Sorko Battalion goes to Narvik 1940.

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Sorko Mountain Hunter Battalion goes to Narvik 1940.

The Mountain Hunter Regiment (Gebirgsjäger-Regiment) 137 was created on August 1, 1938 in Military District XVIII (Austria). The regiment was formed from the 12th Infantry Regiment, the 1st Carinthian Alpenjäger Battalion and the Austrian 3rd Alpenjäger Battalion of the Austrian Armed Forces (Bundesheeres). The Regimental Command and the III. Battalion were stationed in Lienz, in the XVIII Military District. The I. Battalion of the regiment was stationed in Salzburg, also in the XVIII Military District. The II. Battalion of the regiment (of which we are interested) was stationed in Spittal, also in the XVIII Military District. The regiment was subordinate to the 2. Mountain Division (Gebirgs-Division).

The mountain division was commanded by Generalleutnant Valentin Feurstein, the Mountain Hunter Regiment 137 (GJR 137) commanded by Oberst Georg Ritter von Hengl, and the II./GJR 137 commanded by Oberstleutnant August Sorko.

The long march to Narvik.

On the night of May 4, 1940, the Austrian mountain hunter battalion Sorko (II./ GJR 137) began the long march from Nord-Trøndelag north towards Narvik. The mission was to go as soon as possible to the aid of the German troops who had suffered greatly during the Allied counterattacks and who were in danger of having to abandon Narvik.

After parts of Trøndelag were taken by German forces following the attack on April 9, 1940, it became clear relatively quickly that further progress had to be made by land. The English navy controlled the maritime areas off northern Norway. The Austrian 2nd Mountain Division (formed there, now in the German Heer) was chosen to carry out this mission.

Initially this division was intended to be used in the upcoming campaign in France, but was therefore diverted to Norway. The terrain in the area north of Trondheim became more and more rugged the further north one moved, and mountain hunters were specially trained for missions in that terrain. This was an experienced division that had taken part in the Polish campaign the previous year and therefore had valuable war experience.

The 2nd Mountain Division consisted of the 137th and 138th Mountain Hunter Regiments, and during the campaign in northern Norway a company of the 136th Mountain Hunter Regiment was added. We will follow one of their battalions on the march to the north, the II. Battalion of the 137 Mountain Hunter Regiment, also called the Sorko battalion after its leader. It was the lead battalion for most of the march towards Narvik, and it was parts of Sorko's soldiers who first reached Narvik on June 13, 1940.

The trip to Norway.

Parts of the Sorko battalion were transported from Germany by train to Denmark on 27 April. After a brief stay in Denmark, they flew on a Ju-52 plane to Værnes, near Trondheim, on May 2. The rest of the division had arrived in Norway the day before on a transport ship. However, this had not happened without losses for the division. Torpedoes from British submarines had caused 50 deaths and 64 wounded. As it turned out, this was slightly more than half the losses the division suffered during the campaign in Norway. From Værnes the following days the battalion was transported by train to Steinkjer, where they awaited the go-ahead for the mission.

Sources: https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gl ... R137-R.htm
https://digitaltmuseum.no/021085827554/tre-dager-i-juni

Cheers. Raúl M .

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Sorko Mountain Hunter Battalion goes to Narvik 1940.

The march begins.

At midnight on May 4, an uplifting message arrived for the Sorko Battalion's mountain hunters: the Norwegian 5th Division under Colonel Getz capitulated and the Allied forces withdrew from the region. This actually meant that between the German soldiers and Narvik there was now only one Norwegian battalion and five British companies. Sorko Battalion did not wait. Only a few hours after the Norwegian capitulation did the signal come that the march north could begin. The march was not easy for the German soldiers. The roads were covered in snow and sleet. In addition, the battalion was poorly equipped with vehicles, which meant that most of the equipment had to be carried by the soldiers. On the way north, the battalion received unexpected help. The mountain hunters were free to stock up on equipment from the capitulating Norwegian battalion. This is described in the German reports:

“The companies, which were fully loaded with arms and ammunition, had to struggle their way along the road, which was made of bottomless mud. A Norwegian battalion of Infantry Regiment 13 that capitulated and a company of that battalion that was located in Snåsa, were disarmed and marched to divisional command. The Sorko Battalion took over the means of transport for these Norwegian units, horses, carts, automobiles, and thus the problem with heavy equipment was at least partially solved for the companies."

For the first few days, the battalion did not go into battle. The only obstacles they faced were blown up bridges, roads and railways. Most of these obstacles were of such a nature that the battalion overcame the obstacles without the help of the engineer soldiers. The soldiers were surprised to find no resistance from the enemy forces. One of the non-commissioned officers expressed it this way:

"We were surprised that the Norwegians gave up the terrain so soon when they retreated. There were gorges that were completely impregnable. Also, there was snow and we did not know the terrain. Blowing up the bridges was the biggest difficulty we encountered."

The reasons why the mountain hunters met no resistance in the first few days was that the Norwegian troops had been ordered to withdraw from the area. By blowing up lines of communication and defending certain breakpoints, they were to slow the advance of the hunters from the mountains.

Sources: https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gl ... R137-R.htm
https://digitaltmuseum.no/021085827554/tre-dager-i-juni

Cheers. Raúl M .

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Sorko Mountain Hunter Battalion goes to Narvik 1940.

The first fights.

On May 7, the first troops crossed the border into Nordland County. By then the party had covered 17 miles since they began the march from Steinkjer. The next day they entered combat for the first time. About three and a half miles north of the county border at Svenningtjønn, a Norwegian force had established a machine gun position and was waiting for the mountain hunters.

Early the next day, several soldiers advanced directly towards the machine gun position. The Norwegian crews opened fire and two of the Austrians went down at once. The others took cover. Soon after the next mountain formations arrived and skirmishes lasted for an hour. The result of this was two dead on each side. In the reports to the battalion, this incident is soberly described:

"About 1:30 p.m. north of Brenna, the battalion Commanding Officer was fired upon. Enemy ski troops entrenched along the road attacked the point with well-aimed machine gun fire and fled into the wooded hills as our troops opened fire. One killed and one seriously wounded who died the same day were the casualties in the first skirmish in Norway."

By the time parts of the battalion entered Mosjøen on 11 May, the battalion had lost several of its soldiers as a result of heavy fighting at Svenningdal and Storbjørnvatn. The Austrian soldiers had lost nine of their comrades on the way to Narvik. During the 10th and 11th of May, while the Austrian soldiers were fighting at Storbjørnvatnet, something happened that should facilitate their march towards Narvik. German troops took Hemnesberget, a peninsula south of Mo i Rana, in a surprise attack.

Therefore, there was a great danger that Norwegian and Allied soldiers would be deprived of their opportunities for retreat further north. This led to the Allied and Norwegian soldiers having to deploy and fight the German soldiers at Hemnesberget, while the withdrawal had to be faster. When the Sorko Battalion reached Mosjøen, the divisional order specified to rest before continuing its march north, and the group was commended for its efforts in the campaign:

"Group Sorko has succeeded in marching the next 400 km stretch from Steinkjer to Mosjøen in seven days. Despite the fact that the enemy, French, English and Norwegian, had caused extensive damage to the road and junctions and had cleverly positioned themselves as fighting rear lines, the advance continued apace, marching and fighting during the day, working to remove obstacles at night."

Sources: https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gl ... R137-R.htm
https://digitaltmuseum.no/021085827554/tre-dager-i-juni

Cheers. Raúl M .

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Sorko Mountain Hunter Battalion goes to Narvik 1940.

More fighting.

The rest was not long. The next day the battalion was on the march further north. For the Germans, it was important that there was constant pressure on the retreating troops, which meant giving no opportunity to create good defensive positions and bring in reinforcements. At Mo i Rana, the battalion was again involved in fierce fighting. The result here was the same as before: after a few hours of fighting, the Norwegian and British soldiers withdrew.

After the battalion had rested, the march continued through the Dunderlandsdalen (Dunderland Valley) towards the Arctic Circle. In soldiers' diaries we can read about running day marches, resting along the way, in a barn or some other farm, and building makeshift ferries to cross where bridges had been blown up. When the soldiers reached the Arctic Circle, it was certainly a milestone for the soldiers. Here they were photographed in front of the monument that marks the Arctic Circle. Later, a small swastika was attached to the iron grid depicting a stylized globe.

The hardest fight took place on the descent of the mountain. Norwegian soldiers and a group of Irish Guardsmen had taken up positions to the west and east of Pothus Bridge. The battles at Pothus were a bit special. British soldiers got to see their own fighters in the air over the battlefield for the last time before being evacuated from Norway. Two Gladiator aircraft in dogfight with the Luftwaffe and two German aircraft were shot down. This was commented on in the diary of one of the German soldiers:

"An English fighter shot down a Ju-52 that was flying slowly north near us. The crew bails out, the machine crashes into the forest."

The fighting lasted two days. On May 27, most of the Norwegian and English detachments withdrew from Saltdalen by ship via Rognan. After this there were only minor skirmishes. The mountain hunters quickly marched north through Fauske. They followed the remnants of the Norwegian soldiers to Røsvik in Sørfold. From there, the Norwegian soldiers were evacuated further north using ice skates.

The English soldiers, on the other hand, had marched west from Fauske and were evacuated by ship from Bodø. The Sorko Battalion was literally "at the end of the road." There was no road on the last stretch to Narvik at the time. The battalion had then marched more than 600 kilometers in 28 days. Ahead of them, Narvik stretched 190 kilometers away, entirely over mountains, glaciers and fjords.

Sources: https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gl ... R137-R.htm
https://digitaltmuseum.no/021085827554/tre-dager-i-juni

Cheers. Raúl M .

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Sorko Mountain Hunter Battalion goes to Narvik 1940.

The March of the Buffalo.

At the end of May, the situation was precarious for General Dietl in the Narvik area. Various possible measures to help German soldiers were discussed, but only one of them was implemented. The operation was called Operation Buffalo (Unternehmen "Büffel"). According to the plan, German forces from Røsvik were to be sent across the mountains to support the German soldiers in Narvik from the south. The route was supposed to go through the mountains near the Swedish national border. The march was to take place mainly at night so that the forces could avoid attacks by Allied aircraft and warships that were stationed in the fjords of northern Norway.

The aim was to send 2,532 soldiers over the mountains to Narvik, divided into ten companies with artillerymen and sappers. On June 2, a vanguard of 20 men from the Sorko Battalion was sent to study the possibilities of the soldiers that would come later. The group was to receive provisions en route from the Luftwaffe, which was to drop supplies at agreed locations. In the soldiers' diaries we can follow this arduous march:

« On June 2 at 02:00 hours was the departure. We were twenty men who had volunteered... () With boats we approached Styrkesnes. Our first day's march was twenty kilometers, but what a twenty kilometres, over sticks and stones! How much is twenty kilometers in that terrain? We had a horse with us, we had to leave it behind. After twenty-one hours we were still going."

Sources: https://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Gl ... R137-R.htm
https://digitaltmuseum.no/021085827554/tre-dager-i-juni

Cheers. Raúl M .