The Battle of Narvik was a campaign in northern Norway in spring 1940. Germany seized the port of Narvik in April, and Norwegian, British, French and Polish forces fought to retake it. The Polish Independent Highland Brigade under General Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko arrived in May and fought on the Ankenes peninsula south of the town. The Allies captured Narvik on 28 May 19403, one of the first Allied land victories of the war, but had to evacuate in early June as the German offensive in France advanced.
In the spring of 1940, far above the Arctic Circle, Polish mountain troops who had escaped their occupied homeland fought the Germans among the fjords of northern Norway. At Narvik they shared in one of the first Allied victories on land in the Second World War.
The iron ore port
Narvik, in northern Norway, was the ice-free port through which Swedish iron ore reached Germany4. In April 1940 German mountain troops under General Eduard Dietl seized it. British naval forces sank the German destroyers in the fjords5, and Allied troops landed to retake the town.
The Highland Brigade
Among them was the Polish Independent Highland Brigade, formed in France from Polish soldiers who had escaped after September 19391, under General Zygmunt Bohusz-Szyszko. It reached the Narvik area in early May.4 On 4 May the Polish destroyer2 ORP Grom was sunk by German aircraft in the fjords near Narvik.
Fighting by the fjords
The Polish brigade fought on the Ankenes peninsula south of Narvik1, in steep mountain terrain still covered with snow, attacking German positions to tie down the defenders while other Allied units attacked from the north.
Narvik retaken
On 28 May 1940 Norwegian and French troops, with the Poles attacking on the southern side of the fjord, drove the Germans out of Narvik. It was one of the first Allied land victories of the war.
Victory, then retreat
Within days, the German offensive in France forced the Allies to abandon Norway, and the troops were evacuated in early June1. Many of the Polish highlanders went on to fight in France in June 1940, and survivors who reached Britain later served in the 1st Armoured Division. Narvik is remembered in Poland and is among the battles commemorated on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw.
