The explosion that threw an anchor into the mountains
In 1944, a ship carrying explosives blew up in Bergen’s harbour. A fragment of its anchor still tells the story high above the city.
On the morning of 20 April 1944, the Voorbode was moored beside Bergen’s fortress. The Dutch ship carried dynamite intended for the German occupation forces. Smoke appeared in the hold and, at 8:39 a.m., the cargo exploded. The blast devastated the harbour area, damaged thousands of buildings and killed 170 people, according to the Norwegian encyclopedia’s account.
The explosion hurled part of the anchor up to Sandviksfjellet. The metal was secured to a rock with a memorial plaque. This small fragment on the mountain helps convey the scale of a tragedy that numbers alone can barely express. On a historical walk, it connects two seemingly unrelated landscapes: the harbour and the trail above Sandviken.