I spent last week camping up in the mountains of North Norway, mostly close to the Norwegian\Finnish\Swedish border and an area where the 6 Gebirgs Division spent the last 6 months of the war in defensive positions with only the occasional skirmish with Norwegian or Finnish patrols. Oh yeah, and a mutiny by an entire artillery battery.
We had a great time, the weather was kind but the mosquitoes were hell. Anyway here are some pics of the trip.
A German horse drawn infantry cart lying where it was dumped in 1945
Some of our finds, in the picture you can see an MP40 magazine (non fluted variety), cammo painted patronenkasten stamped 41, gasmask cannister with gasmask still inside and a rather battered M35 or 40 helmet.
The hood of a vehicle still showing the traces of a swastika, and someones botched attempt to cut it out.
Way up in the mountains the Germans cleverly decided that the easiest way of transporting supplies up to the forward combat positions was to construct a kind of aerial tramway, it ran for several kilometers up the valley and terminated here however it's still a good hours hike to the furthest positions.
A typical bunker blasted into the lunar landscape up in the high mountains, there were litterally hundreds of bunkers like this built in 44\45
Waw! Simon, what can I say, these are greatpictures!....unbelievable to find even cloth items, must be due to the severe cold climate that these pieces are still there,no?
If I was you I would recover the ' infanteriekarre'....would love to restore it
Perhaps our best find of the trip and a bit of a mystery. The fragments of this plate were found in a rubbish hole used by members of the 6 geb.div, so how did this SS plate end up here? My best guess is that it may have been left behind by the 6 SS-Geb.Div. 'Nord' as it retreated through the area in late '44 and then re-issued to the 6 Geb.div. who had to abandon much of it's equipment up on the Litza front due to the Soviet offensive of Oct.'44
Lastly, although i found this 3 years ago it's still one of my favourite finds from the area. It's a door from the same type of infantry cart as shown in the first picture of this thread, the cart in question had been used by a local Norwegain farmer after the war before being dumped, thank the stars he never saw fit to repaint it! It's the divisional insignia of the 6 Gebirgs Division.
Rick
I wonder if our very long winters don't actually help preserve artifacts? Most things will lie cocooned in snow and ice for at least 7 months of the year.
A little further to the south, near Narvik, is perhaps the largest and most well known of the wartime relics still visible. The remains of the zerstörer Z-2 'Georg Thiele' lies exactly where she was run aground and scuttled by her crew on the 13th April 1940
fantastic picture! just goes to show what can be found out there still to this day! there a similer thread over at imperail but high up the mountains! any more pics at all?didnt you find a m40 with it camo paint still on it? http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...threadid=20010
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A week in the mountains of North Norway
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