In 2020 it was 80 years since Hemnesberget was the scene of dramatic war actions during World War II (see separate article). To this day, there are several traces of the war, and the town is one of the few in Norway with reconstructed buildings. There are also several bunkers left from the Second World War, and work is underway to make one of these accessible to the public.
A few hundred meters outside what is now called Præstengkaia, in the center of Hemnesberget, lies the Hurtigruten ship D/S Nordnorge at a depth of 280 meters. It has lain there untouched for over 80 years, and only in January 2021 was it finally discovered where in the fjord it is located. On April 27, 2021, with the help of Visit Plura (now Plura Valley) and Scansub/Seløy Undervannsservice, they were able to go down with an ROV to take pictures of the ship!
The story behind it is an important part of Norwegian war history:
D/S Nordnorge was docked in Trondheim for maintenance when it was requisitioned by the German occupation forces in May 1940. On 8 May, the ship sailed out of Trondheimsfjord under a German flag with around 200 German Alpine hunters and marines on board. The Norwegian authorities feared that these forces would carry out an ambush on the Norwegian forces in northern Norway, and informed their allies of the situation.
On May 10, the D/S Nordnorge had arrived at Hemnesberget and was berthed in the center. Here, fighting broke out with British forces stationed on Hemnesberget.
The Germans managed to land most of the soldiers and supplies, before the ship, after about an hour of unloading, was attacked by the British warships HMS Calcutta and HMS Zulu. They had been sent to meet the D/S Nordnorge to sink the ship.
After heavy shelling of the D/S Nordnorge, Zulu scored a direct hit with a torpedo that caused the ship to sink immediately. The ship had aft spars ashore, and tore parts of the quay with it when it sank.
The Allied forces on Hemnesberget put up fierce resistance, and fighting broke out from house to house and from street to street. Planes bombed and shot at targets on the ground, machine guns crackled, hand grenades flew through the air, and by midnight, when the Allies withdrew, the Germans had control of all of Hemnesberget.
Two civilians, eight Scottish soldiers, and a similar number of Austrian and German soldiers were killed, and in addition 16 residential buildings burned down on this day when the war came to Hemnesberget.
A couple of days later, Allied warships entered the fjord and reduced large parts of Hemnesberget to rubble with cannon fire. A total of 150 houses burned down during these fateful days.
German forces were also landed at Sund by seaplane, and in the days that followed the Germans advanced towards Finneidfjord. At Sund and several places on the road to Finneidfjord there was fierce fighting and loss of life, and at midnight on the night of 15 May the Allied forces withdrew northwards and out of the municipality.
Several books have been written about the war in Hemnes, including Hemnes at War by Torstein Finnbakk. You can read this by clicking on the link to the right. Here you can also read about the Blood Road over Korgfjellet.
