Editing Lesja (section)

===World War 2===
After the [[German invasion of Norway|German invasion]] of April 1940, while [[Haakon VII of Norway|King Haakon]] and the Norwegian government were moving from [[Elverum (town)|Elverum]] to the west coast, the King and Crown Prince Olaf arrived in [[Otta, Norway|Otta]] on the night of April 13. The prime minister and his colleagues, who were then in Lesja, were summoned and a communiqué, ending "God save Norway," and urging resistance to the unprovoked attack was issued. They now intended to relocate to the west coast, but the Germans had dropped paratroopers higher in the Gudbrandsdalen, at Dombås, cutting off the rail route. It was not until the evening of the 21st that the King was able to travel by road from Otta to Lesja on the east–west watershed and then down the narrow [[Romsdal]] to Åndalsnes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greve |first=Tim |url=https://archive.org/details/haakonviiofnorwa0000grev |title=Haakon VII of Norway: The Man & the Monarch |last2=Kingston Derry |first2=Thomas |date=1983 |publisher=Hippocrene Books, Inc. |isbn=978-0-88254-812-8 |url-access=registration |authorlink1=Tim Greve}}</ref>

During the war a British fighter squadron (flying 'Gloster Gladiators') flew from the icebound surface of lake [[Lesjaskogsvatnet]]. [[No. 263 Squadron RAF]] operated with 18 [[Gloster Gladiator]] biplane fighters in late April 1940 as part of the [[Norwegian Campaign]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kersaudy, François |title=Norway 1940 |publisher=St. Martin's Press, New York |year=1987 |isbn=0-312-06427-6 |authorlink=François Kersaudy}}</ref>