountain, while the Russian telegraph operator remained at the cave.  He was discovered there by a German minesweeper, arrested and interrogated. During the interrogation, he talked about the partisan groups in Persfjord and Syltevik. When the Norwegian partisans returned to the cave after several days of reconnaissance, they did not know that the telegraph operator had been arrested. German troops had now been directed to Persfjord where they had surrounded the partisans’ hideout. The partisans eventually realized what was happening and entrenched themselves in the cave. Incredibly, two of the partisans managed to escape, while the other three died in the battle in the cave on July 28^th; grenades and flamethrowers had overcome the partisans.

In the cave, the Germans found large amounts of equipment when the fighting ended: A radio transmitter and receiver, 30 meters of antenna cable, backpacks with provisions, canned food, chocolate, clothes, two Krag-Jørgensen rifles, two assault rifles, three submachine guns, ammunition, hand grenades, compasses, cash, maps, passports, notes of ship movements and a complete log of messages that had been sent to Murmansk.

The two partisans who escaped the fight in Persfjord embarked on an incredible escape. They managed to evade German patrols on the Varanger peninsula by walking at night and lying still during the day. They walked across the entire Varanger peninsula to the Nesseby church, where they took a rowboat and rowed across the Varangerfjord to Mortensand. From there they went over the mountains to Bugøyfjord, further across Skogerøya island to Storbukt on Skogerøya’s east side – from here they were rowed to Stonga on the mainland. From Stonga, the journey continued on foot over to Sandnesdalen, across the Pasvik valley and into Finland. Just before they entered safe Soviet territory, they were confronted by German patrols and fell in battle just north of Litle Koskajärvi on the 22^nd of August 1943.

As a result of the capture of the group at Persfjord, the Germans made a number of arrests. Three partisan helpers were arrested and taken to Kirkenes. On the 17^th of August they received death sentences, and on the 18^th of August they were executed just south of Kirkenes (chapter 2).

III. September 1943.

On the 19^th of October 1943, a Soviet submarine came to Seglodden to pick up a Norwegian partisan group. The message sent to the Soviet Union was false and the Germans were ready when the submarine arrived. Two Norwegians were put ashore. At the same moment, the Germans turned on the floodlights with the help of searchlights and flares, and gave full fire from all their cannons and other firearms that had been mounted and prepared for the guests from the east. Incredibly, the submarine managed to escape without much damage, while the two partisans remained on land. They were eventually arrested and taken to prison in Kirkenes. Their interrogations are described as extremely brutal.

Picture descriptions

• P 100: Persfjord with the characteristic Seglodden («The sail cape»,so named because the cliff resembled a sail on a boat).
• P 102: Steinar pointing at the lookout cave at Seglodden.
• P 105: View from the same lookout cave, Vardø is in the horizon.
• P 106: Remnants of the site at Blåsenborg on the left, from the lookout cave to the right.
• P 108: The memorial obelisk at Seglodden.
• P 109: Vardø with USA-owned radar domes.

Chapter 13, page 110: Syltevika.

The partisan group in Syltevika was established on the 4^th of April 1942. Syltevika was an excellent base for having an overview of the East Sea. In “The Strait” between inner and outer Syltevika lived the married couple Alfhild and Andreas Bruvoll. The partisans received certain information that the Bruvoll couple could be trusted and therefore they eventually contacted the couple. In the summer of 1942, the partisans chose to move down from the mountains and settle in Syltevika, just two hundred meters behind Bruvollstua [The Bruvoll Cabin]. There they built a hut of turf, stone and driftwood. An antenna was stretched 170 meters up the mountain of Munken, where lookouts were also built. The view from Munken was fantastic; it was an ideal place for monitoring ship traffic along the Finnmark coast.

The partisans mostly lived in the hut, but they also used the home of the Bruvolls. Alfhild Bruvoll was often in Hamningberg, and Andreas worked there permanently. The couple could therefore feed the partisans with information about the Germans activity in the area, which the guests diligently relayed to Murmansk.

On May 15^th of the same year, another two partisans arrived in Syltevika. The two had been transported by a fishing boat from Arnøya, where they had had a dramatic expedition and an unsuccessful attempt to establish a partisan base (chapter 22). The two stayed in Syltevika throughout the summer of 1942. On the 2^nd of October, the Arnøy partisans were picked up by a Soviet submarine and taken to Murmansk.

In July 1943, the Germans launched Operation Midnight Sun due to a suspicion of Soviet cells along the coast of Finnmark. The operation consisted of thorough man-guarding throughout the Varanger peninsula. The partisans in Syltevika no longer dared to take the chance of staying there. On the night of the 14^th of July 1943, they therefore decamped and walked the 20 km to Persfjord on foot and joined the group that lay there (chapter 12).

When the Germans arrived, they found the partisans’ hideout with, among other things, a radio transmitter, a booklet with radio codes, seven parachutes stuck into the ground, explosives, leather clothing and Russian political pamphlets with anti-Nazi content.

On the 15^th of July, Alfhild and Andreas Bruvoll also went on the run. The couple made it to Båtsfjord and survived there in a barn with friends, where they lived until November 1944.

Picture descriptions

• P 113: Hamningberg.
• P 114, 115: The Bruvollstua hut and still visible, the path leading to the partisan turf hut which has now fallen down. On the mountain «Munken» batteries used by partisan radio operators are still silent witnesses from the war. 

Chapter 14, page 118: Berlevåg.

It was in Berlevåg that the first three-person group was established. The landing of the first group at Nålneset on the 3^rd of February 1942 went smoothly according to the descriptions. At the barren Nålneset, the three partisans built themselves a shelter between walls of stacked slate and under a cornice of snow with a tarpaulin as a roof. The “house” was 70 cm high, and all movements had to be made crawling. It was bitterly cold, and even though they were surrounded by driftwood everywhere, they could not light a fire for fear of being discovered. Their tasks were, similar to the other groups, twofold: They were both to report on German shipping traffic, and also to report on German build-up in the area. The partisans learned, among other things, that the Germans were building an airport in Berlevåg, and also received information about the massive construction of the fortress at Veines by Kongsfjord. The group was picked up on the 3^rd of April 1942 and taken to Murmansk.

On the night of the 28^th of October 1942, a submarine with partisans came into the area again, this time to Løkvika a few kilometres west of Nålneset. The partisans established themselves in a mountain gorge just above Løkvika. The base in Løkvika had some advantages over Nålneset; the place was higher and had a better view of the East Sea, and the place they had now chosen was much closer to civilian helpers. The partisans spent the winter of 1943 in their cave above Løkvika, and reports of German convoys and other activity were constantly ticking eastwards.

In June 1943, the group felt that the shelter at Løkvika had begun to become unsafe. Many people knew of their whereabouts, and rumours of road construction between Kongsfjord and Berlevåg had also reached their ears. A road with German traffic just a few hundred meters below the cave would naturally jeopardize the entire operation. On the 22^nd of June, the three were therefore given a boat ride across Kongsfjorden to the east side of Kongsfjorden, to a stone cave in Bjørnvika. With them in the boat, they had food, radio transmitters, ammunition and the equipment they needed. What they did not have room for in the boat had been buried in an attempt at concealment at the cave in Løkvika. The partisans had a good view from their new quarters, but lost proximity to their civilian supporters.

The Germans launched a massive search for suspected intelligence services along the entire coast of Finnmark in July 1943. The operation was named Operation Midnight Sun, later followed by Operation Villand. The partisans learned of this operation only a few days in advance. When they observed German boats coming into Kongsfjorden, making beach raids and examining every island and every meter of beach, they chose to flee on the 12^th of July.

On the 13^th of July, the Germans struck Løkvika. The partisans were gone, but the Germans found one of the partisans’ hideouts. There lay the radio transmitter rigged up with batteries, in addition there were stocks of ammunition, hand grenades, provisions and also handwritten diaries with a detailed overview of the messages that the group had provided eastwards to Murmansk.

As part of the German search of the area, the cave in Kongsfjorden where the group had spent the last few weeks was also found. There, the Germans could report the discovery of radio transmitters, batteries, cash, clothing, medicines, bandages, sheepskin furs, sleeping bags, cameras with film and telephoto lenses, Russian assault rifles with ammunition, ration marks, Russian hand grenades, explosives, hunting rifles and handwritten diaries and maps.

As a result of these findings, the Germans arrested a number of civilians in Berlevåg. The arrested were transported to Kirkenes and brought to trial on the 17^th of August 1943 (chapter 2).

The three partisans who had fled first went to Lille Buevann inside Kongsfjordfjellet. From there they walked across the Varanger peninsula down Komagdalen. On the 27^th of August, the partisans from Berlevåg were arrested in Langedalen above Komagvær after spending more than a month on the Varanger peninsula (chapter 10).

Picture descriptions

• P 120: The memorial in Berlevåg to the memory of the seven partisan helpers who were beaten to death in Kirkenes in August 1943 (chapter 2).
• P 121: The Loe hut.
• P 123-124: The Cape Nålneset with remnants of a partisan dwelling.
• P 126-129: The cave in Kongsfjord.
• P 121: Cloud berries (multebær) from coastal Finnmark; nothing comes close to the taste of these berries! 

Chapter 15, page 132: Nordkyn.

On the 6^th of October 1943, three Norwegian partisans were landed on the Nordkyn Peninsula. The three were put ashore at Engelsnæringen in Oksefjorden, southwest of Kinnarodden. From there, they had a good view of traffic and convoys. The good location also meant that they had excellent radio contact to the east. In addition to reporting their own sightings, they also received messages from other stations and forwarded them eastwards.

The three were picked up by submarine on the 6^th of April 1944. They were then replaced by a pure Soviet group. The Russians were discovered by chance by local fishermen who had salmon farms standing nearby. The partisans were then discovered and captured by the Germans on the 18^th of May.

Picture descriptions

• P 132-137: Pictures from the stark Nordkyn penninsula.
• P 138: The memorial to five civilian Norwegains executed by the Germans at Hopseidet on May 6th 1945, just two days before Germany capitulated. 

Chapter 16, page 140: Opnan.

The story of the partisans at Opnan is probably one of the most dramatic, and certainly the most mythical of the partisan stories from Finnmark during the war.

Opnan was an abandoned fishing village. In winter, the place was deserted and abandoned, located right next to the Barents Sea. It was probably precisely because of this isolated location and the good view that the Soviet Union’s Northern Fleet had seen this place as ideal for a partisan group. The three partisans were disembarked from a submarine in bad weather on the 14^th of February 1942. Assisting during the landing were two Soviet non-commissioned officers. The group struggled to land both people and equipment in the bad weather, and it all ended in disaster; The boats went aground and both equipment and crew ended up in the icy water.

Exactly what happened during the landing is not known. What is known was that the two Soviet non-commissioned officers who were supposed to assist the partisans survived and made it ashore with radio transmitters, weapons and ammunition, while the food disappeared in the cold waters. We do not know what happened to the partisans. Some sources say that all three partisans drowned during the capsize, while other sources say that some of them survived. What we do know is that the group never sent a single radio message to the base in Murmansk.

The next thing we know is that six weeks later, the two Russian non-commissioned officers showed up in Skarsvåg, the nearest fishing village. By then they were frozen, tired and starving after walking just over 10 km in steep and extremely inaccessible terrain over the mountain from Opnan. The Russians were soon arrested and interrogated by local German authorities.

A number of people, both German and Norwegian, went to Opnan over the next few days to inspect the site and thereby familiarize themselves with what was happening. What was described from the observations was that there was a dismembered corpse lying on the shore, bloody clothes, a stack of meat in a washing water dish, a human head cut off from the body and bullet holes in the house after a shooting. What had happened is not known. Had there been a fight? Was the body that of one of the partisans? Was the person killed? Was the body cut up to be eaten? Were the Russians cannibals?

On the 9^th of June 1942, the occupying power called a press conference in the Norwegian parliament in Oslo. In a well-directed propaganda show, the two Russians were shown. The story, which was presented with Reichskommisar Josef Terboven and his closest associates as listeners, was duly described in Aftenposten the next day under the following headline: “Two Soviet Russian non-commissioned officers act as cannibals in Norway. Slaughters and eats three comrades, two of whom are Norwegians.” The Russians were presented as man-eaters and the story was that they had shot the partisans, cut them up and eaten them. This showed that Russians had to be regarded as Bolshevik cannibals, and naturally justified the war against the Soviet Union.

In retrospect, many questions have been asked about what had actually happened at Opnan. Some sources suggest that the dismembered corpse and pieces of meat on the table were arranged by the Germans in an attempt to put the Soviet Union and communism in a bad light. Other sources find no reason to doubt the German presentation of history.

Picture descriptions

• P 141: A picture from the press conference at the Storting in Oslo showing the two Soviet officers – possibly cannibals – who had survived the incident at Opnan. 
• P 142: Pictures taken at Opnan on April 9^th 1942 by Kaptein Fritz Fuhrmann, leader of the division of counter-espionage troops at Abwehrs Tromsø-office. The pictures display a body in the sea, and the severed limbs. 
• P 143: Opnan. The old settlement where the vegetation was yellow and green. 

Chapter 17, page 148: Havøysund.

The group that was put ashore on the 7^th of October 1943 at the foot of Mount Hesten, just south of Havøysund, consisted of three partisans – one Norwegian and two Russians. The three brought with them 2.5 tonnes of rations that were to last for six months. The crates contained flour, bread, clothes, weapons, ammunition, batteries, radio transmitters and last but not least, vodka. The next day, they discovered that the storm that had come during the night had created rough seas that had taken most of the equipment out to sea. From the beginning, this group hence had a problem with a shortage of provisions. The three established themselves on the mountainside in a cave where they had a good view of all the traffic through Rolvsøysundet. They placed the radio transmitter up on the mountain Hesten; from there they made good contact with Murmansk and constantly ticked messages eastwards about everything the partisans registered as German activity. Food shortages and hunger gradually developed for the three in the cave, and the situation became increasingly critical.

Due to the food shortage, the time for collection was pushed forward, to February 1944. The three partisans struggled through the snow down to the agreed pick-up point, but the submarine did not arrive at the agreed time. The next day they dragged themselves down to the shore again, but the submarine did not arrive that day either. On the third day, the partisans did not have the strength to go down, but by then the submarine had been there and gone.

The situation was critical, without food they would die of hunger. The Norwegian partisan therefore decided to go to a nearby village, Bakfjord, where he sought out a house where a fishing family lived with their five children. The partisans received good help with food and supplies from the fishing family, and thereby avoided starvation. The partisans were eventually offered a move from the cave to the fishing family in Bakfjord. They built themselves a secret living room under the goat barn. They established the radio transmitter in a radio cabin on the mountain behind Bakfjord.

On the 15^th of November, the houses of Bakfjord were set on fire by the Germans. The population that had remained in Bakfjord fled to the mountains and evaded the ordered evacuation. At Christmas 1944, the three partisans in Bakfjord broke up and headed east in a hijacked schooner “Bravo”. Eastern Finnmark was now free of Germans, and the boat was therefore free to travel through Båtsfjord, Vardø, Kiberg and Vadsø on its way to Kirkenes, where they submitted their first report to the Soviet authorities. In January 1945, they sailed on to Murmansk where they gave a report.

Picture descriptions

• P 149: Mount Hesten.
• P 151: The partisans’ radio hut is tucked in behind the cliff, just to  left of the outlet of the lake.
• P 152: We found skis and batteries beside the radio hut.
• P 153: The dwelling hut was located somewhat lower towards the sea. 

Chapter 18, page 156: Hammerfest – Torskefjordfjellet.

On the 8^th of May 1944, a Norwegian partisan was parachuted over the Torskefjord mountain, less than 20 km from the centre of Hammerfest. Just six months earlier, he had been abducted by Soviet forces from his home at Lille Ekkerøya in the Varangerfjord and taken to Lavna to be trained in telegraphy. He set himself up alone with a radio transmitter, unaware that he had established himself in the middle of a popular skiing area. The partisan was discovered by two local youths who happened to pass by on skis. The partisan informed the young people about his work, and then got help from these young people to find a better hiding place for himself and the transmitter.

These young people had friends who were also doing intelligence work against the Germans. However, the work of these other Hammerfest youths was somewhat different as their broadcasts went to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in London. This intelligence was specifically related to the battleship Tirpitz, which was located in Kåfjorden in Alta, which was of interest to the British. These youths made sure that information sent to the SIS was also given to the partisan so that he could convey the same to Murmansk. This is supposedly the only known case in Norway where agents working for British intelligence services gave information to a partisan in Soviet service.

However, the partisan was arrested up on Torskefjordfjellet, sleeping in a Soviet uniform, and was put under extreme torture. He was then sent to the prison at Møllergata 19 in Oslo and remained there until the end of the war.

Chapter 19, page 158: Hammerfest – Risvågdalen.

In October 1944, the Soviet Union needed more information from the Hammerfest area in western Finnmark. There were two experienced partisans who had been selected for this expedition. On the 9^th of October 1944, the two were parachuted over Svartfjellet in the northeast of Kvaløya, just a few miles from the centre of Hammerfest. There was a strong wind and the parachutes landed in Risvågdalen. At Risvåg, the partisans established a base and mounted a transmitter. 

After a few days, the partisans were discovered by a German patrol that arrived at the scene in a fishing boat. The partisans had probably been observed and denounced. Fighting ensued and several German soldiers died in the fighting. In the end, two lone shots could be heard, both partisans had chosen to take their own lives so as not to fall into the hands of the Germans. Inside the cave, the Germans found a radio transmitter, cash, fake passports, ID cards, ration cards and passes. 

The two partisans were first buried where they died in Risvågdalen. In May 1945, the bodies of the two were moved to the cemetery in Hammerfest. 

Picture descriptions

• P 159: The partisans’ cave in Risvågdalen.
• P 160: The lower picture shows the Risvåg lake from the north. The cave is in the woods on the far side of the lake.
• P 163: A gravestone at Hammerfest cemetary where the partisan corpses were later buried,. 

Chapter 20, page 162: Sørøya.

On the night of the 1^st of April 1942, three Norwegian partisans were put ashore from a submarine in Ofjorden on the west side of Sørøya in western Finnmark. The members of the expedition made it ashore smoothly, but lost a lot of equipment when their rubber dinghy went argound during the landing. However, they took with them both radio transmitters and supplies for six months. They quickly established a base in Ofjorden and set up a radio transmitter. The base was a good vantage point with a good view of Lopphavet.

They received clear radio signals from Murmansk, but the transmitter they had was too weak for Murmansk to receive anything they were transmitting. Moving the transmitter to a higher location did not help. From the outset, therefore, this expedition was unsuccessful.

The three partisans stayed on in Sørøya throughout the summer of 1942, collecting a lot of information from informants and trying to send it to Murmansk. However, the broadcasts never arrived. The submarine that was supposed to pick them up on September 20^th never showed up. The three lived on in Sørøya until the autumn of 1943. The supplies had long since run out and the three in the cave were completely dependent on hunting, fishing and more importantly, help from the locals. During this time, they got to know many local people who were generous in offering them food and help throughout the winter.

In mid-September 1943 – after almost a year and a half and without being able to send a single message eastward, they buried the diary and radio transmitter and left from Sørøya in a borrowed boat. They made it over to the mainland and then went into Finland and further across the border to Sweden. On the 4^th of October 1943, they arrived in Maunu in Sweden and reported to the Norwegian authorities.

After a long stay in Sweden, the three came home to Kiberg in 1945. In 1945, the three partisans chose to travel to Murmansk to pick up a boat and also to collect money they believed they were owed by the Russians. The result was that the three were arrested and put in a prison camp. The three were sentenced to eight, ten and ten years respectively for leaking Soviet military secrets.

One of the three was shot during an escape attempt from the Jorotej camp south of Arkhangelsk on August 18^th, 1946, he was only 26 years old. The other two were released from Soviet prison camps in 1953 and 1955.

Picture descriptions

• P 162, 163, 165: Outside the cave and the opening of the cave. 
• P 164: The view from the cave.
• P 166, 167: Inside the cave. 

Chapter 21, page 170: Alta.

The partisan activities in Alta are limited to one man. His purpose was to provide information about the world’s most powerful battleship, Tirpitz, which had used Kåfjorden outside Alta as its main base since the spring of 1943. The Tirpitz posed a major threat to the Murmansk convoys carrying vital supplies to the Soviet Union. Although Britain was behind most of the network of agents reporting conditions surrounding the battleship, the Soviet Union was also interested.

Picture descriptions

• P 171: The Kåfjord with bomb craters created by allied bombing of Tirpitz.
• P 172, 173: The Tirpitz Museum in Kåfjorden, Alta. 

Chapter 22, page 174: Arnøya.

It was not without reason that the Soviet Union had seen Arnøya in Northern Troms as a good place for intelligence. The island is bare and faces the sea with a good view of all the shipping that passes by. A partisan group consisting of two Norwegians and a Russian attempted to land from a submarine in Moldfarvika on the north side of Arnøya on the 21^st of February 1942. The weather was bad on this February day with heavy seas and heavy breaking waves when the landing started. The result was that the rubber boat with the two Norwegian partisans went aground, and the partisans ended up in the sea along with a lot of equipment. The men made it ashore, but a lot of equipment was lost. Only three of a total of 37 equipment boxes were brought ashore. The Russian telegraph operator did not make it ashore and had to return with the submarine. On land, the two Norwegian partisans were thus left in the storm, soaked, without a radio transmitter and telegraph operator, and almost without food. The whole purpose of the landing was therefore unsuccessful; They could neither send radio messages nor survive for long. The pair met people who took them on to Årviksand. They eventually initiated one of the local fishermen into their situation, and he gave them a lot of help. They were allowed to live in his barn for a while, they also lived for a period on the farm Rotvåg. The two partisans were scheduled to be picked up after four weeks, but the submarine that was supposed to pick them up never showed up. By now, there had already been far too many people who knew about these foreign spies on Arnøya, and the two felt the need to get away. Under the pretext that the fisherman was going fishing in Finnmark, he went east at the beginning of May with the two partisans under the boat deck. They journeyed to Syltevik where they joined the Bruvoll family (chapter 13).

In February 1943, the three partisans who had spent the summer in Syltevika and the winter in Murmansk were ready for a new attempt to jointly establish a partisan base on Arnøya. The landing from a submarine this time was in Moldfarvika, and the weather was just as difficult. The Soviet Union had invested heavily this time, no other partisan group had had such great equipment. A total of 78 crates of provisions, warm clothes, two rubber boats, plenty of kerosene for primuses, tobacco, cigarettes, a hundred litres of vodka and wine, three radio transmitters, two radio receivers, 80 dry batteries, three crates of ammunition, three pistols, three assault rifles, a machine gun and 15 hand grenades, as well as 60 000 kroner (NOK) and some Swedish currency, were landed on the beach in Moldfarvika.

This time they managed to get both themselves and their equipment safely to land. The group first established itself behind some large rocks above the flood destination in Moldfarvika where they were stuck due to bad weather and heavy storms. It was not until three weeks later that the first radio signal from the group came to Murmansk. The story that was told was dramatic. After four days, one of the Norwegian partisans had become so deranged and difficult that the other two saw no other way out than to kill him. The body had been lowered into the sea.

When the weather improved somewhat, the two remaining partisans quickly resumed contact with the fisherman in Årviksand. In mid-March, the base was moved to a stone cave. At the end of May, the partisans received help to move to a new place. They moved the base up to a cave in Rotvågdalen; from a height of 200 meters this new hangout had magnificent views of the Lopphavet. They could observe German convoys heading east and send information about these movements eastward. The group also received messages from Tromsø with the help of informants, and information about the Tirpitz in Alta was also sent to the Murmansk base from the cave in Rotvågdalen. The group always received good help from the locals on Arnøy, who also contributed a lot of information about the German presence.

When the collapse of the partisans in Finnmark came in July 1943, this also foretold what was soon to happen on Arnøya. The Germans curtailed the partisans’ activity on the island. They arrested a number of civilians in Årviksand and Rotvåg, including 39-year-old Jørghild Jørgensen. The Germans forced her to show the way to the partisans’ new residence. When they approached the cave in Rotvågdalen, she ran into the cave and joined forces with the two partisans. There was a fight between the three in the cave and the Germans on the outside. The fighting lasted for half a day. By the time the gunfire had stopped, the grenade explosions died down and the flamethrowers extinguished on the 29^th of August, the partisans lay dead in the cave with Jørghild Jørgensen. Outside the cave, a German SS-Oberscharführer had lost his life in the battle.

Those who were arrested on Arnøya were taken to a prison camp in Tromsø. Here they were severely tortured.

On October 20^th, eight Norwegians were sentenced to death; seven of them were partisan helpers from Arnøya, the eighth was a merchant from Tromsø who had sold the partisans goods from his shop. The eight were executed just north of Tromsø on the 23^rd of October 1943 (chapter 23).

16 Norwegians from Arnøya received German prison sentences. All of them survived their imprisonment in Germany.

Picture descriptions

• P 174: Årviksand.
• P 176, 177: Edmund Jørgensens fisher-farmer’s museum.
• P 179: The cave at Rotvåg – can you see it?
• P 182:The upper four pictures are taken from the Rotvåg cave, The lower two are taken from Moldfarvika bay.
• P 183: The provisional cave at Skapet.
• P 184: The memorial stone at Årviksand.

Chapter 23, page 186: Tromsø.

In Tromsø too, there were Norwegians who made sure that the Soviet Union was sent information about German activity. The two students had a small, mobile transmitter that was moved between different locations in Tromsø.

Every Tuesday and Friday, information was sent eastwards at agreed times. The codebook had the catchy title “Quisling has said it”, a straightforward camouflage for Soviet ciphering. Eventually, they received indications that the Germans were in the process of tracking them down, and in mid-April 1943 they fled to Sweden.

The Sydspissen prison.

Sydspissen was established as a camp for political prisoners in the spring of 1941. The first prisoners arrived at the camp on 17 and 18 June, when more than 100 people in Northern Norway were arrested, including all the male Jews in Tromsø. The guards were ruthless, especially in the early days when it was mostly young people who took care of the guards. There was also a shortage of food until people on Tromsøya organized a relief service that delivered food to the prisoners. The camp had the status of Polizeihäftlingslager under Sipo u. SD in Tromsø. The occupancy was 100-120 men.

Krøkebærsletta.

in 1942, when the Germans began to build military facilities on the southern tip, and the camp there had also become too small, a new and larger prison camp was built at Krøkebærsletta in Tromsdalen.

Here, too, there was harsh treatment; A small oversight by a single prisoner could mean that everyone had to undertake hard labor or drill late into the night. The living conditions were poor, especially during the last winter, when the camp was overcrowded. But even though it was for the political prisoners, those who had been caught for having taken part in military resistance work were treated much more severely.

More than 2000 political prisoners are believed to have passed through Krøkebærsletta, on their way to Falstad, Grini or Germany. Prisoners with a shorter sentence than one year were usually not sent south. Female prisoners were not placed in these camps; They were held in detention in local detention rooms or prisons until they were eventually transported south.

The number of prisoners was at most around 250.

Picture descriptions

• P 187: Professor Ivar Bjørklund sits at the foundation of Sydspissen prison in Tromsø.
• P 188: Inger Rønne by the obelisk in Tromsdalen.
• P 190: The memorial site where the execution of the Arnøya prisoners took place at Kroken north of Tromsø.
• P 191: The lower two pictures show the obelisk in memory of Krøkebærsletta prison.