Kaprolat, together with the nearby position "Hasselmann", were German names for positions, each on its own hill, in

eastern Karelia East Karelia ( fi, Itä-Karjala, Karelian: ''Idä-Karjala''), also rendered as Eastern Karelia or Russian Karelia, is a name for the part of Karelia that since the Treaty of Stolbova in 1617 has remained Eastern Orthodox under Russian supremacy. ...

on the Russian side of the border during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The positions were located west of the small Karelian town of

Louhi Louhi () is a wicked queen of the land known as Pohjola in Finnish mythology and a villain of the ''Kalevala''. As many mythological creatures and objects are easily conflated and separated in Finnish mythology, Louhi is probably an alter-eg ...

. In a Soviet offensive in June 1944, around 120 Norwegian fighters were killed and 23 died in Soviet captivity. This loss, a total of around 143, is the largest loss that has affected a Norwegian combat unit ever.

The Battle of Kaprolat 1944

At Kaprolat and Hasselmann, there were around 200 Norwegians, and of these, 117 Norwegian fighters were reported missing or killed in combat when they served in the Waffen-SS unit SS " Ski Hunter Battalion Norway" and were defeated by the Red Army in these two places in 25 and June 26, 1944. The Soviet attack was launched on June 25 after SS forces were able to observe that the Soviet forces were building a road through the marshy area using logs. When the Waffen SS forces realized that they were about to be defeated, a group tried to break out in the south of the other German positions on Hasselmann, but very few succeeded in this. Others tried to hide in the woods and later went north-west. After twelve days of hiking through the forest, this group managed to reach the Sashaikh support point. 50 in total managed to escape. Around 40 Norwegian fighters are said to have been taken prisoner of war by the Soviet forces.

After the battles

Fifteen Norwegian prisoners of war from the Kaprolat battles returned to Norway in the period between the autumn of 1945 and October 1953. Russian sources state that they had captured 48 soldiers after the fighting. The area remained closed after the fighting and throughout the post-war period as part of the border areas with Finland. The fallen soldiers were not buried and remain unburied since. After the fall of the Soviet Union, an initiative has been taken to bring the remains of the Norwegian fighters home to Norway. Professor Stein Ugelvik Larsen at the University of Bergen heads the so-called ''Kaprolat Committee,'' which works to identify the remains of the Norwegian SS soldiers. The work is financed, among other things, by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with one million kroner.Senje, Sigurd; Glem soldat, Pax Forlag AS, 2008; ISBN 978-82-530-3385-3

References

{{Reflist, 2

External links

Norwegian digital sources 1940-1945

"Per Kleppe: Will bring home his dead brother", Address 11 December 2006

"After 66 years, Per Kleppe had his brother buried", Dagbladet 1 February 2010

Several hundred front fighters were missing, NRK 8 March 2008

"Met death in a bog", Aftenposten 2 August 2008 - with a map of the area

"A probable Norwegian SS soldier found", Aftenposten 4 November 2008

«Still on the battlefield», NRK Brennpunkt 24 February 2009

«Ten Norwegian SS soldiers fell here», Aftenposten 17 September 2009

«65 years since the fatal battle in Finnish Karelia»
Military history of Finland during World War II Soviet Union in World War II Battles and operations of the Continuation War June 1944 events History of the Republic of Karelia