Dombås | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 View of Dombås in the upper Gudbrandsdalen valley. | |
  Dombås Location of the village Show map of Innlandet Dombås Dombås (Norway) Show map of Norway | |
| Coordinates:62°04′32″N9°07′40″E / 62.07554°N 9.12785°E /62.07554; 9.12785 | |
| Country | Norway |
| Region | Eastern Norway |
| County | Innlandet |
| District | Gudbrandsdalen |
| Municipality | Dovre Municipality |
| Area | |
• Total | 1.55 km2 (0.60 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 643 m (2,110 ft) |
| Population (2021)[1] | |
• Total | 1,164 |
| • Density | 753/km2 (1,950/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+01:00 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+02:00 (CEST) |
| Post Code | 2660 Dombås |
Dombåsⓘ[needs IPA] is a village or small town inDovre Municipality in northernInnlandet county,Norway. The village serves as the commercial centre for the upperGudbrandsdalen valley. It lies at an important junction of roads with theEuropean route E6 highway heading north and south connecting the cities ofOslo andTrondheim and theEuropean route E136 highway heading west toÅndalsnes. TheDovrebanen andRaumabanen railway lines meet in the village atDombås Station as well.Dombås Church is located in the village.
The 1.55-square-kilometre (380-acre) village has a population (2021) of 1164 and apopulation density of 753 inhabitants per square kilometre (1,950/sq mi).[1]
A description of the village area from 1895:
At Dombås, where there is a telegraph station, the scene had entirely changed, and fields of waving barley and potatoes greeted the eye.... Here, at a height of 2,000 feet (610 m) above the sea, the crops were not quite ripe, the season being backward. Barley required a few more days of sunshine, and the potatoes were still in bloom. The evenings became cold, and the farmers' faces showed their anxiety. The wind was from the NNW, and for two consecutive nights black frost appeared. The potato-vines turned black, and the grain crop was seriously injured. After the first frost everybody was at work in the fields, women and men sheaving the barley, and every available hand digging the potatoes. There was sorrow in many a farmer's heart, for the people were now greatly distressed, and I detected tears on many a mother's cheek during these two days. After this sudden cold spell the weather became cloudy, a violent storm set in, and the ground was covered with 18 inches (460 mm) of wet snow, though it was only the 20th of September.
— Paul B. Du Chaillu fromThe Land Of The Midnight Sun[3]
TheDovre Line was extended to Dombås in 1913 andDombås Station built. The line was extended onwards toStøren in 1921. Three years later, theRauma Line opened connecting Dombås toÅndalsnes.Dombås Church was completed in 1939.
In 1940, during theNorwegian Campaign, the Germans recognized this rail, roadway and telegraph junction was strategically significant. From 13 April on the Germans started receiving messages of imminentallied action in Norway through the port of Åndalsnes. To counter this, the German High Command ordered a takeover of Dombås. The result was that a company offallschirmjägers from 1st battalion of the 1st Regiment,7th Flieger Division was dropped at Dombås on 14 April, intending to cut the rail line. The German company had the misfortune to jump straight onto the second battalion of Infantry Regiment no. 11 (Møre) that wasbivouacked at Dombås on their way to the front north of Oslo. In the second opposed paratrooper attack in history (the first being the one made againstSola Air Station on 9 April) only seven out of fifteenJunkers Ju 52s made it back to their base atFornebu airport the rest were lost to NorwegianColt M/29anti-aircraftmachine gun fire, dispersing the paratroopers. Most of the surviving paratroopers were taken prisoner soon after landing. Only a single group of sixty-three Germans, under the company commanderOberleutnant Herbert Schmidt managed to avoid capture and sealed off theGudbrandsdal valley holed up in two strategically placed farms. Only on 19 April did the isolated group of Germans surrender, having been surrounded by far superior Norwegian forces for five days. On 16 April the Norwegians brought twomortars and several Colt M/29heavy machine guns to bear on Schmidt's men and from 18 April a40 mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun bombarded the German positions from Dombås Railway Station. On 19 April the paratroopers could no longer stand the bombardment and sent forward the captured Norwegian Major Kjøs to convey their surrender message. All in all 150 fallschirmjägers ended up in Norwegian captivity, being kept in aprisoner-of-war camp nearKristiansund until released when resistance collapsed in South Norway in early May.[4]
On 21 April 1940, a German Luftwaffe bombing attack on the village's railway areas resulted in the first American military casualty of World War II. CaptainRobert M. Losey, an aeronautical meteorologist serving as an air attaché to American embassies in the Nordic countries, was killed while observing the bombing near the entrance to a rail tunnel where he and others had sought safety. A monument to Captain Losey now stands in Dombås. Five Norwegians were killed by the same bomb as Losey, and another 18 wounded.[5][6]
Also in April 1940, after evacuating Oslo after theGerman invasion of Norway,King Haakon VII first travelled with his government toElverum, but after that city andNybergsund was bombed by theLuftwaffe the decision was made to move to Gudbrandsdal where the Army High Command had relocated. The King's entourage at first got lost and ended up atDrevsø on the Swedish border where they were turned back by Swedish border guards. The King then went first toHjerkinn and then toOtta. On his way to Otta the King passed through Dombås on 13 April 1940, only five hours before the German paratrooper attack took place. On 14 April the King andthe Crown Prince remained at Otta, transmitting radio messages to their people. As the German attack came theFallschirmjäger were landing dispersed over a huge area and the royal family decided to spend the night atDovre, only half an hour from the nearest Germans. Although the Fallschirmjägers never got any nearer the King, who was protected by the localDovreskogen gun club, they did ambush the cabinet minister Frihagen, capturing his car and a suitcase with 1.5 million kr. Minister Frihagen managed to escape the ambush and the money was recovered when Oberleutnant Schmidt surrendered 19 April. The King eventually made his way toMolde from where he was brought toTromsø byHMSGlasgow.[4]
During theGerman occupation of Norway, Dombås andOppdal were the locations of the Stalag 380prisoner-of-war camp, relocated in late 1942 fromSkarżysko-Kamienna inGerman-occupied Poland.[7]
Dombås has a boreal climate with modest precipitation. Summer is the wettest season; late winter and spring is the driest season.
| Climate data for Dombås - Nordigard, Norway (638 m, 2006-2023) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 10.2 (50.4) | 10.7 (51.3) | 15.3 (59.5) | 18.9 (66.0) | 26.4 (79.5) | 28.0 (82.4) | 29.6 (85.3) | 25.2 (77.4) | 23.5 (74.3) | 17.8 (64.0) | 13.5 (56.3) | 10.6 (51.1) | 29.6 (85.3) |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | −3.6 (25.5) | −2.0 (28.4) | 2.3 (36.1) | 6.7 (44.1) | 11.8 (53.2) | 16.9 (62.4) | 18.7 (65.7) | 16.7 (62.1) | 12.8 (55.0) | 5.8 (42.4) | 0.4 (32.7) | −3.0 (26.6) | 6.9 (44.4) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −6.9 (19.6) | −5.7 (21.7) | −2.2 (28.0) | 1.9 (35.4) | 6.8 (44.2) | 11.3 (52.3) | 13.4 (56.1) | 11.8 (53.2) | 8.3 (46.9) | 2.4 (36.3) | −2.5 (27.5) | −6.2 (20.8) | 2.7 (36.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −10.0 (14.0) | −8.8 (16.2) | −5.8 (21.6) | −2.3 (27.9) | 2.2 (36.0) | 6.5 (43.7) | 9.0 (48.2) | 7.9 (46.2) | 4.8 (40.6) | −0.2 (31.6) | −5.0 (23.0) | −9.2 (15.4) | −0.9 (30.4) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −29.5 (−21.1) | −25.8 (−14.4) | −26.5 (−15.7) | −16.4 (2.5) | −6.9 (19.6) | −1.9 (28.6) | 0.0 (32.0) | −1.3 (29.7) | −3.9 (25.0) | −13.7 (7.3) | −23.4 (−10.1) | −26.3 (−15.3) | −29.5 (−21.1) |
| Averageprecipitation mm (inches) | 40.8 (1.61) | 23.3 (0.92) | 21.2 (0.83) | 20.1 (0.79) | 31.8 (1.25) | 46.4 (1.83) | 68.3 (2.69) | 69.9 (2.75) | 32.5 (1.28) | 30.7 (1.21) | 33.3 (1.31) | 32.5 (1.28) | 450.8 (17.75) |
| Average precipitation days(≥ 1.0 mm) | 10.0 | 6.6 | 6.4 | 4.7 | 6.0 | 7.9 | 11.9 | 12.3 | 6.4 | 7.2 | 7.9 | 9.3 | 96.6 |
| Source: Norwegian Meteorological Institute[8] | |||||||||||||
The newspaperVigga is published in Dombås.[9]
Media related toDombås at Wikimedia Commons
