 He gained lasting recognition for ordering the fortress under his command to open fire on the vanguard forces of Operation Weserübung, sinking the 16,000 ton heavy cruiser "Blücher".Born on 17 November 1875 to merchant and ship captain Caspar Edvard Eriksen and his wife Jensine Petrine Arentzen in Flakstad in present-day Moskenes in Lofoten, Birger Eriksen left home early, at age 12, to go to Kristiania (as Oslo was known as at the time) to study.Nonetheless, he would return home to Moskenes every summer to visit his mother until she died in 1936, having been a widow for fifty years.