Tromso, a seaport and cathedral town on the northern coast, is some distance north of Narvik, from where it can be reached by road and sea. Travelling north along the E6 follow the signs for the town centre. At the main crossroads turn right into Fr Langesgate and follow this road which changes name to Konigsbakken, and then Kirkegardsvegen up the hill and out of town. The cemetery is along Kirkegardsvegen on the right. The Commonwealth plot is in the nortern part of the cemetery, bordering the main path.
During the Second World War, Norway was of strategic importance to the Germans. Their invasion on 9 April 1940 was sudden and widespread and despite Allied intervention, the entire country was under German occupation by early June. Thereafter, Allied activity in Norway was confined to raids and special operations, with the Commonwealth air forces providing support to Norwegian resistance groups until the German capitulation in May 1945. There are no Commonwealth war cemeteries in Norway, those who died there being buried in civil cemeteries and churchyards. Many sailors and airmen died in the Arctic convoys which carried supplies from the United Kingdom to north Russia around the North Cape. By 1942, the convoys were being heavily attacked by German air bases in north Norway, by U-boat and by other vessels of the German fleet stationed in Norwegian waters. Many of those who died are buried at Tromso Cemetery, their graves having been moved there from Arctic ports near Hammerfest and Kirkences. Also buried at Tromso are a number of Merchant seamen from SS Chulmleigh, which ran aground at Spitzbergen in November 1942 where it was bombed, many of the crew dying later from exposure. The Commonwealth plot at Tromso, the most northerly in the world, contains 37 burials, three of them unidentified.
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