Hotspot Norway

Listening to Norwegian radio news this morning it is evident that dark memories are coming to light in the minds of Norwegians.

During the spring and early summer of 1940 battles raged between German invasion forces who occupied the town of Narvik in Northern Norway and allied troops:

From WIKI: "Narvik provided an ice-free harbour in the North Atlantic for iron ore transported by the railway from Kiruna in Sweden. Both sides in the war had an interest in securing this iron supply for themselves and denying it to the enemy, setting the stage for one of the biggest battles since the Invasion of Poland.[1]"

Ever since the end of the war NATO has held annual exercises in the area because we know that it is strategically important to Russia, whose troops invaded it at the end of WWII in order to help drive out German forces.

As it happens, Russia's northern strategic nuclear forces are concentrated on the Kola peninsula where Russia and Norway share a common border.

In 1963, I was stationed on a NATO Early Warning radar station in that area and we were informed that our life expectancy was around five minutes after the outbreak of hostilities.