Lofoten War Museum, Svolvaer

Although we went to a few museums on our recent trip to Norway, I only visited one dedicated war museum. This was the Lofoton War Museum in Svolvaer on the Lofoten Islands. Svolvaer was one of the main targets of the WW2 Lofoten raid as there were oil storage tanks there and some of the shipping in the harbour was sunk too..

It is quite a small museum, made up of various private collections.

But fairly easy to find due to the sea mine (complete with anchor gear) outside!

1940 era Norwegian equipment and skis. 

Norwegian 1940 uniform, a sort of grey green with mid brown leather equipment. 

A SS trooper in winter uniform. Oddly he is wearing a grey panzer wrap jacket. There were quite a few SS uniforms of various types on display, private collections tend to go in for a lot of that sort of thing.

Assorted Germans in 1940 campaign uniforms. A Luftwaffe signaller and  a pair of Gebirgsjager. One of them has a Bergman MP18. Which you could actually handle!

And uniforms of various Allied and Norwegian troops from 1940.

A resistance radio set which apparently has an insert of cut out caricatures of various Nazi bigwigs. Probably not very safe to have that on display if the Gestapo came calling. 

U Boat crewman in waterproofs. 

Various Kriegsmarine shore personnel. The guy nearest the camera is a chemical specialist in a protective suit, manning the smoke generators to hide the Tirpitz. A couple of the others are coastal artillery.

Shell casing from Scharnhorst. 

Free Norwegian forces in pretty standard British uniforms.

Norwegian Commando in classic later commando kit, Denison smock, green beret and Tommy gun. 1st Independant Norwegian Company the took part in the Lofoton raid along with 3 and 4 Commando.

Nazi Christmas decorations! 

Merry Christmas from Heinrich... the blurb said these SS Christmas baubles are very rare. 

Wartime Norway. Although there aren't huge numbers of rust red colour houses around, they are quite distinctive so I'll paint a few of those up. 

Weapons safety was a bit lax... This Bren appeared to be in full working order, although  it wasn't loaded and was (presumably) missing its firing pin. I didn't strip it to find out.

Gestapo display, festooned with swastikas. A bit tasteless tbh.

A rather nice Feldgendarmerie uniform though.

SS Nordland uniforms, the division included Norwegian volunteers among others although 80% of its personnel were German. It mainly fought with Army Group North and after being evacuated from the Courland Pocket was destroyed in the Battle for Berlin. 

Royal Navy types, including a figure in a very sturdy duffle coat. A proper WW2 era duffel coat is so thick it almost stands up on its own. 

RAF pilot with a Lysander control panel. Not seen one of those before. 

A closer view of the panel.

RAF uniform with a Beaufighter panel. I've not seen one of those before either! The partially restored Beaufighter at Duxford was still in pieces last time I was there. 

KMS Blucher , sunk in 1940 a few days after being sent on its first operational mission during the invasion of Norway. A pair of Norwegian coastal gunners behind.

617 Squadron bits and pieces, more related to the attack on Tirptiz than the dambusters raid.

Glass bottle from Tirpitz. 

And a nice model of Tirpitz itself. 

German infantryman in later winter gear with Sami Hiwis and a pack-reindeer.

One of the few surviving original U Boat shields. From a sub operating off the northern coast, (U-505?) - for some reason the shield was transferred before the sub was sunk. That is a very big polar bear. 

There was a fair bit about Russian troops which made a nice change. These are dummies of prisoners doing construction work. A good number of prisoners were captured on the northern Russian front.

A lovely Maxim gun and a very good study of that ever so mysterious 'Russian Green' that their equipment was painted.

German motorcyclist in a water proof coat.

A Madsen LMG! You don't come across those very often. This one was in a display case so I couldn't fiddle around with it.

Russian aircraft and aviation personnel uniforms.

A couple of doughty looking Resistance fighters. All ready to clear away the Flak for 633 Squadron. 

And just hanging on the wall, an M1 carbine! Never handled a real one of those before, a lovely little rifle, very underrated and staple of baddies in 'The Man from UNCLE'.

So, if you ever find yourself in Svolvear, a great little museum and well worth a visit.