Commando Merlins make special delivery in northern Norway

Commando Helicopter Force Merlin helicopters from 845 Naval Air Squadron once again showed their gratitude to the rural population of northern Norway by flying tonnes of wood into remote cabins to help stranded hikers.

The force sends a detachment of battlefield Wildcat and Merlin helicopters to Bardufoss for Operation Clockwork each winter.

Its personnel, vehicles and aircraft are granted almost total access to the land as they hone their individual and collective winter warfare skills.

As they do in the UK, the fliers thank their hosts: in Britain farmers in the Yeovilton area are invited on to the air base for a day’s look around and helicopter flight.

And in Troms County, the commando aviators help the Troms Turlag hiking association which maintains a series of huts across this part of northern Norway – Dividalshyttene, or Dividal huts after the national park of the same name.

The cabins are open for use by hikers throughout the year as stopover shelters during fairer weather and also emergency refuges.

Though temperatures in the Bardu region right now are hovering just below freezing, they have dropped to nearly -20 Celsius this month and can fall as low as 30 or more degrees below zero.

At those temperatures even the commandos call it a day and retreat indoors, as should any trekkers hiking/skiing around the Bardu landscape – and yes, there are some.

The remote locations and few tracks mean the huts aren’t especially accessible in summer, while in winter you’ll only reach them on skis or tracked vehicles like the Commandos’ BVs – and it would take them numerous trips to deliver such a heavy/bulky load.

Bundled into 600kg loads, instead the logs were slung beneath Merlin Mk4 helicopters and delivered three years’ supplies of fuel to the remote cabins in a fraction of the time it would take by ground transport.