| Original caption: “The place has been taken. The flames leap up in praise of the German soldiers. The snow has melted in the heat. Clouds of steam make it hard to breathe. But the men must continue on, after the enemy.” German soldiers protect themselves from the heat of the fire as houses on the outskirts of Lillehammer burn fiercely. They are facing a combined force of Norwegians, who had been fighting for over a week against their advance, and newly arrived British troops. It was a 1-sided fight, with the lightly armed Allied units having to deal with Germans supported by artillery and the ever-present Luftwaffe. Fighting for the town of Lillehammer involved Norwegian troops and the United Kingdom Royal Army 148th Infantry Brigade of the “Sickle Force” under the command of Major General Bernard T.C. Paget (September 15, 1887 – February 16, 1961) and other British forces made up of the 8th Battalion, Sherwood Foresters and the 5th Leicesters. These 2 units took up positions to the south of the town in an open valley. Their main objective was to hold off the superior German force until their Norwegian Allies could withdraw safely. Without heavy machine guns, mortars and artillery, most units only had Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) .303 caliber (7.7 millimeter) rifles and Bren light machine guns. On the Nazi German side, a battle group was created under the command of Generalleutnant Richard Pellengahr (August 19, 1883 – October 9, 1964) – “Kampfgruppe Pellengahr.” Comprising 2 infantry battalions, a mechanized machine gun regiment and supporting artillery, it totalled some 4,000 men. Its units were the 196.Infantry-Division comprising 340.Infantry-Regiment, 345.Infantry-Regiment, and 362.Infantry-Regiment. In addition, Kampfgruppe Pellengahr had 223.Artillerie-Regiment, Aufklärungs-Abteilung (“Reconnaissance Detachment”) 223, and Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 223 with 1 Panzerkampfwagen Neubaufahrzeug (“new construction vehicle” heavy tank and 6 Panzerkampfwagen I light tanks. As Kampfgruppe Pellengahr moved northwards up the Gudbrandsal valley in mid-April they closed in on the strategic town of Lillehammer. Reaching the frozen Lake Mjøsa just to the south of Lillehammer, the Germans split their forces to attack along both shores. As the Germans advanced towards Lillehammer, the defense put up by the Norwegians began to stiffen. In addition, the terrain and snowy conditions caused some short-term delays to the German advance. They were faced by elements of the Norwegian 5th Regiment on the eastern shore and by a single battalion of the 4th Infantry Regiment on the western shore. Both Norwegian units were already demoralized, and the situation was not helped when German units outflanked their positions, crossing the frozen lake to outflank 1st 1 Norwegian unit and then the other. As both Norwegian units pulled back in disarray, they were joined at the front by units of the United Kingdom Royal Army 148th Brigade, diverted from their original objective – the port of Trondheim – at the request of the Royal Norwegian Army commander-in-chief, General Otto Ruge (January 9, 1882 – August 15, 1961). Most of the British troops arrived at the front by train along the still intact railway north of Lillehammer. 2 companies of Sherwood Foresters deployed along the western shore of the lake while the rest went to relieve the Norwegian units still defending the town. A similar sized force of the Leicestershire Regiment took up positions on the eastern shore, with support from Norwegian dragoons. Advancing towards them were 2 German infantry battalions and 2 companies of motorized machine gunners. This force was supported by Panzerabwehr-Abteilung 223 and a number of 105 millimeter (4.13 inch) leFH 18 Feldhaubitze (“light field howitzer”) field guns. On the Allied side there were no tanks or artillery, not even mortars, and most of the British troops were unseasoned. Once the German attack began on April 21, there was little the Allied troops could do, especially as they were under attack by 8 Heinkel He-111 bombers. Although 2 more companies of the Leicestershire Regiment arrived during the battle, there was little that they could do to prevent the impending defeat. The Allied forces were driven back to their former headquarters at Tretten, where they made a last stand on April 23. Under the cover of darkness the remnants of the British and Norwegian forces made a hasty retreat. Left dead on the battlefield or taken prisoner were 706 officers and men. The 148th Brigade ceased to exist as a fighting unit. The Germans continued their northwards advance as more British troops were being landed ashore to try to prevent the takeover of central Norway. Eric Borchert (April 6, 1911 – October 10, 1941) probably came from a German-American family. Since 1933, he worked as a photographer for the Associated Press. He also published photos in the Illustrierte Zeitung in Berlin in 1933. Starting in 1936, his photos were published in the Berlin Illustrirten Zeitung, for example, about the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, France, and a journey to Portugal (1939). In 1941, Eric Borchert was a war correspondent in occupied Norway. He was then appointed as the most important photographer of General Rommel’s propaganda company for the African campaign against the Allied troops. His photos later appeared in an elaborate landscape illustrated book with full-page photos and also in German newspapers and magazines. He died in the siege of Tobruk. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0747.jpg |
| Image Size | 720.77 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 3000 x 2326 |
| Photographer | Eric Borchert |
| Photographer Title | Kriegsberichter |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | April 21, 1940 |
| Location | |
| City | Lillehammer |
| State or Province | Gudbrandsdal |
| Country | Norway |
| Archive | Bundesarchiv |
| Record Number | 183-H26353 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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