This was a great yard sale find for $0.50, original price from Dec 1962 was $0.45.
In this action packed Memoir, Oluf Reed Olsen tells his story from WWII. In April 1940, after Germany took Poland, the media was referring to what was happening as "The Phony War." Then Germany took Denmark and from there Norway. As a 21 year old young man, Oluf and his friend were stunned with what just happened, and anxious to do something to push back against the invaders. This story goes through Oluf and his companions harrowing journey to England, for training and their return home to Norway to finally begin their fight against the German occupation until its end in May 1945.
Another brilliant, lucky find I’ve finally gotten around to reading, a gift in some previous lifetime from teacher to student for perfect attendance, ended up in a used book sale, and then in my possession…
Excerpted from a slightly longer book titled Two Eggs on My Plate, this is a record of Norwegian resistance to Nazi occupation, bringing a thrilling, human account to what life was like both as spy and the conditions of ordinary affairs, both in the Norwegians and even the Germans they encountered. Oluf Reed Olsen is a miracle of an individual, casually enduring all manner of hardship and making unlikely friends in order to keep the mission going, recording his experiences without sentiment or melodrama, merely as the results of constant effort.
Lost to history in either form, it’s a testament to realities that have been dulled by time, flattened and even ignored. I hadn’t previously given much thought to Norway’s involvement in WWII, yet now I’m entirely grateful to have been educated a little about it.