When the Norwegian government evacuated to the United Kingdom in June 1940 they had given Gabrielsen the task of administrating the as yet unoccupied parts of Northern Norway. In this respect Gabrielsen commanded the troops still guarding the border against the Soviet Union in accordance with the capitulation agreement. The border units were under the military command of Colonel Wilhelm Faye. The arrangement had been organized by General Otto Ruge, who during the capitulation negations with the Germans demanded that the Norwegians should either be allowed to retain military forces on the eastern border, or that the Germans should immediately occupy all of Finnmark. This demand originated in a fear of a possible Soviet occupation of Eastern Finnmark, as had happened in Poland in 1939. As the Norwegian military refused to serve under direct German command, any potential orders from the Germans had to go through county governor Gabrielsen. The arrangement was supposed to last until the Germans could deploy forces to Eastern Finnmark, and was not cleared with the exiled Norwegian government, being secret for anyone but Gabrielsen. Gabrielsen and General Ruge ordered Gabrielsen's military chief-of-staff, Major Odd Lindbäck-Larsen, to use the two battalions and one artillery battery at his disposal in preparation for a rebuilding of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Lindbäck-Larsen was to start training officers, using the border guard task as a cover. The 1,600-1,700 strong border guard was however dissolved by the German occupying authorities in July 1940. The plan for the establishment of a new Norwegian elite army in Finnmark, outside German control, was supposed to include several thousands of soldiers. As part of Ruge's plan Gabrielsen and Lindbäck-Larsen had placed Norwegian liaison officers on strategic points from Saltdalen in the south to Kirkenes in the north-east. The hope had been that a new Norwegian volunteer army would be allowed by the Germans to remain on border guard duties in Finnmark for the duration of the conflict. After the Germans took over the border guard duties in early July 1940 Gabrielsen was given command over four armed Norwegian guard posts at the coast of Eastern Finnmark. These guard posts were set up on the secret orders of the German officer in charge of Eastern Finnmark, SS-Obersturmführer Willy Laqua, in accordance with the capitulation agreement. None of the Norwegian officers and soldiers on border guard duties were informed of the fact that they were under German overall command.