In the northernmost settlement of Norway sits a cannon once used by the Germans during World War II. It is one of the three smallest close-defense, flanking artillery pieces on site and suffered the least damage during the destruction of the battery in the autumn of 1944. Originally stationed on Bugøya, just outside Bugøynes, it stands as a testament to the history there.
The cannon tells a unique story of how Bugøynes was spared during the German retreat in 1944, unlike most of Finnmark and Northern Troms, which were burned to the ground. As the Red Army drove the Germans out of Finnmark in late 1944, Lieutenant Peter Paul Flach was the commander of the coastal battery on Bugøya. Four large cannons had been installed to control access to the Varangerfjord. When the Germans fled, the installation was destroyed. Hitler had ordered all troops to burn everything to the ground during their retreat. Yet, Bugøynes remained unscathed and not a single house was burned.
As Russian forces approached just a few miles away, the German officer took an unusual approach. He ordered the local fishermen to transport him and his soldiers away from Bugøynes, promising in return to spare the village. Critics argue that he did this merely to save himself, which may be true. However, Battery Commander Peter Paul Flach was far from a committed nazi. A merchant by trade, he had been called up as a reserve officer and reportedly got along well with the local population.
Fifteen years after the war ended, the German officer was invited back to Bugøynes. In 1961, he returned and was warmly received by the villagers. Few other officers returned to the places they had controlled during World War II, but Flach did. In 2024, when the Bugøy Cannon was reinstalled to commemorate the liberation of Finnmark 80 years earlier, the officer’s son, Peter Flach, attended the memorial.
