1st Police Company – The Norwegian Legion
As recounted by Ensign Bødtker.
The Hedgehog Position
It was on the 4th of December, 1942, that the Russians broke through near Leningrad and drove back the Dutch, leaving the 1st Police Company quite alone in what one can only call a 'hedgehog position' — an arrangement that soon came to resemble an island surrounded by a rising sea. The Russians were pressing in from every direction.
There was snow and poor visibility. One could not determine whether the shadows moving about were Russians or Dutchmen; but as a precautionary measure, one fired upon them all alike.
The Legion lay further to the rear as the Germans' sole reserve and was committed to a counter-attack. At this time it mustered approximately 300 men. The Legion advanced, restored the front, and lost 25 men. The Russians, for their part, had left 700 dead upon the field.
The Ear That Was Bitten Off
We were faced with Kirghiz troops — disagreeable fellows with long moustaches and prominent cheekbones.
One morning, one of our men, Sergeant Alfred Olsen from Bergen, stepped out of the bunker and found a pistol thrust into his stomach. Not yet entirely awake, and apparently possessed of more sang-froid than good sense, he took it for a comrade playing a prank and knocked the pistol aside with a breezy: "Oh, do give it a rest!"
The Russians who had descended into the trench found no opportunity to withdraw. They were all shot.
On another occasion, some Russians — Kirghiz again — had crawled right up to the edge of the trench, and when the sentry below passed by, threw a tent canvas over him to forestall any inconvenient resistance. One gathers they intended to take him alive, as they had thoughtfully brought along a small sledge.
The sentry, however, made rather vigorous objection to this scheme, fighting back with considerable energy against the gang that had set upon him. The Kirghiz employed knives and teeth alike, leaving the man with a great number of cuts to his chest and throat. One of the Kirghiz had, moreover, bitten off most of one of his ears — and in what remained, one could clearly see the marks of the fellow's rather formidable horse-teeth.
The noise brought other Norwegians running.
"What on earth is going on?" they shouted.
"Shoot, for God's sake!" roared the man, flinging himself flat. Whereupon the attackers took to their heels — those, at any rate, who were still in a condition to do so.