The Resistance on Hesten

We are now passing Heastajávri lake, or Hestevannet (horse lake) as it is known in Norwegian. On the other side you can see Hesten mountain where allied resistance fighters erected a radio mast during the second world war. On the 7th of October 1943, three resistance fighters, one Norwegian and two Russians, came ashore from a submarine on the other side of the mountain, with them, they had all the equipment they needed to build a radio transmitter. They also had 2,5 tons of provisions and of course a little vodka. Unfortunately, a sudden storm washed most of the provisions and a lot of the equipment out to sea, but they managed to save the radio transmitter and the batteries. The three, established themselves in a cave on the mountainside, where they had a good overview of all the traffic through Rolvsøy sound. They placed the radio transmitter up on the Hesten mountain and were able to establish good contact with Murmansk and sent a steady stream of messages to the east detailing the Germans’ activity. Since most of their provisions were lost, they soon had a lack of food and hunger set in for the three in the cave, the situation soon became critical. They eventually came into contact with the Nilsen Family in Bakfjord, from whom they received both food and shelter, despite the fact that the Nilsen family were putting themselves in the utmost danger in doing so. It was thanks to the Nilsen Family here in Bakfjord that the resistance group survived.