August 18 History Lesson (Day 326)
This morning dawned with rain threatening so we did some paperwork, cementing the last of our travel plans through Europe, while the rain came and finally slacked off. We took a walk back into the village center to stretch our legs.
Ski runs above town illuminated by the sun breaking through the receding rain clouds!
At Memorial Park, between the shopping center and the large church we found a pavilion with monuments and signage, and we got a WWII history lesson! Dombås at the time was an important rail and telegraph center linking north and south, from Trondheim to Oslo. During the German invasion of Norway in April of 1940, on April 21, the Dombås railway station was bombed by the Germans. The first American military casualty of WWII occurred in this bombing raid. While serving as a military attaché prior to America’s entry into the war, Robert M. Losey was killed … He had been attempting to complete the evacuation of the American diplomatic legation from Norway to Sweden in the wake of the German invasion.
The Dombås church, built in 1939, was spared by the Nazis.
A beautiful sunset on our way home. It is definitely feeling like autumn here in the mountains of Norway.