page_title: Battle of Dombås
section_title: Schmidt is wounded
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Dombås / Battle / Day one / Schmidt is wounded
caption_attribution_description: The road at Ulekleiv, ca. 4 kilometres south of Dombås.
context_page_description: The Battle of Dombås was fought between Norwegian Army infantry forces and German Fallschirmjäger paratroops in mid-April 1940. As part of their conquest of Norway south of Trondheim, and as a countermeasure against reported Allied landings in the Romsdal area of south western Norway, the Germans dropped a company of paratroopers near the vital railroad junction of Dombås on 14 April 1940. For the next five days, the German force blocked the Dovre Line railroad line between Oslo and Trondheim, as well as the main road between the two cities.
context_section_description: When the taxi-borne German force reached the farmstead of Li on the road to Dombås, they ran into two truck-loads of soldiers from No. 5 Company, IR 11. After some initial confusion the Norwegian opened fire and the Germans charged with submachine guns and hand grenades. Following a short fire fight during which Schmidt was severely wounded and the Norwegians pushed back, the paratroopers abandoned their advance on Dombås. They instead pulled back and took up positions in a hedgehog defensive fighting position at the farms of Ulekleiv and Hagevolden, covering all directions and dominating the surrounding landscape. Schmidt—although seriously wounded in the hip and stomach—never relinquished command and ordered his men to use sand to write messages in the snow to the Luftwaffe asking for supplies of provisions and ammunition. The force was not spotted by Luftwaffe reconnaissance aircraft and received no supply drops while at Ulekleiv/Hagevolden.
caption: The road near Ulekleiv
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