{"id":4366,"date":"2020-03-17T16:31:37","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T16:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/?post_type=artikler&p=4366"},"modified":"2025-09-01T11:14:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T11:14:17","slug":"andersgrotta-was-a-shelter-for-norways-most-heavily-bombed-city","status":"publish","type":"artikler","link":"https:\/\/nordnorge.com\/en\/artikkel\/andersgrotta-was-a-shelter-for-norways-most-heavily-bombed-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Andersgrotta was a shelter for Norway’s most heavily bombed city"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\tDuring the Second World War, the air raid siren sounded in Kirkenes, Norway over 1000 times, and the town was bombed on 328 occasions. To escape the death and destruction, the people of Kirkenes decided to construct a bomb shelter with enough room for 2500 people.\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n

When Norway was occupied by the Germans in 1940, Kirkenes was a long way from the focus of the war. This situation changed completely in the spring of 1941, when Operation Barbarossa, the German attack on the Soviet Union, put Kirkenes right on the front line. From the S\u00f8r-Varanger municipality in which Kirkenes is located, the Germans advanced towards Murmansk in Russia, the Soviet Union’s only ice-free port with access to the oceans, but the Germans\u2019 progress came to a halt at the river Litsa. Here, they remained stuck in trench warfare until autumn 1944, when it became impossible for the Germans to hold their lines any longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air raids were a frequent occurrence<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During the first two years of the war, the Red Army was not particularly strong, but the Soviet Union developed its air force to the point where it was able to bomb the towns of Eastern Finnmark in northeast Norway. Vard\u00f8, Vads\u00f8 and Kirkenes were all bombed. Kirkenes, which was closest to the border, was the hardest hit. In 1941, the civilian population began work on the construction of a refuge bunker. Engineer Anders Elvebakk, after whom the bunker is named, led the work. As explosives were available from the local mines, a temporary bomb shelter was blasted out of the bedrock in the centre of Kirkenes. This bomb shelter was gradually extended through to 1944.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t\tPractical information on Andersgrotta\n\t\t\t<\/h3>
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