The Ski Battalion

Anonymous Account

At the end of October 1943, the Ski Company met its new recruits at Oulu. With that, the Ski Company ceased to exist and the Ski Battalion was formed.

1st Company: Kahrs (Bergen)
2nd Company: Skjefstad (Elverum)
3rd Company: Steen (Trondheim)
4th Company: Uglestad (Drammen)

I joined 1st Company, as deputy section commander, 1st Section, 2nd Platoon.

1st Platoon was a mortar platoon — it had one mortar. 2nd Platoon was the special platoon, with light weapons; each section had a light machine gun, otherwise sub-machine guns or sniper rifles. This platoon was a sort of guard unit tasked with protecting the commander when he was out. 3rd Platoon was a normal platoon with machine guns and sub-machine guns.

On the march we generally advanced in the order 2nd–3rd–1st platoon, with 1st Platoon at the rear.

Shortly before Christmas came the news that the Ski Battalion was to be committed at the front under the command of Sturmbannführer Banner — a fine soldier, though a great pity he drank so much. He was a cold-blooded individual who often took up a position in the line of fire, shouting and gesticulating, giving his orders.

This Banner was in fact the regimental commander; Halle, who came later, became the Ski Battalion's own commander.

Just after Christmas 1943 we were sent from Oulu to the area above the Kestenka crossroads, where we lay just behind the trenches and conducted exercises, having received new men. After a short time we were sent to the front, where we were given our own sector. We first lay on a height called Height 200, where we built ourselves a little settlement of bark huts and remained for six weeks. German units lay in front of us; their task was to hold the line while ours was to patrol. In the event of an alarm, the Ski Battalion would take action. There was no continuous front with trenches — only a series of strongpoints.

We went out on hunting parties, and before reaching the front line we also took part when the entire regiment conducted an attack. As a preliminary, three German punishment companies stationed here were sent forward one day. In one of the companies there were also three Norwegians. These companies were to attack a small Russian outpost of 40 men — which was, however, a miscalculation. The companies encountered not 40 Russians but a couple of thousand, and came off very badly.

When the men came back, they were in rags, some without their tunics — the result of furious close-quarter fighting. Of one company only three men returned. The three Norwegians all came through; one of them even received the Iron Cross. They had not been in the company that was destroyed.

That evening the entire Ski Battalion had been assembled behind a height, and we then advanced together with the regiment. When we came up under the Russian positions we heard shouting, screaming, and the howling of dogs. The Russians sent up signal flares. We crept forward and the entire battalion formed a 'hedgehog position'. There, at about three or four in the morning, wild fighting broke out. A radio message informed us that large Russian reinforcements were on the march.

The Ski Battalion now received orders to advance and support the punishment companies fighting the Russian outpost. While we lay waiting for the advance order, the Russians opened up with their heavy mortars, which snapped off large trees. Thirty-five men were then selected — all of 2nd Platoon — under Gauslå, with me as deputy, to creep right up to the fighting line.

Meanwhile German aircraft had spotted the Russian reinforcements and were bombing them.

We went forward whilst the rest of the battalion remained. We took with us a medical orderly and a runner to maintain contact between Gauslå and myself. We went so far that there was eventually wild fighting all about us. We had to dig in, and when moving forward we crawled slowly with our skis in hand — having taken them off. We worked our way forward a couple of hundred metres, but were spotted by Russian aircraft, and from the main Russian position directly in front of us the Russians bombarded the area with mortars and artillery, razing large parts of the forest.

We therefore fell back. But there were Russians everywhere, so the battalion received orders to retire; we went back along a lake until we were in our positions again on Height 200. We were the last to reach the height and found the battalion in complete disorder.

We then lay on the height for a few days. Then came another alarm; when we advanced, the Russians pulled back. We lay in front of the minefields throughout the night, waiting for a Russian attack that never came.

2nd Company, under Skjefstad, had one day sent out a patrol that ran straight into a Russian ambush just outside our minefield. Two men fell and two were wounded.

How did Gust Jonassen fall? It happened in March 1943. Jonassen had been out on patrol and on returning walked into one of our own minefields. The rule was that when a patrol came in, the forward sentry should signal the safe route, as they had to walk with great precision so as not to tread on the mines — the usable path was often only as wide as a ski track, so the sentries had to be attentive. But the sentry Jonassen encountered had not been attentive enough. He was a German and gave no indication. Jonassen was tired and wet — you know how it is — and gave the order to spread out, whereupon the platoon walked into the minefield and the mines went off. S-mines.

Jonassen was terribly wounded. I helped carry him to the aircraft that was to take him to hospital, but he died in the aircraft.

One child was hit by a bullet in the chest and killed — a fine young lad. A Strand died instantly. Also fell a German who had been the most capable soldier on the entire front, and whom the Germans had nicknamed 'the terror of the Russians'. He was to have gone on leave in two days and was to have been commissioned as an officer.