Dinger's Aviation Pages
Bergen, a modern panorama.


A modern panorama of Bergen. In 1940 the cruiser Königsberg was anchored alongside the Skoltegrunns Mole on the right of the picture with her stern towards the harbour entrance to bring her powerful rear armanent to bear on any ship entering the harbour. Some notes on the history of the harbour during WW2.

A - Approx position of Kvarven fort, which fired on the German forces invading Bergen, damaging the
Königsberg on the night of 8th/9th April 1940.

B - Skoltegrunns Mole, North side, where the
Königsberg was sunk, 10th April 1940.

C - Skoltegrunns Mole, South side, where the
Bärenfels freighter was first sunk, 14th April 1940

D - Dokkeskjærskai quay, Where the German minesweeper
M154 was sunk on 9th May 1940 by Skuas of 806 Squadron.

E - Floating dock, damaged while trying to refloat the
Königsberg, it was also the site of an unsuccesful attack by three Welman midget submarines in November 1943. Then an attack, in April 1944, by the Royal Navy X-class midget submarine X24, which sank the Bärenfels for a second time. The floating dock was then sunk with heavy loss of Norwegian lives by the same submarine in a repeat operation in September 1944.

F - Approx site of the explosion of the
ST Voorbode which devastated Bergen harbour on 20th April 1944, causing massive casualties (160 killed, 5,000 wounded) and making 5,000 people homeless.

G - German submarine base "Bruno", target for three major bombing raids, one of which, on 4th October 1944, hit a school causing a large number of casualties (163 people killed 61 of them children, 180 people were wounded and 60 houses were destroyed).
Details at this link. Note that during the last raid the German minesweeper M1 was sunk in the harbour by a direct hit from a Tallboy bomb.

Bergen harbour was the target for many bombing raids during the Second World War. With so many buildings being made of wood incendiaries could cause widespread damage. One particular raid, in the early hours of 15th June 1940, probably by Beaufort aircraft of 22 Squadron, destroyed 133 houses, making 1,135 people homeless and killing 4 civilians.