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Chapter XXXV: The Battle of Øyeren Lake
South of Heiås, Norway, 1 May, 04:02 hours
To ensure that any flanking attempt wouldn’t take the defenses by surprise, two man teams with field telephones had been stationed beyond the flanks. One of these was stations manned by two Norwegian volunteers, with helmets that barely stayed on their young heads and rifles from the very back of the armory as the Royal Norwegian Army frantically equipped the inrush of volunteers. Menigs(Privates) Olsen and Hansen were manning one particular position east of Øyeren Lake. Hansen had the phone, its wire strung back to a position to the north near Heiås, which would relay the reports to the Army headquarters. The two were due to be relieved in an hour from their position, consisting of the telephone and some dirt piled on the south side to serve as cover. The region was dotted with open fields and wooded areas, several roads cutting through. Olsen and Hansen were stationed on the edge of some woods, allowing them to see south for several kilometers of open fields.
Approximate Position
“I swear I just saw something move,” Olsen muttered. The first rays of light were beginning to illuminate the landscape, but sunrise was still an hour away.
“Give me the binoculars,” Hansen shivered despite his warm layers. He couldn’t tell.
Olsen took the binoculars back. He was about to bring them back up again when he heard an engine. Peering through the darkness, he could see a black shape about a kilometer off, with no lights, which was odd. Several engines joined the first, and that was enough for a call. Hansen picked up the phone.
“Heiås, this is post five, multiple darkened vehicles approaching my position from the south.”
“Post five, how many vehicles?”
“Heiås, estimate at least a dozen vehicles in single file formation, lead appears different.”
“Post five, what does the lead vehicle look like?”
“Heiås, it is closing but it is fairly dark here, appears taller than the following vehicles, more squarely shaped.”
“Very well, post five. Hold your position and report future movements.”
“Affirmative.”
What Hansen and Olsen had just done had put a wrench in the German attack almost before it even began. The Germans had located the other stations in the vicinity, and surprised them in the dark nearly an hour before, but had missed post five, and passed one of their leading forces assigned to take Heiås, followed soon by foot soldiers, right by the Norwegians. The east advance force, consisting of a Panzer I and a dozen trucks loaded with crack troops, wouldn’t get an easy surprise attack on Heiås, held by a platoon sized force. Heiås forwarded the warning to the Allied headquarters in Oslo, currently busy moving men to repel the attack at Skoger. Now, the decision was which thrust should be taken seriously.
The Allied commanders decided to send a trio of Hs 123’s to hit the German truck column, while a battalion of regulars would reinforce Heiås from its position near Fetsund. More men were held in reserve as a result of the report as well.
04:27 hours, Heiås village
The garrison’s three machine guns were sited near the main roads to the village, while the 70-odd men were ready. The German east and west advance forces, each consisting of a Panzer I and 12 trucks of infantry, converged on Heiås at roughly the same time. Heiås sent a call that it was under attack by several hundred Germans, while the machine gunners unsuccessfully targeted the Panzer I’s, which returned fire effectively. The outnumbered Norwegians fought valiantly, but were quickly overwhelmed by the superior numbers and firepower of the German advance groups.
Just prior to the fall of Heiås, a report from the forward post had been forwarded to Oslo of a substantial infantry force coming up from the south. The trio of Hs 123’s arrived a few minutes later over Heiås and bombed the German vehicles advancing north from the village, inflicting significant casualties before noting the forces to the south and returning to Kjeller Airbase.
With the attack near Skoger not nearly as bad as thought at first, plus the report from He 123’s of a large German attack on the west flank, the Allied commanders sent an additional battalion to reinforce the battalion already on its way south which was now ordered to block the German vanguard about four kilometers south of the village of Gan, something it was capable of doing with its 3.7cm guns, as well a pair of 7.5cm weapons. The rest of the reserves were en route to Skoger, with a further battalion detatched to the east flank. Meanwhile, much of the Allied air support was occupied with fighting a bombing raid over Oslo, and not available on the flank.
The motorized column hit the Norwegians before the second battalion arrived, but the first battalion was ready. A 7.5cm shell knocked out one of the Panzer I’s as soon as it came within view in the partially wooded area, and a fierce duel began, the Norwegian artillery targeting the lightly armored Panzer I’s, and the machine guns and infantry dealing with the unarmored trucks full of German men. The German vanguard was destroyed, but 6,000 men were still on their way, while the Norwegians had just 500 men in place and 500 more nearing the defensive position.
The Germans had allocated a large number of aircraft to the offensive in order to keep aircraft overhead to aid the ground troops, as well as basing some 30 aircraft at their recently expanded airfield at Tønsberg. Ju 87’s from the latter, as well as a handful of various bomber types from the former in the area, struck the Norwegian position from the sky. This, combined with the German advance, forced the battalion back, where it encountered the reinforcing battalion. A (barely) organized fighting retreat was conducted for several hours, reaching Gan late that afternoon, where a Norwegian battalion and a French mountain battalion met them. A spirited defense of the village stopped the Germans cold, while attacks on Tønsberg’s aircraft lessened their numbers and the coming of nightfall stopped the flow of aircraft from Aalborg, allowing the Allies to exploit their superiority in local aircraft.
On 2 May, the Germans failed an attempt to flank the Allied positions in Gan, which had been reinforced overnight after blunting the attack on Skoger, while a major frontal assault achieved nothing. The major development on 2 May was the lengthening of the front as both sides attempted to flank each other; one Frenchman attributed it to the Race to the Sea in the Great War. The Oslo front was dangerously overextending both sides, the Allies less so with their numerical superiority. The German Panzers had proven to be a decisive weapon for the offensive, but had been easily defeated by Allied artillery in the wooded area where the later battles took place. The Oslo front was back to being a stalemate, though it was a precarious one.
Øyeren Front, 3 May
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