Fossbakken

Approximately three kilometers southeast of Fossbakken lies Lapphaugen, featuring a War History landscape, a campground, and a dining establishment.

The quiet hills around Lapphaugen carry a weight that the landscape alone doesn’t reveal. In April 1940, German mountain troops pushed north from Bjerkvik toward Bardufoss airfield, crossing the ridges into Gratangsbotn. They were stopped here — at Lapphaugen — by the Norwegian 6th Division under General Carl Gustav Fleischer. It was the first time during the Second World War that German land forces were beaten back, and it happened right on Fossbakken’s doorstep.

On 24 April, the Second Battalion of the 15th Infantry Regiment launched a frontal assault on the German positions at Lapphaugen, supported by artillery. Harsh weather and fierce resistance made the advance difficult, but the Norwegian pressure proved relentless. Within days, the Germans abandoned both Lapphaugen and the valley of Gratangsdalen, and the Norwegian forces began their methodical advance southward toward Narvik — a campaign that would culminate on 28 May 1940 with the recapture of the port city, the first major Allied infantry victory of the war.

Today, the site is part of Krigshistorisk landskap — a series of monuments erected between Narvik and Bardufoss to honour the soldiers, both Norwegian and Allied, who fought in the spring of 1940. King Harald V opened the memorial at Lapphaugen on 15 June 2009, and the stretch of the E6 highway running through the area now bears the name General Fleischers veg. Hiking trails from nearby Sjøvegan trace the actual advance routes the soldiers followed during those April days, connecting the landscape to the history it holds.