military traffic, transportation links between the north and south of the
country are limited.
The Soviet forces that had occupied northern Norway, then, were
relatively isolated, totally dependent on resupply by air or by sea. With the
defeat of the Soyuz battle group, most of the Norwegian coast was opened to
interdiction by American air strikes, and resupply by sea became increasingly
difficult. Air drops continued to be made by cargo planes–big Ilyushin 18Ds
and Antonov Cubs–flying in over the occupied portions of Sweden, but fewer
and fewer of these were making it through the waves of Swedish Viggen
interceptors, or past the long-range lightning of U.S. Phoenix missiles,
launched by Tomcats over the coast 120 miles away.
Key to any military strategy in the region is Norway’s shape. Kirkines,
in the far north, is over seventeen hundred miles from the Baltic, and yet at
Narvik, at the head of the huge, inland slash of the Vestfjorden, the country
is only four miles wide.
Narvik. The port had known the thunder of battle before. In 1940, a
British fleet headed by the battleship Warspite had sailed up the fjord and
engaged German ships in the harbor, sinking nine destroyers. Fifty-seven
years later, Narvik occupied a strategic choke point that could block Soviet
military traffic. A single road runs east into Sweden, but through a vast and
desolate area not yet under the control of Soviet forces. Capture Narvik,
then, and southern Norway could easily be isolated from the north.
From Narvik, a finger of close-set islands, the Lofotens, extends
southwest like the jagged, armored tail of a dragon. The gulf between the
Lofotens and the mainland is the Vestfjord, sixty miles wide at its mouth. At
its head, it narrows sharply, forming the Ofotfjord, the sea approach to
Narvik.
The dragon’s head juts northeast, a clutter of islands called the
Vesterglen. Between these Western Islands and the scattering of islands close
to the mainland is another gulf, the Andfjord. Vagsfjord branches south from
this sheltered backwater, between the islands of Grytoya and Rolla. Among
these sheltered coves and hill-backed fjords the II MEF operations team had
placed the landing beaches, at the point where the dragon’s feet met the
jagged coastline of Norway: Green Beach, south of Harstad; and Red and Blue
Beaches, at the head of the Vagsfjord near the town of Tennevik.
The invasion began at 0630 hours on the twenty-fifth, with preassault
landings on Rolla and Grytoya, and on the Vestersen island of Andoya. These
landings, some by combat swimmers, others by helocasting or parachute
insertion, were carried out by Marine Recon forces and by detachments of U.S.
Navy SEALS. Their objectives included clearing the sea approaches to the
invasion beaches, carrying out hydrographic reconnaissance, silencing SAM
sites and radars, and, in particular, capturing the small airfield on Andoya,
which now was home to a squadron of Soviet MiG-29s.
The fighting at Andoya was still going on when the Norwegian Mine
Countermeasures Squadron entered the Vagsfjord at just past 0930 hours and
began sweeping the beach approaches. The squadron, including three
minesweepers, two minelayers, and a dozen smaller craft, was accompanied by
two Perry-class frigates and led by a flight of massive MH-53E Sea Dragon
helicopters towing Mark 105 mineclearing sleds. The steep hills surrounding
the fjords rang and echoed to the ongoing bombardment by Marine and Naval air
units. Marine Harrier II jump jets and Huey Cobra gunships stooped, hovered,
and struck, blasting enemy installations and command centers, vehicles on the
road, and concentrations of troops.
Behind the mine sweepers and air strikes came the amphibious assault
ships Saipan and Nassau and the LPDs Austin and Trenton. The assault
helicopter carriers Iwo Jima and Itichon remained offshore, dispatching
regimental landing teams by CH-46s and CH-53s. The helos clattered inland,
escorted by more Huey Cobras.
The first U.S. Marines hit the beaches near Tennevik at 1630 hours on
June twenty-fifth. They were members of the 1/25th Regimental Landing Team,
and they swam ashore in twelve LVTP-7 amphibious armored personnel carriers
released by the LHA-4 Nassau. Streams of LCUs came ashore moments later,
disgorging more troops and Marine LAVs–Light Armored Vehicles–and HMMWVS.
Initial fighting was surprisingly light and scattered. Rather than