Battle of Hegra Fortress

Norwegian 7.5 cm gun position

Date	15 April – 5 May 1940
Location	Hegra, Norway
Result	German victory Hegra Fortress capitulated 5 May after all other Norwegian forces in southern Norway had laid down their arms.

Belligerents

Norway

Nazi Germany

Commanders and leaders

Hans Reidar Holtermann (POW)

15–20 April:
Weiss
20 April-5 May:
Kurt Woytasch

Strength

Positional artillery:
4×10.5 cm guns and
2×7.5 cm guns
under Captain Evjen
with 25 men
Field artillery:
4×8.4 cm guns
under 2nd Lieutenant Reitan
with 10 men
Total force:
250 volunteer soldiers and one female volunteer nurse, most of whom had had a short national service with Artillery Regiment no. 3 (AR 3) before the war

15–27 April:
138. Gebirgsjägerregiment
27 April-5 May:
181. Infantry Division
Troops involved:
Force levels were on average ca. one battalion and one reinforced company of infantry, as well as an artillery unit with numerous mortars, cannon and howitzers

Casualties and losses

6 killed
14 wounded
200+ taken prisoner

150-200 killed or wounded
1 taken prisoner
1 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed and 1 damaged

Civilian casualties:
One Norwegian civilian killed
and two Finnish civilian refugees wounded

The Battle of Hegra Fortress was a twenty-five-day engagement in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign which saw a small force of Norwegian volunteers fighting superior German forces. After initial fighting around the Meråker Line railway line, the Norwegians pulled back into Hegra Fortress and held off further German attacks before surrendering on 5 May as one of the last Norwegian units active in southern Norway.

The Norwegian defenders were 250 volunteer soldiers and the volunteer nurse Anne Margrethe Bang. Most of the volunteers that served at Hegra were from the area Hegra/Stjørdal/Trondheim, but they also included three Swedes.

The garrison at Hegra was equipped with small arms (Krag-Jørgensen rifles and carbines), as well as Madsen and Colt M/29 machine guns.

The fortress also had artillery, four 10.5 cm (4.13 in) and two 7.5 cm (2.95 in) positional pieces of reasonably modern make in half-turrets; as well as four Krupp m/1887 8.4 cm (3.31 in) field guns. The artillery had a maximum range of between six and nine kilometres.

Many of these men had been mobilized to Artillery Regiment no. 3 at Øyanmoen army camp at Værnes Air Station and were brought to Hegra to continue the mobilization after the Germans had reached their camp. The fortress at Hegra was originally only intended as a temporary refuge for the artillery regiment, but ended up as the centre of the volunteers' war in 1940.

The attacking force initially consisted of Gebirgsjäger of the German 138. Gebirgsjägerregiment (part of the 3. Gebirgsdivision), which landed in Trondheim on 9 April. Later, from 20 April to 27 April, the Germans substituted the 138. Gebirgsjägerregiment with units from the 181. Infantry Division and the 138. Gebirgsjäger were sent north to try to relieve their comrades at the Narvik Front.

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Wikipedia