Raid on Bergen

One of the most famous daylight bombing raids of the war occurred on October 6th, 1944 [A] when Lancaster aircraft of R.C.A.F. Bomber Command attacked the German U-boat pens in Bergen harbour, which was about seven miles from "Little Canada". From our front row seat we watched wave after wave of Lancs fly through heavy flak towards their target. Oddly enough, only a few German fighters were sent up to intercept the air strike and after making a few passes at a couple of the Lanc stragglers they seems to pack it in and go home. We later learned that the raid was quite successful with no aircraft lost and considerable damage done to ships in the harbour. As the U-boat pens were deep under water and protected by several feet of concrete an accurate assessment of the actual damage to the major target was impossible. A very sad note to the operation was that there were several civilian casualties [B] due to errant bombs. 

While we were enjoying our forced holiday at our mountain retreat, plans were being formulated behind the scenes to protect us in our next move. This would involve retracing our steps back down the mountain to a farmhouse in Lønningdal, a few hours rest as well as some hot food, and then to proceed about two miles through the bush back to the inlet to rendezvous with another "helper" and his boat. We would then go back on approximately the same route taken by Elnar, going south on Bjørnafjord, past the German Naval base at Hatvik, then further south for about seven miles before turning west for eight miles to the island of Ospoy. This island was at the western end of Bjørnafjord. Providing all went well we were to be dropped off at Ospoy in order to be picked up by another boat. At various places along the way members of the resistance were posted as armed lookouts to ensure that we would not be surprised by German patrols. The telephone lines to German headquarters in Lønningdal [C] were tapped in order that the underground could be well aware of any pending activities. 

After the first two or three days at "Little Canada" we settled into a daily routine of walks outside around the cabin, playing cards, listening to the radio and general chin-wagging. Each day either Kjell or one of the other helpers from Lønningdal would come with additional food. They would visit with Pete and Hans, however as the conversations were in Norwegian we didn't learn much from these visits. Kjell told us that he was not privy to any knowledge of the future plans of the Milorg other than that he was sure the wheels were turning.