page_title: Actions in Nordland
section_title: Mo i Rana
hierarchical_section_title: Actions in Nordland / Mo i Rana
caption_attribution_description: Norsk bokmål: Engelske etterlatenskaper etter kampene ved Stien 17. mai 1940 Tittel / Title: Engelske etterlatenskaper Dato / Date: Ukjent/Unknown Fotograf / Photographer: Karl Marth/Otto Erlacher Sted / Place: Stien, Nordland, Norge Eier / Owner Institution: Arkiv i Nordland Lenke / Link: Arkiv i Nordland Arkivreferanse /Archive reference: AIN.NA143.0130 Fra Dag Skogheims Privatarkiv
context_page_description: The Actions in Nordland were part of the 1940 Norwegian Campaign of World War II. They were a subsidiary part of the Allied attempt to recapture Narvik.
  When the Germans achieved victory in the Campaigns in Central Norway, they began advancing north through Nordland to relieve the German forces isolated in Narvik. To prevent the Germans either relieving Narvik or capturing airfields within easy range, some small British and French units were deployed to the southern part of Nordland county early in May. A more powerful force was detached from the expeditionary force besieging Narvik to northern and central Nordland in the middle of May. This force's arrival was disrupted by German air attacks on the ships carrying its units.
  German mountain troops forced the Allies back to within a few miles of their base at Bodø. The Allies had already decided to evacuate Norway at this point, and the force at Bodø was withdrawn without incident, with the last units departing by 1 June 1940.
context_section_description: The German attack against the Allied positions at Stien, about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Mo i Rana, began on 17 May. The German force around Mosjøen was composed of five battalions and three "troops" of mountain artillery from the 2nd Mountain Division, commanded by Generalleutnant Valentin Feurstein. The defending force was "Trappescol", made up of the 1st Scots Guards (less C Company at Bodø), No.1 Independent Company, a troop of 203 Battery, 51st Field Regiment Royal Artillery with four 25-pounder guns, a troop of Bofors 40 mm guns of the 55th Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA, with other small detachments, and a Norwegian contingent. The German frontal attack by the 2nd battalion of the 137th Mountain Regiment along the road alongside the Ranfjord was halted, but a German outflanking force (which had commandeered skis from local farms as they advanced) fought its way down the Dalselva River (using "Schmeisser" machine-pistols effectively) and forced the defenders to withdraw. Other German ski troops (thought at the time to be paratroops dropped on a bare hillside) attacked the Scots Guards' transport near Mo i Rana to threaten Trappes-Lomax's rear.
  On 18 May, Gubbins arrived, bringing orders from Lieutenant General Claude Auchinleck, the recently appointed commander of the North Western Expeditionary Force, that Mo i Rana was to be firmly defended. Trappes-Lomax however insisted that the position was untenable. Since no reinforcements were available, Gubbins reluctantly concurred. "Trappescol" withdrew "precipitately" in Gubbins's words, abandoning most stores and equipment intact. B Company of the Scots Guards and No. 1 Independent Company were left behind but succeeded in rejoining the force the next day. (B Company had been guided by an unofficially attached Swedish officer, Captain Count Erik Lewenhaupt.)
  On 20 May, Gubbins and Auchinleck were dismayed to find that Trappes-Lomax had continued to retreat despite having broken contact with the Germans, and was proposing to fall back across the "snow belt" north of his new position at the village of Krokstrand. Gubbins was also alarmed by the large numbers of stragglers he found north of the "snow belt", including the troop of 203 Battery RA, who had lost their communications equipment at Mo i Rana. He ordered No. 1 Independent Company to set up a control point at the ferry terminus at Rognan. He then gave Trappes-Lomax orders that there was to be no further retreat without authorisation.
caption: Equipment abandoned by British soldiers, Stien, Mo i Rana, 17 May 1940
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