This is an old answer to a school assignment. Incorrect and outdated information may occur.
“One of the greatest Norwegian successes in military operations during war.”
Home Forces, HS
The Home Forces, HS, in Norway was an armed resistance organization during World War II. The core of HS was Milorg. Milorg stands for Military Organization, and was called the first branch of the Norwegian defense system. Milorg was slightly different from the Navy, Army and Air Force. Both the Navy, Army and Air Force have different areas to look after; the Navy at sea, the Army on land and the Air Force in the air, while Milorg was located at sea and on land. The high command for Milorg was in London. After November 1941, it was the king and the government in London who ruled Milorg. The organization was secret during the German occupation, and its goal was to lie low and advance slowly under attack. Milorg was criticized for running a military Sunday school. But they worked quietly, and they provided good training. Milorg often consisted of groups of 10 men who knew each other well, and who were often related to each other. People in the organization were particularly afraid that someone would be arrested by the Germans. The organization should then contact the arrested person or persons as soon as possible, and find out what happened and whether others were in danger. Contacting the prisoner or prisoners was risky, both for prison officers, police officers and fellow prisoners. This was because it was easy to fall into traps.
In the autumn of 1943, it was planned to create 5 bases in Norway, Elg (between Hallingdal and Valdres), Orm (the areas east of Glomma, with a focus on Trysil), Hjort (in Trøndelag), Ulv (also called Varg, which operated in Setesdalsheimen) and The Fjord Base. All were to be under Milorg's command. The bases were to be spread around Norway, and the tasks were to establish guerrilla groups and to train people to fight. In addition, people were afraid that Norwegian youth would have to mobilize for Germany, against Norway. The bases served as detours to this problem. The reason why the bases were built where they were built was the difficulties that arose if one tried to find the base and the difficulties for the enemy to get through these mountainous areas with a lot of snow. All the bases were to be controlled by colonels, and they were to be trained in England. In the first months after the bases were built, they were to try to avoid combat. Enemies were only to be attacked in self-defense.
Organization in The Fjord Base
The Fjord Base was later renamed Bjørn. It was estimated that the base would have 2,000-3,000 men. Bjørn was divided into two; Bjørn West and Bjørn East. It was assumed that Bjørn West could accommodate 1,200 men. The goal was to establish a guerrilla base. Bjørn West was to operate between the Sognefjord and Masfjord in Nordhordland in Western Norway. It was in fact the only base, besides Elg, that went according to plan and came into combat with the Germans. In the base Ulv, activity was prevented due to German activity nearby. Little progress was made in Orm and Hjort. When the war ended, and Bjørn West had operated for 7 months, there were 259 people in Bjørn West.
On October 15, 1944, the first patrol that would fight in Bjørn West arrived in Matre. It was Ensign Kayser and Ensign Synnes. They came with the boat "Vigra" from England. When they were halfway into the fjord, they had to transfer to a lifeboat to avoid being discovered by the Germans. Kayser recognized Matre. He had been on many vacations with his family here, and was thus known locally. The ensigns stayed in a mill house for a few weeks while they waited for the next patrols. The next patrol came from England with the submarine hunter "Hitra". There were five officers, among them Harald Risnes. Risnes later became captain and commander-in-chief of Bjørn West. The officers, Ensign Kayser and Ensign Synnes, were then in the process of building one of the greatest Norwegian successes in military activity during World War II.
Searches had been made in Iceland, England and the USA for boats that were strong enough for the North Sea voyage. In addition, the boats had to be fast. On 23 August 1943, Norway received three boats. They were “Hitra”, “Vigra” and “Hessa” which came from the USA. All had been repaired and rebuilt somewhat. “Hitra” had sailed 45 trips across the North Sea from 1943 to 1945. 13 of these went to Nordhordaland and Ytre Sogn. 27 agents were put ashore, 3 agents and 47 refugees travelled from Norway to England or Shetland. On 43 of these 45 trips, Ingvald O. Eidsheim was the ship's commander. In total, there were approximately 3,300 people who came across the North Sea to England on civilian vessels. 50,000 came from Norway to Sweden during the war. Illegal work became less dangerous due to the emigration traffic. The SOE base in Shetland was used for deporting supply services to Norway with the Shetland Bus. Shetland-Larsen had close contact with “Hitra”, “Vigra” and “Hessa”. He was one of the leaders of the Shetland Bus, and was involved in applying for stronger and faster boats that could make it easier.
When Bjørn West had more people, they were afraid that some of the passers-by were Germans, or people who had close contact with Germans. But for the most part, it was only farmers who were looking after their farms who passed by. In addition, there was a German prison camp with Russian prisoners further down in Matre. The initial phase was very vulnerable, people could tell about things they were not allowed to tell. The first episodes they had were discussed a lot. One of the soldiers who had come to Bjørn West was sitting outside enjoying the sun while some farmers came by. The soldier dressed up to look more intimidating, and so that the farmers would not say anything about what they had seen. He asked for the names of the farmers. But that was not enough, he wanted to know the names of the closest relatives. There was a rule that said that none of the soldiers were allowed to contact residents during the war, unless there was a crisis. So that rule had already been broken.
Bjørn West was divided into 3 parts; BAI, BAII and BAIII. BA stands for Billetting Area, or in good Norwegian: Innkvarteringsromåde. They had a field telephone to contact each other. In BAII you can see out where the submarine hunters sneaked into Fensfjorden. BAII's headquarters, Blaauwhytta, always had the flag hoisted at full mast. Stordalen, which was the headquarters of BAIII, was later razed to the ground by the Germans in the war.
Social
The outerwear that Bjørn West's soldiers used was not very good, but the woolen underwear was very good. There was only one set of clothes per soldier, so after they had washed their clothes, there was no time to wait for the clothes to dry. In other words; they walked around in wet clothes after they had been washed. This was not very comfortable in winter. Some had received spare clothes from England, but it was still a bit too little. Canned food was the only food they could get, besides small amounts of provisions. They got both food, drink, equipment and clothing from planes that dropped it down. At first, there was a long time between each drop, which made the Bjørn West soldiers very angry, hungry and cold. The soldiers thought it was good to relax after several hours of searching and retrieving the things they needed from the drop.
Even though there were hard times with a lot of hard work, effort and training, there was also time for romance, humor and partying. The chef, Ingvar Juhlsen, was always ready for a good joke. He never gave up hope that the next airdrop would be a white horse for him. He didn't get the white horse, though. But he did get a nice new nightgown that he showed to the priest and Ensign Kayser, to their great despair.
Harald Risnes was married to Aslaug Bjordal in Stordalen at the turn of March/April. Aslaug had been in a German concentration camp, but she had been lucky and was released. She got through the checkpoint in Matre because she said she needed a recreational stay at the Stordalen tourist cabin to recover. Risnes had not seen her since 1941.
When Risnes heard that Aslaug was coming on Good Friday, his 31st birthday, he did not hesitate. He packed his bag, strapped on his skis, and traveled to BAIII. Risnes had contacted the priest and asked him to come. The priest was sick after one of his services at Easter. By then, Hermund Jacobsen had discovered his amazing medical skills, and in a short time the priest was on his way to BAIII. According to Arnfinn Haga, who has written extensively about the war, the priest mentioned, among other things: “I have all kinds of greetings for you, because when we received the shortest telegram that I think we have ever received at headquarters, and it said “send the priest,” we had a feeling: The skipper is getting married!”
Conflicts
In April 1945 a major problem arose; the stables and the barns were used by farmers at Easter. For security reasons, this had to be prevented. The owner of the stables was strictly instructed to stay away from the barns. And those who came were instructed not to tell others what they had seen or heard. Some of the visitors joined Bjørn West. Between 28 April and 3 May 1945, fierce fighting broke out between Bjørn West's 259 people and at least 800 Germans. That is, the ratio was approximately 1 to 3. It is believed that Bjørn West had 160 trained soldiers, and the Germans had 800 trained soldiers, thus the ratio of trained soldiers was 1 to 5.
On April 30, a German patrol came to Krenglebotn. The Germans sought cover in the ruins of houses by a pond. A Norwegian patrol came to take care of them. Arnold Mathisen led the Norwegian patrol. But a German sniper opened fire from his home under the mountainside, and Mathisen was killed. Another of the Norwegians was wounded. The fight was fierce, but the Germans gave up and left behind their clothes and weapons. The Germans often used planes, which made it more difficult for Bjørn West's soldiers. Bjørn West received orders to go towards Fossen farm. Milorg had heard rumors that the Germans would attack from there. People in the know believed that it was the only place they could get up the mountain. But the Germans had deployed skilled mountain troops who climbed up the mountainside. Where the inhabitants thought it was impossible to get up. When Bjørn West's soldiers came up to the farm, they were astonished to find that the Germans were on top of the mountain above the farm. Bjørn West was like in a cauldron, and therefore could not attack. They had to flee.
On May 2, the number of German soldiers had reached 800 men. Bjørn West's soldiers were in difficulty. On May 3, the Norwegian soldiers received more ammunition. The next morning the Germans attacked Bjørn West. It was again a hard fight for the Norwegians. On the same day, an order came from London that the Norwegians should withdraw, because there was a possibility that the entire German army would withdraw from Norway. And the fight could postpone the surrender. A Norwegian soldier who was injured, and whom they could not take with them, was "walled in" in a pile of stones, with food for 14 days. Torgeir Stordal, who was one of the inhabitants nearby, shared a cave with him. The other inhabitants of Stordalen had escaped, but Torgeir was too old and therefore could not join them. After a day, Torgeir Stordal wanted to go down to the farm to check on the animals. There he was shot, killed and burned inside one of the houses. Bjørn West had 6 soldiers killed and 117 Germans killed during all the fighting.
After the war
On May 7, 1945, Bjørn West's soldiers descended from the mountains. On May 10, they marched from the Cathedral School to the Fridalen School in Bergen. The Bjørn West group was little known at the time, but people understood that they had helped save Norway from the Germans. Three years after World War II, the Home Guard was established. The soldiers were to make their own weapons and to make use of local knowledge. In Western Norway, many of Bjørn West's soldiers, with experience from the war, helped establish the Home Guard. We still have the Home Guard today as a local defense. Some Home Guard units have exercises in Nipo where Bjørn West was during World War II. In 1948, a monument was unveiled in Stordalen to the fallen in Bjørn West, at the bottom of the stone it says:
FOR NORWAY'S SAKE IN THEIR KNEES THEY STRONG BUT FREELY WALK OR GRAVA STEP
To establish a base like Bjørn West in our modern times would have been difficult. Milorg's 5 bases have taught us that keeping a secret base close to populated areas is almost impossible. The Germans had realized that something was happening near the border regions of Hordaland and Sogn og Fjordene. It took a long time before they realized that there were Norwegian military exercises being conducted there. When they had found this out, the Germans deployed a force against the base area. Lars Tvilde said after the war that Bjørn West was very vulnerable because of all the ski tracks they made in the snow.
The people in Bjørn West had different backgrounds, but all had a common goal: to fight for a free Norway. A camaraderie and unity emerged that lasted a lifetime.
Photos:
Page 1: The picture on the ticket at the Bjørn West Museum
Page 2: Litlematrestølen where Bjørn West starts the march
Page 3: Ensign Kayser and Ensign Synnes
Lifeboat from Vigra
Page 4: Storedalen
Page 5: Pause
Page 6: Unveiling of the memorial stone. July 29, 1949. Crown Prince Olav tol right
Sources:
Achehaug's Lexicon
Thomas Nielsen: Behind the German Lines. War Years in Coastal Villages
Arnfinn Haga: Ironwork around Bjørn West
Bjørn West Museum (Matre, at the very end of Masfjorden by Highway 1, approx. 90 km. north of Bergen and 25 km from the ferry port, Oppedal)