Lesjaskogsvatnet () is a

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

Lesja Municipality Lesja is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Lesja (villag ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (Jevnaker Municipality and Lunner Municipality were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken ( ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The lake lies in the upper

Gudbrandsdalen Gudbrandsdalen (; ) is a valley and Districts of Norway, traditional district in the Norway, Norwegian county of Innlandet (formerly Oppland). The valley is oriented in a north-westerly direction from Lillehammer (town), Lillehammer and the lake ...

valley, between the villages of Lesjaskog (on the west end) and Lesjaverk (on the east end). The European route E136 highway and the Raumabanen railway line both run along the north side of the lake. The lake is unusual by having two outlets, one in each end. It flows east into the

Gudbrandsdalslågen The Gudbrandsdalslågen (or simply ''Lågen'') is a river which flows through the Gudbrandsdal valley in Innlandet county, Norway. The long river runs through a large valley in Eastern Norway before emptying into Mjøsa, the largest lake in Norw ...

river and it also flows out to the west into the

Rauma river The Rauma is a river that runs through the Romsdalen valley in Møre og Romsdal and Innlandet counties in Norway. It runs for from the lake Lesjaskogsvatnet in Lesja Municipality (in Innlandet county), through the valley all the way to the town ...

in the

Romsdal Romsdal is a Districts of Norway, traditional district in the Norwegian county Møre og Romsdal, located between Nordmøre and Sunnmøre. The district of Romsdal traditional comprises the areas that are part of Aukra Municipality, Molde Municipal ...

en valley. This

bifurcation lake A lake bifurcation occurs when a lake (a ''bifurcating lake'') has Outflow (hydrology), outflows into two different drainage basins. In this case, the drainage divide cannot be defined exactly, as it is situated in the middle of the lake. Exampl ...

serves as the headwaters for two major rivers:

(flowing south/east) and for

(flowing west). Gudbrandsdalslågen (also known as ''Lågen'') flows through the

valley, ending when it flows into the lake

Mjøsa Mjøsa is the largest lake in Norway and the fourth deepest in Norway and Europe. It is located in the southern part of Norway, about north of the city of Oslo. Its main tributary is the river Gudbrandsdalslågen flowing in from the north; the ...

. The lake sits on the watershed in the north-western corner of

Glomma The Glomma or Glåma is Norway's longest and most voluminous river. With a total length of , it has a drainage basin that covers 13% of Norway's surface area, all in the southern part of the country. Geography At its fullest length, the river r ...

drainage system that includes large parts of eastern Norway. The lake was

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, aqua ...

med to serve the Lesja Iron Works in the 1660s. The dam raised the water level on the east end of the lake by . The west end of the lake that flows into the Rauma was raised a little when a small stone wall was built. Before the dam was built, the lake was shorter and concentrated in what is now the west end of the lake. About 67% of the water flows to the river Rauma and when the water level is low, nearly 80% of the lake flows to the Rauma river. Rotting plants and fish on the bottom produces gas that in winter is captured under the ice. The watershed has over thousands of years shifted east because rivers and glaciers to west dig more into the bedrock, notably in the upper part of Rauma river near the village of Verma.

Norwegian campaign 1940

No. 263 Squadron RAF operated with 18

Gloster Gladiator The Gloster Gladiator is a British biplane fighter. It was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) (as the Sea Gladiator variant) and was exported to a number of other air forces during the late 1930s. Developed privat ...

biplane fighters from a landing strip on the frozen Lesjaskogsvatnet in late April 1940 as part of the Norwegian campaign. The British air force chose Lesjaskogsvatnet because of the relatively short distance to the front line in the Gudbrandsdalen Valley as well as proximity to the British base at

Åndalsnes is a town in Rauma Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. Åndalsnes is also the administrative center of Rauma Municipality. It is located along the Isfjorden, at the mouth of the river Rauma, at the north end of the Romsdalen valle ...

. The British also planned to bring in large amounts of explosives from

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

to blow up the railway tunnels at

Dombås is a village or small town in Dovre Municipality in northern Innlandet county, Norway. The village serves as the commercial centre for the upper Gudbrandsdalen valley. It lies at an important junction of roads with the European route E6 highway ...

(this would block railway connections to Åndalsnes and Trondheim), but the German forces advanced too fast. The ice was covered by at least of snow and a few hundred locals cleared a long and wide runway. Snow clearing began on 20 April and the same day Norwegian Fokker C.V surveillance planes landed with skis. The workers on the ice were attacked by German fighter planes, and most snow clearing was then done during night. Some 100 ground crew arrived on 23 April. The runway was used on 24 and 18 April planes completed about 40 flights and attacked 37 enemy planes. That same night was extremely cold and engines did not start. Early morning 25 April the makeshift airfield was attacked by

Heinkel He 111 The Heinkel He 111 is a German airliner and medium bomber designed by Siegfried and Walter Günter at Heinkel Flugzeugwerke in 1934. Through development, it was described as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Due to restrictions placed on Germany a ...

s and

Junkers Ju 88 The Junkers Ju 88 is a twin-engined multirole combat aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers Aircraft and Motor Works. It was used extensively during the Second World War by the ''Luftwaffe'' and became one o ...

s. Two British plane that were unharmed but unable to fly were burned by the crew. At the end only five planes survived and were moved to Setnesmoen camp at Veblungsnes on 26 April.Øystein Mølmen: ''Krigen 1940-45''. Lesjaskog, 1996

Media gallery

Lesjaskogsvatnet Rauma.JPG, Outflow to Rauma and dam Lesjaskogsvatnet Bryggeosen.JPG, Bridge at Bryggeosen, outflow from eastern to western part of the lake Lesjaskogsvatnet Lågen.JPG, Lågen outflow at Lesjaverk Lesjaskogsvatnet mot øst.JPG, Eastern part at Bryggeosen

References

{{authority control Lesja Lakes of Innlandet Bifurcation lakes Reservoirs in Norway

Norwegian campaign 1940

Media gallery

See also

References