As Memorial Day approaches here in the United States, we come to the anniversary of the invasion by the Allies of the first town to be taken back from the Nazi aggressors. On the overnight of May 27/28, 1940 combined Norwegian, French and Polish Troops took back the port town of Narvik from the Germans in Norway’s Arctic Circle. Shown above, the Poles fought rock-to-rock along with their counterparts while nine British Warships attacked the enemy’s positions from the fjords.

The Germans were not only driven out of Narvik, but chased the length of a fjord and up across a mountainside by the three Polish battalions, while a fourth advanced along the rocky mountainous shoreline of a second fjord (shown in the graphic below). Over the next several days, along with the French and Norwegian troops, the Polish battalions drove the Germans back up against the Swedish border at Bjornfjell. For the sake of clarity, I am only showing the Polish and German positions, not in any way to diminish the bravery of the French and Norwegian ground troops, or for that matter, the British seamen.

It was at this point, on the verge of driving the Nazis out of Arctic Norway altogether, that Winston Churchill ordered an evacuation of all Allied troops from Norway because of the impending Fall of France. Thus, these hard won gains were given back uncontested to the Germans as the British convoys took the troops back to the relative safety of its Home Island in early June. Except for the Polish troops who were returned to their station in France just in time to engage the advancing German Panzers in the Brittany region just before the Poles were eventually withdrawn to Britain also. The very next day, General Sikorski committed to the iconic British Prime Minister that all Polish soldiers, seamen and airmen would fight alongside the British until the Nazis were defeated. Even though Sikorski didn’t live to see it, his pledge was fulfilled by the courage and skill of the Polish fighting men and women.

These men and woman, whose families and friends had been either annihilated or subjugated to terror under Nazi rule of their occupied homeland. were all too eager to take out their rage in battle against the Nazi scourge, no matter where it was necessary to travel to do so. And if nothing else, the Battles of Narvik proved the Nazi invincibility was a myth. It was a precursor to other Polish successes, including the Polish airmen in the Battle of Britain and General Anders II Corps capturing Monte Cassino.

If you enjoyed reading this blog, you might enjoy my latest historical fiction work. entitled “The Twins of Narvik”, it comes in twin volumes following three Polish, Norwegian and Scottish families as they become entangled in the Battles of WWI and WWII. More information is available at davidtrawinski.com