Narvik Shield

The Narvik Shield (German: Narvikschild) was a World War II German military decoration awarded to all German forces that took part in the battles of Narvik between 9 April and 8 June 1940. It was instituted on 19 August 1940 by Adolf Hitler with the decree published in Reichsgesetzblatt Number 154 on 28 August for the army followed on 12 and 13 September for the navy and air force respectively.

Design

Designed by Professor Dr Richard Klein of Munich, the narrow shield features a pointed bottom and, at its apex, an eagle with folded-down wings clutching a laurel wreath that surrounds a swastika. Below this in capital letters is written NARVIK. The body of the shield features an edelweiss (representing the Heer mountain troops), an anchor (representing the Kriegsmarine), and propeller (for the Luftwaffe (both air and field) units). The anchor and propeller are crossed, with the edelweiss placed at the top of the X. The numbers 19 and 40 appear at the top corners of the main body of the shield.

Narvik

 Narvik  is the third-largest town and municipality in Nordland county, Norway by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Narvik. Other villages in the municipality include Ankenesstranda, Beisfjord, Bjerkvik, Bjørnfjell, Elvegård, Skjomen, Håkvik, Hergot, Straumsnes, and Vidrek. The Elvegårdsmoen army camp is located near Bjerkvik.

Narvik is located on the shores of the Ofotfjorden. The municipality is part of the traditional district of Ofoten of Northern Norway, inside the Arctic Circle. The municipality of Narvik borders the municipality of Ballangen to the southwest, Evenes to the northwest, Bardu, Gratangen, Lavangen and Skånland (in Troms county) to the north, and Norrbotten County (Lapland) in Sweden to the south and east.

General information

The municipality of Narvik was established on 1 January 1902 when the village of Narvik received status as a proper town and was separated from the large municipality of Ankenes. Initially, the town-municipality of Narvik had 3,705 residents. On 1 January 1974, the municipality of Ankenes was merged with the town-municipality of Narvik, forming a new, larger municipality of Narvik. After the merger, the new municipality of Narvik had 19,780 residents. On 1 January 1999, a small area of Narvik (population: 9) was transferred to Evenes.

Narvik (disambiguation)

Narvik is a municipality in Nordland, Norway.

Narvik may also refer to: