Hitler’s Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 by Henrik Lunde (the reader ebook .TXT) 📕

The Battle of Stien and the Loss of Mo

When the Germans reached Elsfjord early on May 14, they found that the retreating Norwegians had destroyed or taken with them all boats that could be used for crossing the fjord. With General Feurstein’s approval, Lieutenant Colonel Sorko prepared to cross the roadless mountains between Elsfjord and Korgen. The grueling march across the snow-clad mountains to Korgen took 16 hours. The troops were so exhausted when they reached their destination that Sorko was compelled to give them a short rest before continuing to Finneid along the east shore of the fjord. Holzinger’s units had already cleared the Norwegians and British from Finneid by the time Sorko reached that location from the south. Sorko continued the advance while Holzinger’s units remained to secure Hemnesøy and Finneid.

Derry writes that 1,750 Germans attacked the 1st Scots Guards at Stien on May 17.1 This estimate is probably more than double the number of Germans involved. While Feurstein’s forces had grown to four infantry battalions (2/136, 3/136, 2/137, and 3/138), a reconnaissance battalion, an engineer battalion, an independent company of mountaineers, a bicycle company, a tank company, and four artillery batteries, most of these forces were spread from Namsos to Mosjøen and did not participate in the action at Stien. Ziemke claims that Feurstein had six infantry battalions but this is not in accordance with reports to Group XXI on May 13 and 15. Only Sorko’s group, consisting of one reinforced battalion, took part in the fighting at Stien. Since the strength of a mountain infantry battalion was approximately 500, the size of Sorko’s force was probably between 700-800 men.

The British forces at Stien were deployed in two defensive lines. The first line was located north of the River Dalselv, covering the defile in the road to Mo between the Veten-Kobbernaglen Mountains and the fjord. Two companies from the 1st Scots Guards, the 1st Independent Co, and a supporting artillery battery occupied the first line. The two Scots Guards companies were located to the east of the Finneid-Mo road while the Independent Co and the artillery battery were located astride the road a little further to the north. The battalion battle trains and one company occupied a second line about four kilometers to the north. One company from the battalion was on its way from Bodø.

Lieutenant Colonel Roscher-Nielsen was reorganizing the Norwegian forces in the Mo area. He considered neither of his two battalions combat effective. They were demoralized and there was a critical shortage of young NCOs and officers. He sent an urgent request to the 6th Division on May 16 for young and energetic leaders. The 1/14th was less than half strength, with only about 300 effective. Both battalions had lost most of their trains.

Lieutenant Colonels Trapes-Lomax and Roscher-Nielsen had reached an understanding on how to divide the responsibilities for the defense of Mo. The British would undertake the defense of the Finneid-Mo road as described above. The Reserve Battalion of the 14th Inf would defend Mo along the Ranaelv (Rana River). The 1/14th Inf and a company from the 1st Scots Guards, with the machinegun company from the reserve battalion of the 14th attached, were positioned at Ytteren for the defense of the north end of Ranafjord. The 1/14th had one company deployed forward on the north side of the fjord. Captain Ellinger’s company, which was reduced to a machinegun platoon after the near mutiny at Finneid, was now part of the 1/14th and located in this area.

Two ski detachments of approximately 60 men each from the 1/14th Inf were sent into the mountains between the British positions and Umbukta as security. There was already a security detachment from the Reserve Battalion located north of Store Akers Vann. A group of approximately 40 returned volunteers from the Winter War was located on the southern outskirts of Mo. Despite Norwegian warnings the British failed to secure the high ground to the east and rear of their defense lines.

The Germans learned from prisoners that a British battalion was located at Stien. They also expected the units withdrawn from Finneid to join that battalion. Furthermore, they knew that there were additional Norwegian forces in the Mo area. Sorko decided to attack as quickly as possible. He sent one company from his own battalion and a platoon outfitted with skis from Holzinger’s group on a difficult flanking movement through Bjerkadalen. It was intended that this force would seize the heights of Kobbernaglen and Veten and from there move west to attack the British flank and rear at the same time as Sorko attacked frontally along the road. The enveloping force, facing a march of 50 kilometers in roadless snow-covered terrain, set out in the evening of May 16. To give these units adequate time to get into position, Sorko delayed the battle group’s advance until noon on May 17. Group XXI had toyed with the idea of a simultaneous airborne operation to cut the road north of Mo, thereby trapping all forces located in or south of that town. It was not carried out.2

The Norwegian security detachments at Bjerkmoen and Lille Akersvann spotted the German enveloping force. They reported about 150 German soldiers moving in a northerly direction in the area southeast of Bjerkemoen. The British concluded that these were German paratroopers and their sources make frequent references to them. This faulty information even became part of the official history,3 but there were no German parachute troops involved in the action at Stien.

The Norwegians had urged the British to occupy the close-in hills and ridgelines overlooking the British positions. While the recommendation envisioned establishing early warning outposts on the ridgeline from Hills 717 to 996, the most critical terrain was the ridgeline from Hills 441 to 796 as well as Hill 481. These heights dominated both British defensive lines, and their occupation by the enemy could trap the forces in the forward line. The British