Operation Nordlicht (i)

northern lights

'Nordlicht' (i) was a German pair of operations ('Nordlicht I' and 'Nordlicht II') to move Generalmajor Ferdinand Schörner’s 6th Gebirgsdivision from Greece to northern Norway and thence to northern Finland in preparation for the Arctic coast developments of the 'Barbarossa' invasion of the USSR (29 August/September 1941).

Starting on 29/30 August 1941, the final stage of 'Nordlicht I' moved part of the division from Stettin via Oslo, Trondheim and the Lofoten islands group to the area of the North Cape and Kirkenes in the extreme north of German-occupied Norway, and thence into northern Finland. Starting on the same day, 'Nordlicht II' shipped the rest of the division through the Swedish archipelago and across the Gulf of Bothnia to the Finnish port of Vaasa and thence overland to Rovaniemi for use in the German and Finnish 'Platinfuchs' campaign to take Murmansk on the coast of the Barents Sea.