Narvik

Narvik is a town in the county of Nordland, Norway. The municipality of Narvik covers large areas outside the town itself.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Narvik is one of the most northerly towns in the world, with a railroad connecting to Kiruna, in Sweden, but not to Bod?, which is at the northern end of the rest of Norway's railroad network.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The port of Narvik proved to be strategically valuable in the early years of World War II and the town became a focal point of the Norwegian Campaign. In 1939 Germany's war industry depended upon iron ore extracted in Kiruna and Malmberget in Sweden. During the summer this ore could be shipped to Germany from the Swedish port of Lule? on the Gulf of Bothnia. However, when the Gulf of Bothnia froze during the winter, most of the ore had to be brought from Narvik. The town of Narvik is linked by rail to Sweden, but not to other towns in Norway. As a result, Narvik serves as a gateway to the ore fields of Sweden which cannot be easily reached from southern Norway over land. Then First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill realized that control of Narvik meant stopping most German imports of iron-ore during the winter of 1940, which would be highly advantageous to the Allies and might help shorten the war. Churcill proposed laying a minefield in Norwegian territorial waters around Narvik or possibly occupying the town with Allied troops. The Allies hoped that they might be able to use an occupied Narvik as a base from which to secure the Swedish ore fields and/or to send supplies and reinforcements to Finland, then fighting The Winter War with the Soviet Union. Plans to lay a minefield around Narvik or to seize the town met with debate within the British government since both plans would mean a violation of Norway's neutrality and sovereignty.

County: Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count. Counts are called "earls" in post-Celtic Great Britain and Ireland - the term is from Old Norse jarl and was introduced by the Vikings - but there is no correlation between "county" and "earldom." Rather, t...

Nordland: Nordland is a county in Norway, bordering Troms and Nord-Tr?ndelag. The county administration is in Bod?. The island of Jan Mayen is also administrated from Nordland....

Norway: The Kingdom of Norway is a Nordic country on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia, with territorial waters bordering Danish and British waters. It has a very elongated form and has an extensive coastline along the North Atlantic Ocean, where Norway'...

Narvik related Images and Photos (experimental)

Skiing in the Midnight Sun Narvik Norway