The war events at Telavåg make
chilling reading, but have been summed up by the Norwegians in the phrase
"They burnt our homes,
they killed our men"
Probably the worst act of reprisal was the assault on the fishing
village of Telavåg in the spring of 1942.
Two Gestapo officers had been shot and killed there on the 26th April
1942 by two men brought over from Shetland.
One of the agents, Arne Vaerum, was also killed in the ensuing battle,
the other agent being Emil G Hvaal. They had come from Shetland, and
landed outside Telavåg earlier that month.
They both belonged to the Norwegian Independent Company Number 1,
popularly known as the Linge company (Kompani Linge). This company
was specially trained in Scotland for missions to occupied Norway.
The German retaliation for this shooting was terrible. The male
population of Telavåg was sent to a concentration camp where 31 of them
died. The women and children from the village were interned.
The village itself was levelled to the ground.
