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"I remember reading We Die Alone in 1970 and I could never forget it. Then when we went to Norway to do a docudrama, people told us again and again that certain parts were pure fiction. Since I was a Norwegian that was not good enough; I had to find the truth. I sincerely believe we did,” writes author Astrid Karlsen Scott. Defiant Courage is the true story of what Jan Baalsrud endured as he tried to escape from the Gestapo in Norway’s Troms District.
In late March 1943, in the midst of WWII, four Norwegian saboteurs arrived in northern Norway on a fishing cutter and set anchor in Toftefjord to establish a base for their operations. However, they were betrayed, and a German boat attacked the cutter, creating a battlefield and spiraling Jan Baalsrud into the adventure of his life. The only survivor and wounded, Baalsrud begins a perilous journey to freedom, swimming icy fjords, climbing snow-covered peaks, enduring snowstorms, and getting caught in a monstrous avalanche. Suffering from snowblindness and frostbite, more than sixty people of the Troms District risk their lives to help Baalsrud to freedom. Meticulously researched for more than five years, Karlsen Scott and Haug bring forth the truth behind this captivating, edge-of-your-seat, real-life survival story.
In late March 1943, in the midst of WWII, four Norwegian saboteurs arrived in northern Norway on a fishing cutter and set anchor in Toftefjord to establish a base for their operations. However, they were betrayed, and a German boat attacked the cutter, creating a battlefield and spiraling Jan Baalsrud into the adventure of his life. The only survivor and wounded, Baalsrud begins a perilous journey to freedom, swimming icy fjords, climbing snow-covered peaks, enduring snowstorms, and getting caught in a monstrous avalanche. Suffering from snowblindness and frostbite, more than sixty people of the Troms District risk their lives to help Baalsrud to freedom. Meticulously researched for more than five years, Karlsen Scott and Haug bring forth the truth behind this captivating, edge-of-your-seat, real-life survival story.
44 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 3, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 36 reviews
March 30, 2021
A good book about the escape and survival of Jan Baalsrud after his commando unit was attacked of the the Norwegian coast by the Germans after being betrayed. It is really a story of the will to live and how much a human can endure. I have read "We Die Alone" by David Howarth years ago and prefer that book to this one, even though the authors of this book claim that that book is not the whole truth.
May 10, 2023
(Following is copied from my review of "the other" book about this same story, David Howarth's We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance)
Took an unintentional deep dive into the unimaginable WWII adventures of Norwegian resistance fighter Jan Baalsrud. First learned of him a few years back by watching the 2018 film "The 12th Man" while recovering from a knee replacement, (apparently watching people's genuine and indeed horrific suffering helps put our own minor inconveniences in better perspective - try it sometime). Was then interested enough to put We Die Alone on my TBR list, but there it languished until I noticed the audiobook on Hoopla recently.
Turned out both the book and narration were excellent - was genuinely hard to believe this came out back in 1954, as it could easily have been something written by someone like Mitchell Zuckoff just last year. The only thing that seemed at all dated was Howarth's reluctance to describe the torture of the captured Norwegian agents, since if this were written in today's more horror-saturated environment, this would have been a macabre highlight.
At the same time, I saw our library also had this more recent (2014) book, The 12th Man: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance,* on which the movie was supposedly based, and which claimed to correct much of "the fiction" of earlier tellings. So of course, I wanted to know where Alone got it wrong, and so read/skimmed 12th Man to look for those damning inaccuracies. Except…it turned out there really weren't any, or at least many - minor details about just how long Baalsrud stayed hidden where, or how exactly the Laps/Sami (depending on the book, apparently "Laps" is no longer PC) aided in his escape…little stuff like that. Indeed, overall - and as would be expected - the main differences were between both books and the film, which for obvious reasons wanted to up the drama. And so evil Nazi Kurt Stage - our main antagonist throughout the movie - was mentioned only briefly in 12th Man and not at all in Alone; and the avalanche that in the film was caused by an attacking German plane was in reality…just an avalanche.
I'm really glad I read Alone first and foremost, as it was just a rousing and hair-raising story. Unfortunately, the well-intentioned 12th Man was workmanlike at best, reading more like a well-researched but tone-deaf school paper with too much cringey dialogue, and whose many B&W photos were either blurry faces or repetitive shots of mountains and fjords. Best of all three, however, was the movie, which I heartily recommend to all. Thomas Gullestad looks like a cross between Tom Hiddleston and Michael Fassbender, but outacts them both - a sorely overlooked film that is currently available on Kanopy. You're welcome!
4.5 stars (rounded down because the movie) - We Die Alone
2.5 stars (rounded up for effort) - The 12th Man
The Full 5 - Harald Zvart's outstanding "The 12th Man" film
__________________________________
* Unfortunately, it seems as if Howarth's publishers forgot to copyright the phrase "A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance," because this seems like a pretty blatant example of plagarism.
Took an unintentional deep dive into the unimaginable WWII adventures of Norwegian resistance fighter Jan Baalsrud. First learned of him a few years back by watching the 2018 film "The 12th Man" while recovering from a knee replacement, (apparently watching people's genuine and indeed horrific suffering helps put our own minor inconveniences in better perspective - try it sometime). Was then interested enough to put We Die Alone on my TBR list, but there it languished until I noticed the audiobook on Hoopla recently.
Turned out both the book and narration were excellent - was genuinely hard to believe this came out back in 1954, as it could easily have been something written by someone like Mitchell Zuckoff just last year. The only thing that seemed at all dated was Howarth's reluctance to describe the torture of the captured Norwegian agents, since if this were written in today's more horror-saturated environment, this would have been a macabre highlight.
At the same time, I saw our library also had this more recent (2014) book, The 12th Man: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance,* on which the movie was supposedly based, and which claimed to correct much of "the fiction" of earlier tellings. So of course, I wanted to know where Alone got it wrong, and so read/skimmed 12th Man to look for those damning inaccuracies. Except…it turned out there really weren't any, or at least many - minor details about just how long Baalsrud stayed hidden where, or how exactly the Laps/Sami (depending on the book, apparently "Laps" is no longer PC) aided in his escape…little stuff like that. Indeed, overall - and as would be expected - the main differences were between both books and the film, which for obvious reasons wanted to up the drama. And so evil Nazi Kurt Stage - our main antagonist throughout the movie - was mentioned only briefly in 12th Man and not at all in Alone; and the avalanche that in the film was caused by an attacking German plane was in reality…just an avalanche.
I'm really glad I read Alone first and foremost, as it was just a rousing and hair-raising story. Unfortunately, the well-intentioned 12th Man was workmanlike at best, reading more like a well-researched but tone-deaf school paper with too much cringey dialogue, and whose many B&W photos were either blurry faces or repetitive shots of mountains and fjords. Best of all three, however, was the movie, which I heartily recommend to all. Thomas Gullestad looks like a cross between Tom Hiddleston and Michael Fassbender, but outacts them both - a sorely overlooked film that is currently available on Kanopy. You're welcome!
4.5 stars (rounded down because the movie) - We Die Alone
2.5 stars (rounded up for effort) - The 12th Man
The Full 5 - Harald Zvart's outstanding "The 12th Man" film
__________________________________
* Unfortunately, it seems as if Howarth's publishers forgot to copyright the phrase "A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance," because this seems like a pretty blatant example of plagarism.
December 1, 2020
It's a little startling to realise within the first few sentences of the introduction that one has begun reading, not merely a tale of daring and more, but a part of history that involves a crucial time of WWII and is very intricately connected to the very survivalof the planet and of human civilisation. For nazi ideology was intent on destroying the civilisation and enslaving the globe to enable Germany to reproduce as it spread over the earth and was enabled by slave labour of the rest to occupy, own and enjoy the earth, and if Germany had been able to own the Norwegian heavy water plant stock, they might have succeeded in annihilation of any part of the earth. Their ideology certainly did not limit them in this except as it might affect Germany, and perhaps not even that, for at the end Hitler issued instructions of destroying everything as allied advanced into Germany - an order sent out explicitly everywhere, and countermanded only with great difficulty by personal efforts of Speer arguing with various officials high and low about future well being of people of Germany.
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted – let him look to Norway.
"And, if there is anyone who doubts of the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America,
"September 16, 1942"
............
When German occupying forces came sniffing around, seven of the men of the village, where most had helped Norwegian underground fighters to escape the Germans, decided to steal a ship and escape. They succeeded partly due to German planes expecting them to steer to Shetland while they steered North and then Northwest to Iceland, and partly due to sheer luck of fog protecting them as they heard the plane.
"The men’s and Brattholm’s relentless struggle ended when they reached Rejkjavik, Iceland’s capital, five days later. They were welcomed by both Norwegian and English authorities, who had received advance notice of their arrival. The young men had planned to earn a living by fishing while in Iceland, but instead the boat was taken over by Nortraship and rented out to the British Navy Sea Transport. On November 18, the resistance workers were ordered to sail to Seydesfjord, on Iceland’s east coast. For two years, the cutter carried English troops and supplies to and from the outposts in the Icelandic fjords.
"In November 1942, Brattholm was recalled to Reykjavik. She and her crew were ordered to the Shetland Islands. Two armed whaleboats escorted them to Lerwich, in the Shetland Islands, without mishap. Brattholm was put into secret service between the Shetland Islands and Norway against the Germans. The seven Norwegian underground workers were sent on to London where some ended up in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and others in the Navy."
............
"FEBRUARY 2, 1942: A gruesome battle over Stalingrad in the Soviet Union took place between the Germans and the Russians. Germany lost the battle against the Russians but not before leaving the city in ashes. It would have been an impossible victory for the Soviet Union without the huge weapon supplies delivered from the United States and England.
"When Denmark was attacked and invaded by the German Army in 1940, England occupied Iceland with the consensus of her people. Iceland was strategically located in the North Atlantic.
"Convoys to the Soviet Union with war materials and other provisions were sent from the West via Iceland, the shortest and the safest route at the time. They sailed through the Arctic Ocean a few hundred nautical miles above the North Cape, the northern tip of Norway, and on to Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.
"The plan worked well, with most ships bearing the desperately needed materials reaching their destination. The convoys only lost one ship, but after the first few months, the situation changed drastically.
"Arctic pack ice forced the convoys within 300 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast.
"To pinpoint the convoys’ position, German reconnaissance planes were sent out from Bardufoss Airport in the Troms District, as well as seaplanes from Skatøyra seaplane-harbor close to the city of Tromsø, in the same district.
"As summer had returned and the midnight sun did not set, it was easy for the German pilots to detect the convoys. The information from these sorties was forwarded to the German High Command.
"June 27, 1942: Convoy P.Q.17 left Iceland for Archangel with 34 ships. German spy planes spotted them, and soon the German bombers and U-boats were on their way. They sank 23 ships and several hundred men went down.
"Due to the terrible loss of lives and ships, the convoys were briefly halted. This caused large weapon supplies to accumulate in the West. In this serious situation the Allies had to find a way to stop German planes from flying out of northern Norway.
"Early in the War, England had established an organization, Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Its purpose was to organize secret operations in countries occupied by the Germans. The Norwegian branch of the S.O.E. and the British had, for some time, planned sabotage activities against the German reconnaissance operations originating from the northern Norwegian airports. The military strategists felt these efforts, along with Russian participation in the defense of the convoys and strengthening Allied escorts, would make it reasonably safe for the convoys to resume.
"The four saboteurs’ assigned work placed them at the heart of the war. The importance of the men’s success was beyond measure. A successful outcome of their actions could possibly shorten the war - though their lives were at risk.
"Their most daring assignments, and crucial to the mission’s success, was to detonate the air tower at Bardufoss Airport located 50 miles southeast of the city of Tromsø and to sink the seaplanes at the seaplane harbor in Tromsø. Jan Baalsrud, an expert swimmer, was charged with the perilous responsibility of affixing the explosives to the seaplanes’ pontoons beneath the water."
............
Dr. Sigurd Eskelund was in charge of Brattholm, and Jan Baalsrud was second.
"The Swedes wanted to make use of his talent as an instrument maker, but Jan wanted to use his energies to help Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm advised him to contact the British Embassy, who recruited him as a secret agent. In that capacity he made three trips to Norway from Sweden. During the hours of darkness Jan slipped across the border, and hid during the days. When able, he visited Gardemoen Airport and made rough drawings of the German fortifications and their ongoing construction, which he forwarded to England.
"On Jan’s third return trip to Sweden, the Swedish police arrested him. Tried in a Stockholm court, Jan was charged with espionage for a foreign country against a foreign country, and received a six-month jail term. After three months he was transferred to Varmland where his cellmate was the son of a ship owner. While in prison, his cellmate learned he had inherited a great deal of money from an aunt. The prison officials’ attitudes changed toward the rich ship owner and his friend, and soon they were set free. They were ordered out of Sweden – a difficult situation for Jan, who was condemned to die by the Germans in Norway, and now had but two weeks to leave Sweden.
"A few years earlier Madam Kollantay, a close friend of Stalin, had served as the Russian Ambassador to Norway. While serving in that position, she had become a warm friend of the Norwegian people. Presently she was the Russian Ambassador to Sweden, and she learned of Jan Baalsrud’s plight. She arranged a visa for him enabling him to travel to Leningrad in the Soviet Union and continue on to Odessa on the Black Sea.
"From Odessa, Jan traveled via Turkey on to Bombay, India. During his two-month stay in Bombay he met another Norwegian fugitive, Per Blindheim, and the two young men developed a deep friendship.
"They traveled on to Aden, Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, Brazil, Trinidad, the USA and Canada, and eventually London. In the spring of 1942, their six-month long journey ended when they arrived in Scotland and joined the Linge Company."
Jan Baalsrud, like Dr. Sigurd Eskelund and other Norwegians who returned to fight for Norway and for humanity, had a million chances to save their own lives by staying away, especially across the Atlantic. But Jan Baalsrud did not stop in U.S. or Canada, just as, despite being well settled in Argentina, Dr. Sigurd Eskelund had returned after Norway was occupied. Other saboteurs in the group too had similarly returned to fight for Norway and against the nazis. They were trained in England and Scotland by SOE.
"Highly qualified, with unique talents and strengths, these saboteurs from Company Linge, the Norwegian branch of the British Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.,) were among the best men Norway had to offer in the fight against Hitler.
"Upon their arrival in Norway, their first task was to find a safe hiding place ashore for the explosives and the other provisions. The most daring assignment of their mission was to detonate the air tower at the Bardufoss Airport in the district of Troms. In addition they were to destroy German communication lines, disrupt anything they could, and blow up ferries. They were to slow down and halt, if possible, German troop movements. Lastly, they would organize and train small units of Norwegians in all types of sabotage work."
............
"The instructions were, when they reached Senja, to draw as near the mouth of Malangenfjord as possible. From there, Lieutenant Eskeland and Reichelt were to take the cutter’s small boat and row up Malangenfjord 18 miles to Tromsø. The plan was thwarted when a German patrol boat shooed Brattholm away from the entrance to the fjord (the Germans did not wish to be disturbed during their pursuit of a Norwegian suspected of illegally listening to a radio). Eskeland and Captain Kvernhellen decided to go further north rather than risk contact. Happy to leave unscathed, the men were puzzled at the presence of the patrol boat. They had not been forewarned to expect any German patrols in this particular area, although information from northern Norway to England was scarcer than that from southern Norway."
They went on north and found refuge behind Rebennes at Toftefjord, and were surprised to see a cottage, inhabited by a family.
"On leaving the Shetland Islands, the plan had been to contact a person in southern Troms, known to be quite reliable, and in whom the expedition leaders in England had great faith. Even so, when in their attempt to dock on the island of Senja they were forced out to sea by the German patrol boat, they had chosen Toftefjord because of its remote location, and the convenience of being fairly close to several other trustworthy contacts.
"The next person they hoped to reach after their frustrated attempt at Senja was a merchant in Mikkelvik, a few miles from where they had anchored. Subsequent to their visit with the merchant, they intended to visit underground leaders Kaare Moursund and Tore Knudsen in Tromsø."
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted – let him look to Norway.
"And, if there is anyone who doubts of the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America,
"September 16, 1942"
............
When German occupying forces came sniffing around, seven of the men of the village, where most had helped Norwegian underground fighters to escape the Germans, decided to steal a ship and escape. They succeeded partly due to German planes expecting them to steer to Shetland while they steered North and then Northwest to Iceland, and partly due to sheer luck of fog protecting them as they heard the plane.
"The men’s and Brattholm’s relentless struggle ended when they reached Rejkjavik, Iceland’s capital, five days later. They were welcomed by both Norwegian and English authorities, who had received advance notice of their arrival. The young men had planned to earn a living by fishing while in Iceland, but instead the boat was taken over by Nortraship and rented out to the British Navy Sea Transport. On November 18, the resistance workers were ordered to sail to Seydesfjord, on Iceland’s east coast. For two years, the cutter carried English troops and supplies to and from the outposts in the Icelandic fjords.
"In November 1942, Brattholm was recalled to Reykjavik. She and her crew were ordered to the Shetland Islands. Two armed whaleboats escorted them to Lerwich, in the Shetland Islands, without mishap. Brattholm was put into secret service between the Shetland Islands and Norway against the Germans. The seven Norwegian underground workers were sent on to London where some ended up in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and others in the Navy."
............
"FEBRUARY 2, 1942: A gruesome battle over Stalingrad in the Soviet Union took place between the Germans and the Russians. Germany lost the battle against the Russians but not before leaving the city in ashes. It would have been an impossible victory for the Soviet Union without the huge weapon supplies delivered from the United States and England.
"When Denmark was attacked and invaded by the German Army in 1940, England occupied Iceland with the consensus of her people. Iceland was strategically located in the North Atlantic.
"Convoys to the Soviet Union with war materials and other provisions were sent from the West via Iceland, the shortest and the safest route at the time. They sailed through the Arctic Ocean a few hundred nautical miles above the North Cape, the northern tip of Norway, and on to Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.
"The plan worked well, with most ships bearing the desperately needed materials reaching their destination. The convoys only lost one ship, but after the first few months, the situation changed drastically.
"Arctic pack ice forced the convoys within 300 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast.
"To pinpoint the convoys’ position, German reconnaissance planes were sent out from Bardufoss Airport in the Troms District, as well as seaplanes from Skatøyra seaplane-harbor close to the city of Tromsø, in the same district.
"As summer had returned and the midnight sun did not set, it was easy for the German pilots to detect the convoys. The information from these sorties was forwarded to the German High Command.
"June 27, 1942: Convoy P.Q.17 left Iceland for Archangel with 34 ships. German spy planes spotted them, and soon the German bombers and U-boats were on their way. They sank 23 ships and several hundred men went down.
"Due to the terrible loss of lives and ships, the convoys were briefly halted. This caused large weapon supplies to accumulate in the West. In this serious situation the Allies had to find a way to stop German planes from flying out of northern Norway.
"Early in the War, England had established an organization, Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Its purpose was to organize secret operations in countries occupied by the Germans. The Norwegian branch of the S.O.E. and the British had, for some time, planned sabotage activities against the German reconnaissance operations originating from the northern Norwegian airports. The military strategists felt these efforts, along with Russian participation in the defense of the convoys and strengthening Allied escorts, would make it reasonably safe for the convoys to resume.
"The four saboteurs’ assigned work placed them at the heart of the war. The importance of the men’s success was beyond measure. A successful outcome of their actions could possibly shorten the war - though their lives were at risk.
"Their most daring assignments, and crucial to the mission’s success, was to detonate the air tower at Bardufoss Airport located 50 miles southeast of the city of Tromsø and to sink the seaplanes at the seaplane harbor in Tromsø. Jan Baalsrud, an expert swimmer, was charged with the perilous responsibility of affixing the explosives to the seaplanes’ pontoons beneath the water."
............
Dr. Sigurd Eskelund was in charge of Brattholm, and Jan Baalsrud was second.
"The Swedes wanted to make use of his talent as an instrument maker, but Jan wanted to use his energies to help Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm advised him to contact the British Embassy, who recruited him as a secret agent. In that capacity he made three trips to Norway from Sweden. During the hours of darkness Jan slipped across the border, and hid during the days. When able, he visited Gardemoen Airport and made rough drawings of the German fortifications and their ongoing construction, which he forwarded to England.
"On Jan’s third return trip to Sweden, the Swedish police arrested him. Tried in a Stockholm court, Jan was charged with espionage for a foreign country against a foreign country, and received a six-month jail term. After three months he was transferred to Varmland where his cellmate was the son of a ship owner. While in prison, his cellmate learned he had inherited a great deal of money from an aunt. The prison officials’ attitudes changed toward the rich ship owner and his friend, and soon they were set free. They were ordered out of Sweden – a difficult situation for Jan, who was condemned to die by the Germans in Norway, and now had but two weeks to leave Sweden.
"A few years earlier Madam Kollantay, a close friend of Stalin, had served as the Russian Ambassador to Norway. While serving in that position, she had become a warm friend of the Norwegian people. Presently she was the Russian Ambassador to Sweden, and she learned of Jan Baalsrud’s plight. She arranged a visa for him enabling him to travel to Leningrad in the Soviet Union and continue on to Odessa on the Black Sea.
"From Odessa, Jan traveled via Turkey on to Bombay, India. During his two-month stay in Bombay he met another Norwegian fugitive, Per Blindheim, and the two young men developed a deep friendship.
"They traveled on to Aden, Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, Brazil, Trinidad, the USA and Canada, and eventually London. In the spring of 1942, their six-month long journey ended when they arrived in Scotland and joined the Linge Company."
Jan Baalsrud, like Dr. Sigurd Eskelund and other Norwegians who returned to fight for Norway and for humanity, had a million chances to save their own lives by staying away, especially across the Atlantic. But Jan Baalsrud did not stop in U.S. or Canada, just as, despite being well settled in Argentina, Dr. Sigurd Eskelund had returned after Norway was occupied. Other saboteurs in the group too had similarly returned to fight for Norway and against the nazis. They were trained in England and Scotland by SOE.
"Highly qualified, with unique talents and strengths, these saboteurs from Company Linge, the Norwegian branch of the British Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.,) were among the best men Norway had to offer in the fight against Hitler.
"Upon their arrival in Norway, their first task was to find a safe hiding place ashore for the explosives and the other provisions. The most daring assignment of their mission was to detonate the air tower at the Bardufoss Airport in the district of Troms. In addition they were to destroy German communication lines, disrupt anything they could, and blow up ferries. They were to slow down and halt, if possible, German troop movements. Lastly, they would organize and train small units of Norwegians in all types of sabotage work."
............
"The instructions were, when they reached Senja, to draw as near the mouth of Malangenfjord as possible. From there, Lieutenant Eskeland and Reichelt were to take the cutter’s small boat and row up Malangenfjord 18 miles to Tromsø. The plan was thwarted when a German patrol boat shooed Brattholm away from the entrance to the fjord (the Germans did not wish to be disturbed during their pursuit of a Norwegian suspected of illegally listening to a radio). Eskeland and Captain Kvernhellen decided to go further north rather than risk contact. Happy to leave unscathed, the men were puzzled at the presence of the patrol boat. They had not been forewarned to expect any German patrols in this particular area, although information from northern Norway to England was scarcer than that from southern Norway."
They went on north and found refuge behind Rebennes at Toftefjord, and were surprised to see a cottage, inhabited by a family.
"On leaving the Shetland Islands, the plan had been to contact a person in southern Troms, known to be quite reliable, and in whom the expedition leaders in England had great faith. Even so, when in their attempt to dock on the island of Senja they were forced out to sea by the German patrol boat, they had chosen Toftefjord because of its remote location, and the convenience of being fairly close to several other trustworthy contacts.
"The next person they hoped to reach after their frustrated attempt at Senja was a merchant in Mikkelvik, a few miles from where they had anchored. Subsequent to their visit with the merchant, they intended to visit underground leaders Kaare Moursund and Tore Knudsen in Tromsø."
December 1, 2020
It's a little startling to realise within the first few sentences of the introduction that one has begun reading, not merely a tale of daring and more, but a part of history that involves a crucial time of WWII and is very intricately connected to the very survivalof the planet and of human civilisation. For nazi ideology was intent on destroying the civilisation and enslaving the globe to enable Germany to reproduce as it spread over the earth and was enabled by slave labour of the rest to occupy, own and enjoy the earth, and if Germany had been able to own the Norwegian heavy water plant stock, they might have succeeded in annihilation of any part of the earth. Their ideology certainly did not limit them in this except as it might affect Germany, and perhaps not even that, for at the end Hitler issued instructions of destroying everything as allied advanced into Germany - an order sent out explicitly everywhere, and countermanded only with great difficulty by personal efforts of Speer arguing with various officials high and low about future well being of people of Germany.
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted – let him look to Norway.
"And, if there is anyone who doubts of the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America,
"September 16, 1942"
............
When German occupying forces came sniffing around, seven of the men of the village, where most had helped Norwegian underground fighters to escape the Germans, decided to steal a ship and escape. They succeeded partly due to German planes expecting them to steer to Shetland while they steered North and then Northwest to Iceland, and partly due to sheer luck of fog protecting them as they heard the plane.
"The men’s and Brattholm’s relentless struggle ended when they reached Rejkjavik, Iceland’s capital, five days later. They were welcomed by both Norwegian and English authorities, who had received advance notice of their arrival. The young men had planned to earn a living by fishing while in Iceland, but instead the boat was taken over by Nortraship and rented out to the British Navy Sea Transport. On November 18, the resistance workers were ordered to sail to Seydesfjord, on Iceland’s east coast. For two years, the cutter carried English troops and supplies to and from the outposts in the Icelandic fjords.
"In November 1942, Brattholm was recalled to Reykjavik. She and her crew were ordered to the Shetland Islands. Two armed whaleboats escorted them to Lerwich, in the Shetland Islands, without mishap. Brattholm was put into secret service between the Shetland Islands and Norway against the Germans. The seven Norwegian underground workers were sent on to London where some ended up in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and others in the Navy."
............
"FEBRUARY 2, 1942: A gruesome battle over Stalingrad in the Soviet Union took place between the Germans and the Russians. Germany lost the battle against the Russians but not before leaving the city in ashes. It would have been an impossible victory for the Soviet Union without the huge weapon supplies delivered from the United States and England.
"When Denmark was attacked and invaded by the German Army in 1940, England occupied Iceland with the consensus of her people. Iceland was strategically located in the North Atlantic.
"Convoys to the Soviet Union with war materials and other provisions were sent from the West via Iceland, the shortest and the safest route at the time. They sailed through the Arctic Ocean a few hundred nautical miles above the North Cape, the northern tip of Norway, and on to Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.
"The plan worked well, with most ships bearing the desperately needed materials reaching their destination. The convoys only lost one ship, but after the first few months, the situation changed drastically.
"Arctic pack ice forced the convoys within 300 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast.
"To pinpoint the convoys’ position, German reconnaissance planes were sent out from Bardufoss Airport in the Troms District, as well as seaplanes from Skatøyra seaplane-harbor close to the city of Tromsø, in the same district.
"As summer had returned and the midnight sun did not set, it was easy for the German pilots to detect the convoys. The information from these sorties was forwarded to the German High Command.
"June 27, 1942: Convoy P.Q.17 left Iceland for Archangel with 34 ships. German spy planes spotted them, and soon the German bombers and U-boats were on their way. They sank 23 ships and several hundred men went down.
"Due to the terrible loss of lives and ships, the convoys were briefly halted. This caused large weapon supplies to accumulate in the West. In this serious situation the Allies had to find a way to stop German planes from flying out of northern Norway.
"Early in the War, England had established an organization, Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Its purpose was to organize secret operations in countries occupied by the Germans. The Norwegian branch of the S.O.E. and the British had, for some time, planned sabotage activities against the German reconnaissance operations originating from the northern Norwegian airports. The military strategists felt these efforts, along with Russian participation in the defense of the convoys and strengthening Allied escorts, would make it reasonably safe for the convoys to resume.
"The four saboteurs’ assigned work placed them at the heart of the war. The importance of the men’s success was beyond measure. A successful outcome of their actions could possibly shorten the war - though their lives were at risk.
"Their most daring assignments, and crucial to the mission’s success, was to detonate the air tower at Bardufoss Airport located 50 miles southeast of the city of Tromsø and to sink the seaplanes at the seaplane harbor in Tromsø. Jan Baalsrud, an expert swimmer, was charged with the perilous responsibility of affixing the explosives to the seaplanes’ pontoons beneath the water."
............
Dr. Sigurd Eskelund was in charge of Brattholm, and Jan Baalsrud was second.
"The Swedes wanted to make use of his talent as an instrument maker, but Jan wanted to use his energies to help Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm advised him to contact the British Embassy, who recruited him as a secret agent. In that capacity he made three trips to Norway from Sweden. During the hours of darkness Jan slipped across the border, and hid during the days. When able, he visited Gardemoen Airport and made rough drawings of the German fortifications and their ongoing construction, which he forwarded to England.
"On Jan’s third return trip to Sweden, the Swedish police arrested him. Tried in a Stockholm court, Jan was charged with espionage for a foreign country against a foreign country, and received a six-month jail term. After three months he was transferred to Varmland where his cellmate was the son of a ship owner. While in prison, his cellmate learned he had inherited a great deal of money from an aunt. The prison officials’ attitudes changed toward the rich ship owner and his friend, and soon they were set free. They were ordered out of Sweden – a difficult situation for Jan, who was condemned to die by the Germans in Norway, and now had but two weeks to leave Sweden.
"A few years earlier Madam Kollantay, a close friend of Stalin, had served as the Russian Ambassador to Norway. While serving in that position, she had become a warm friend of the Norwegian people. Presently she was the Russian Ambassador to Sweden, and she learned of Jan Baalsrud’s plight. She arranged a visa for him enabling him to travel to Leningrad in the Soviet Union and continue on to Odessa on the Black Sea.
"From Odessa, Jan traveled via Turkey on to Bombay, India. During his two-month stay in Bombay he met another Norwegian fugitive, Per Blindheim, and the two young men developed a deep friendship.
"They traveled on to Aden, Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, Brazil, Trinidad, the USA and Canada, and eventually London. In the spring of 1942, their six-month long journey ended when they arrived in Scotland and joined the Linge Company."
Jan Baalsrud, like Dr. Sigurd Eskelund and other Norwegians who returned to fight for Norway and for humanity, had a million chances to save their own lives by staying away, especially across the Atlantic. But Jan Baalsrud did not stop in U.S. or Canada, just as, despite being well settled in Argentina, Dr. Sigurd Eskelund had returned after Norway was occupied. Other saboteurs in the group too had similarly returned to fight for Norway and against the nazis. They were trained in England and Scotland by SOE.
"Highly qualified, with unique talents and strengths, these saboteurs from Company Linge, the Norwegian branch of the British Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.,) were among the best men Norway had to offer in the fight against Hitler.
"Upon their arrival in Norway, their first task was to find a safe hiding place ashore for the explosives and the other provisions. The most daring assignment of their mission was to detonate the air tower at the Bardufoss Airport in the district of Troms. In addition they were to destroy German communication lines, disrupt anything they could, and blow up ferries. They were to slow down and halt, if possible, German troop movements. Lastly, they would organize and train small units of Norwegians in all types of sabotage work."
............
"The instructions were, when they reached Senja, to draw as near the mouth of Malangenfjord as possible. From there, Lieutenant Eskeland and Reichelt were to take the cutter’s small boat and row up Malangenfjord 18 miles to Tromsø. The plan was thwarted when a German patrol boat shooed Brattholm away from the entrance to the fjord (the Germans did not wish to be disturbed during their pursuit of a Norwegian suspected of illegally listening to a radio). Eskeland and Captain Kvernhellen decided to go further north rather than risk contact. Happy to leave unscathed, the men were puzzled at the presence of the patrol boat. They had not been forewarned to expect any German patrols in this particular area, although information from northern Norway to England was scarcer than that from southern Norway."
They went on north and found refuge behind Rebennes at Toftefjord, and were surprised to see a cottage, inhabited by a family.
"On leaving the Shetland Islands, the plan had been to contact a person in southern Troms, known to be quite reliable, and in whom the expedition leaders in England had great faith. Even so, when in their attempt to dock on the island of Senja they were forced out to sea by the German patrol boat, they had chosen Toftefjord because of its remote location, and the convenience of being fairly close to several other trustworthy contacts.
"The next person they hoped to reach after their frustrated attempt at Senja was a merchant in Mikkelvik, a few miles from where they had anchored. Subsequent to their visit with the merchant, they intended to visit underground leaders Kaare Moursund and Tore Knudsen in Tromsø."
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted – let him look to Norway.
"And, if there is anyone who doubts of the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America,
"September 16, 1942"
............
When German occupying forces came sniffing around, seven of the men of the village, where most had helped Norwegian underground fighters to escape the Germans, decided to steal a ship and escape. They succeeded partly due to German planes expecting them to steer to Shetland while they steered North and then Northwest to Iceland, and partly due to sheer luck of fog protecting them as they heard the plane.
"The men’s and Brattholm’s relentless struggle ended when they reached Rejkjavik, Iceland’s capital, five days later. They were welcomed by both Norwegian and English authorities, who had received advance notice of their arrival. The young men had planned to earn a living by fishing while in Iceland, but instead the boat was taken over by Nortraship and rented out to the British Navy Sea Transport. On November 18, the resistance workers were ordered to sail to Seydesfjord, on Iceland’s east coast. For two years, the cutter carried English troops and supplies to and from the outposts in the Icelandic fjords.
"In November 1942, Brattholm was recalled to Reykjavik. She and her crew were ordered to the Shetland Islands. Two armed whaleboats escorted them to Lerwich, in the Shetland Islands, without mishap. Brattholm was put into secret service between the Shetland Islands and Norway against the Germans. The seven Norwegian underground workers were sent on to London where some ended up in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and others in the Navy."
............
"FEBRUARY 2, 1942: A gruesome battle over Stalingrad in the Soviet Union took place between the Germans and the Russians. Germany lost the battle against the Russians but not before leaving the city in ashes. It would have been an impossible victory for the Soviet Union without the huge weapon supplies delivered from the United States and England.
"When Denmark was attacked and invaded by the German Army in 1940, England occupied Iceland with the consensus of her people. Iceland was strategically located in the North Atlantic.
"Convoys to the Soviet Union with war materials and other provisions were sent from the West via Iceland, the shortest and the safest route at the time. They sailed through the Arctic Ocean a few hundred nautical miles above the North Cape, the northern tip of Norway, and on to Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.
"The plan worked well, with most ships bearing the desperately needed materials reaching their destination. The convoys only lost one ship, but after the first few months, the situation changed drastically.
"Arctic pack ice forced the convoys within 300 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast.
"To pinpoint the convoys’ position, German reconnaissance planes were sent out from Bardufoss Airport in the Troms District, as well as seaplanes from Skatøyra seaplane-harbor close to the city of Tromsø, in the same district.
"As summer had returned and the midnight sun did not set, it was easy for the German pilots to detect the convoys. The information from these sorties was forwarded to the German High Command.
"June 27, 1942: Convoy P.Q.17 left Iceland for Archangel with 34 ships. German spy planes spotted them, and soon the German bombers and U-boats were on their way. They sank 23 ships and several hundred men went down.
"Due to the terrible loss of lives and ships, the convoys were briefly halted. This caused large weapon supplies to accumulate in the West. In this serious situation the Allies had to find a way to stop German planes from flying out of northern Norway.
"Early in the War, England had established an organization, Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Its purpose was to organize secret operations in countries occupied by the Germans. The Norwegian branch of the S.O.E. and the British had, for some time, planned sabotage activities against the German reconnaissance operations originating from the northern Norwegian airports. The military strategists felt these efforts, along with Russian participation in the defense of the convoys and strengthening Allied escorts, would make it reasonably safe for the convoys to resume.
"The four saboteurs’ assigned work placed them at the heart of the war. The importance of the men’s success was beyond measure. A successful outcome of their actions could possibly shorten the war - though their lives were at risk.
"Their most daring assignments, and crucial to the mission’s success, was to detonate the air tower at Bardufoss Airport located 50 miles southeast of the city of Tromsø and to sink the seaplanes at the seaplane harbor in Tromsø. Jan Baalsrud, an expert swimmer, was charged with the perilous responsibility of affixing the explosives to the seaplanes’ pontoons beneath the water."
............
Dr. Sigurd Eskelund was in charge of Brattholm, and Jan Baalsrud was second.
"The Swedes wanted to make use of his talent as an instrument maker, but Jan wanted to use his energies to help Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm advised him to contact the British Embassy, who recruited him as a secret agent. In that capacity he made three trips to Norway from Sweden. During the hours of darkness Jan slipped across the border, and hid during the days. When able, he visited Gardemoen Airport and made rough drawings of the German fortifications and their ongoing construction, which he forwarded to England.
"On Jan’s third return trip to Sweden, the Swedish police arrested him. Tried in a Stockholm court, Jan was charged with espionage for a foreign country against a foreign country, and received a six-month jail term. After three months he was transferred to Varmland where his cellmate was the son of a ship owner. While in prison, his cellmate learned he had inherited a great deal of money from an aunt. The prison officials’ attitudes changed toward the rich ship owner and his friend, and soon they were set free. They were ordered out of Sweden – a difficult situation for Jan, who was condemned to die by the Germans in Norway, and now had but two weeks to leave Sweden.
"A few years earlier Madam Kollantay, a close friend of Stalin, had served as the Russian Ambassador to Norway. While serving in that position, she had become a warm friend of the Norwegian people. Presently she was the Russian Ambassador to Sweden, and she learned of Jan Baalsrud’s plight. She arranged a visa for him enabling him to travel to Leningrad in the Soviet Union and continue on to Odessa on the Black Sea.
"From Odessa, Jan traveled via Turkey on to Bombay, India. During his two-month stay in Bombay he met another Norwegian fugitive, Per Blindheim, and the two young men developed a deep friendship.
"They traveled on to Aden, Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, Brazil, Trinidad, the USA and Canada, and eventually London. In the spring of 1942, their six-month long journey ended when they arrived in Scotland and joined the Linge Company."
Jan Baalsrud, like Dr. Sigurd Eskelund and other Norwegians who returned to fight for Norway and for humanity, had a million chances to save their own lives by staying away, especially across the Atlantic. But Jan Baalsrud did not stop in U.S. or Canada, just as, despite being well settled in Argentina, Dr. Sigurd Eskelund had returned after Norway was occupied. Other saboteurs in the group too had similarly returned to fight for Norway and against the nazis. They were trained in England and Scotland by SOE.
"Highly qualified, with unique talents and strengths, these saboteurs from Company Linge, the Norwegian branch of the British Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.,) were among the best men Norway had to offer in the fight against Hitler.
"Upon their arrival in Norway, their first task was to find a safe hiding place ashore for the explosives and the other provisions. The most daring assignment of their mission was to detonate the air tower at the Bardufoss Airport in the district of Troms. In addition they were to destroy German communication lines, disrupt anything they could, and blow up ferries. They were to slow down and halt, if possible, German troop movements. Lastly, they would organize and train small units of Norwegians in all types of sabotage work."
............
"The instructions were, when they reached Senja, to draw as near the mouth of Malangenfjord as possible. From there, Lieutenant Eskeland and Reichelt were to take the cutter’s small boat and row up Malangenfjord 18 miles to Tromsø. The plan was thwarted when a German patrol boat shooed Brattholm away from the entrance to the fjord (the Germans did not wish to be disturbed during their pursuit of a Norwegian suspected of illegally listening to a radio). Eskeland and Captain Kvernhellen decided to go further north rather than risk contact. Happy to leave unscathed, the men were puzzled at the presence of the patrol boat. They had not been forewarned to expect any German patrols in this particular area, although information from northern Norway to England was scarcer than that from southern Norway."
They went on north and found refuge behind Rebennes at Toftefjord, and were surprised to see a cottage, inhabited by a family.
"On leaving the Shetland Islands, the plan had been to contact a person in southern Troms, known to be quite reliable, and in whom the expedition leaders in England had great faith. Even so, when in their attempt to dock on the island of Senja they were forced out to sea by the German patrol boat, they had chosen Toftefjord because of its remote location, and the convenience of being fairly close to several other trustworthy contacts.
"The next person they hoped to reach after their frustrated attempt at Senja was a merchant in Mikkelvik, a few miles from where they had anchored. Subsequent to their visit with the merchant, they intended to visit underground leaders Kaare Moursund and Tore Knudsen in Tromsø."
December 1, 2020
It's a little startling to realise within the first few sentences of the introduction that one has begun reading, not merely a tale of daring and more, but a part of history that involves a crucial time of WWII and is very intricately connected to the very survivalof the planet and of human civilisation. For nazi ideology was intent on destroying the civilisation and enslaving the globe to enable Germany to reproduce as it spread over the earth and was enabled by slave labour of the rest to occupy, own and enjoy the earth, and if Germany had been able to own the Norwegian heavy water plant stock, they might have succeeded in annihilation of any part of the earth. Their ideology certainly did not limit them in this except as it might affect Germany, and perhaps not even that, for at the end Hitler issued instructions of destroying everything as allied advanced into Germany - an order sent out explicitly everywhere, and countermanded only with great difficulty by personal efforts of Speer arguing with various officials high and low about future well being of people of Germany.
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted – let him look to Norway.
"And, if there is anyone who doubts of the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America,
"September 16, 1942"
............
When German occupying forces came sniffing around, seven of the men of the village, where most had helped Norwegian underground fighters to escape the Germans, decided to steal a ship and escape. They succeeded partly due to German planes expecting them to steer to Shetland while they steered North and then Northwest to Iceland, and partly due to sheer luck of fog protecting them as they heard the plane.
"The men’s and Brattholm’s relentless struggle ended when they reached Rejkjavik, Iceland’s capital, five days later. They were welcomed by both Norwegian and English authorities, who had received advance notice of their arrival. The young men had planned to earn a living by fishing while in Iceland, but instead the boat was taken over by Nortraship and rented out to the British Navy Sea Transport. On November 18, the resistance workers were ordered to sail to Seydesfjord, on Iceland’s east coast. For two years, the cutter carried English troops and supplies to and from the outposts in the Icelandic fjords.
"In November 1942, Brattholm was recalled to Reykjavik. She and her crew were ordered to the Shetland Islands. Two armed whaleboats escorted them to Lerwich, in the Shetland Islands, without mishap. Brattholm was put into secret service between the Shetland Islands and Norway against the Germans. The seven Norwegian underground workers were sent on to London where some ended up in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and others in the Navy."
............
"FEBRUARY 2, 1942: A gruesome battle over Stalingrad in the Soviet Union took place between the Germans and the Russians. Germany lost the battle against the Russians but not before leaving the city in ashes. It would have been an impossible victory for the Soviet Union without the huge weapon supplies delivered from the United States and England.
"When Denmark was attacked and invaded by the German Army in 1940, England occupied Iceland with the consensus of her people. Iceland was strategically located in the North Atlantic.
"Convoys to the Soviet Union with war materials and other provisions were sent from the West via Iceland, the shortest and the safest route at the time. They sailed through the Arctic Ocean a few hundred nautical miles above the North Cape, the northern tip of Norway, and on to Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.
"The plan worked well, with most ships bearing the desperately needed materials reaching their destination. The convoys only lost one ship, but after the first few months, the situation changed drastically.
"Arctic pack ice forced the convoys within 300 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast.
"To pinpoint the convoys’ position, German reconnaissance planes were sent out from Bardufoss Airport in the Troms District, as well as seaplanes from Skatøyra seaplane-harbor close to the city of Tromsø, in the same district.
"As summer had returned and the midnight sun did not set, it was easy for the German pilots to detect the convoys. The information from these sorties was forwarded to the German High Command.
"June 27, 1942: Convoy P.Q.17 left Iceland for Archangel with 34 ships. German spy planes spotted them, and soon the German bombers and U-boats were on their way. They sank 23 ships and several hundred men went down.
"Due to the terrible loss of lives and ships, the convoys were briefly halted. This caused large weapon supplies to accumulate in the West. In this serious situation the Allies had to find a way to stop German planes from flying out of northern Norway.
"Early in the War, England had established an organization, Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Its purpose was to organize secret operations in countries occupied by the Germans. The Norwegian branch of the S.O.E. and the British had, for some time, planned sabotage activities against the German reconnaissance operations originating from the northern Norwegian airports. The military strategists felt these efforts, along with Russian participation in the defense of the convoys and strengthening Allied escorts, would make it reasonably safe for the convoys to resume.
"The four saboteurs’ assigned work placed them at the heart of the war. The importance of the men’s success was beyond measure. A successful outcome of their actions could possibly shorten the war - though their lives were at risk.
"Their most daring assignments, and crucial to the mission’s success, was to detonate the air tower at Bardufoss Airport located 50 miles southeast of the city of Tromsø and to sink the seaplanes at the seaplane harbor in Tromsø. Jan Baalsrud, an expert swimmer, was charged with the perilous responsibility of affixing the explosives to the seaplanes’ pontoons beneath the water."
............
Dr. Sigurd Eskelund was in charge of Brattholm, and Jan Baalsrud was second.
"The Swedes wanted to make use of his talent as an instrument maker, but Jan wanted to use his energies to help Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm advised him to contact the British Embassy, who recruited him as a secret agent. In that capacity he made three trips to Norway from Sweden. During the hours of darkness Jan slipped across the border, and hid during the days. When able, he visited Gardemoen Airport and made rough drawings of the German fortifications and their ongoing construction, which he forwarded to England.
"On Jan’s third return trip to Sweden, the Swedish police arrested him. Tried in a Stockholm court, Jan was charged with espionage for a foreign country against a foreign country, and received a six-month jail term. After three months he was transferred to Varmland where his cellmate was the son of a ship owner. While in prison, his cellmate learned he had inherited a great deal of money from an aunt. The prison officials’ attitudes changed toward the rich ship owner and his friend, and soon they were set free. They were ordered out of Sweden – a difficult situation for Jan, who was condemned to die by the Germans in Norway, and now had but two weeks to leave Sweden.
"A few years earlier Madam Kollantay, a close friend of Stalin, had served as the Russian Ambassador to Norway. While serving in that position, she had become a warm friend of the Norwegian people. Presently she was the Russian Ambassador to Sweden, and she learned of Jan Baalsrud’s plight. She arranged a visa for him enabling him to travel to Leningrad in the Soviet Union and continue on to Odessa on the Black Sea.
"From Odessa, Jan traveled via Turkey on to Bombay, India. During his two-month stay in Bombay he met another Norwegian fugitive, Per Blindheim, and the two young men developed a deep friendship.
"They traveled on to Aden, Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, Brazil, Trinidad, the USA and Canada, and eventually London. In the spring of 1942, their six-month long journey ended when they arrived in Scotland and joined the Linge Company."
Jan Baalsrud, like Dr. Sigurd Eskelund and other Norwegians who returned to fight for Norway and for humanity, had a million chances to save their own lives by staying away, especially across the Atlantic. But Jan Baalsrud did not stop in U.S. or Canada, just as, despite being well settled in Argentina, Dr. Sigurd Eskelund had returned after Norway was occupied. Other saboteurs in the group too had similarly returned to fight for Norway and against the nazis. They were trained in England and Scotland by SOE.
"Highly qualified, with unique talents and strengths, these saboteurs from Company Linge, the Norwegian branch of the British Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.,) were among the best men Norway had to offer in the fight against Hitler.
"Upon their arrival in Norway, their first task was to find a safe hiding place ashore for the explosives and the other provisions. The most daring assignment of their mission was to detonate the air tower at the Bardufoss Airport in the district of Troms. In addition they were to destroy German communication lines, disrupt anything they could, and blow up ferries. They were to slow down and halt, if possible, German troop movements. Lastly, they would organize and train small units of Norwegians in all types of sabotage work."
............
"The instructions were, when they reached Senja, to draw as near the mouth of Malangenfjord as possible. From there, Lieutenant Eskeland and Reichelt were to take the cutter’s small boat and row up Malangenfjord 18 miles to Tromsø. The plan was thwarted when a German patrol boat shooed Brattholm away from the entrance to the fjord (the Germans did not wish to be disturbed during their pursuit of a Norwegian suspected of illegally listening to a radio). Eskeland and Captain Kvernhellen decided to go further north rather than risk contact. Happy to leave unscathed, the men were puzzled at the presence of the patrol boat. They had not been forewarned to expect any German patrols in this particular area, although information from northern Norway to England was scarcer than that from southern Norway."
They went on north and found refuge behind Rebennes at Toftefjord, and were surprised to see a cottage, inhabited by a family.
"On leaving the Shetland Islands, the plan had been to contact a person in southern Troms, known to be quite reliable, and in whom the expedition leaders in England had great faith. Even so, when in their attempt to dock on the island of Senja they were forced out to sea by the German patrol boat, they had chosen Toftefjord because of its remote location, and the convenience of being fairly close to several other trustworthy contacts.
"The next person they hoped to reach after their frustrated attempt at Senja was a merchant in Mikkelvik, a few miles from where they had anchored. Subsequent to their visit with the merchant, they intended to visit underground leaders Kaare Moursund and Tore Knudsen in Tromsø."
Merged review:
It's a little startling to realise within the first few sentences of the introduction that one has begun reading, not merely a tale of daring and more, but a part of history that involves a crucial time of WWII and is very intricately connected to the very survivalof the planet and of human civilisation. For nazi ideology was intent on destroying the civilisation and enslaving the globe to enable Germany to reproduce as it spread over the earth and was enabled by slave labour of the rest to occupy, own and enjoy the earth, and if Germany had been able to own the Norwegian heavy water plant stock, they might have succeeded in annihilation of any part of the earth. Their ideology certainly did not limit them in this except as it might affect Germany, and perhaps not even that, for at the end Hitler issued instructions of destroying everything as allied advanced into Germany - an order sent out explicitly everywhere, and countermanded only with great difficulty by personal efforts of Speer arguing with various officials high and low about future well being of people of Germany.
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusio
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusions that this war could have been averted – let him look to Norway.
"And, if there is anyone who doubts of the democratic will to win, again I say, let him look to Norway.
"Franklin D. Roosevelt,
President of the United States of America,
"September 16, 1942"
............
When German occupying forces came sniffing around, seven of the men of the village, where most had helped Norwegian underground fighters to escape the Germans, decided to steal a ship and escape. They succeeded partly due to German planes expecting them to steer to Shetland while they steered North and then Northwest to Iceland, and partly due to sheer luck of fog protecting them as they heard the plane.
"The men’s and Brattholm’s relentless struggle ended when they reached Rejkjavik, Iceland’s capital, five days later. They were welcomed by both Norwegian and English authorities, who had received advance notice of their arrival. The young men had planned to earn a living by fishing while in Iceland, but instead the boat was taken over by Nortraship and rented out to the British Navy Sea Transport. On November 18, the resistance workers were ordered to sail to Seydesfjord, on Iceland’s east coast. For two years, the cutter carried English troops and supplies to and from the outposts in the Icelandic fjords.
"In November 1942, Brattholm was recalled to Reykjavik. She and her crew were ordered to the Shetland Islands. Two armed whaleboats escorted them to Lerwich, in the Shetland Islands, without mishap. Brattholm was put into secret service between the Shetland Islands and Norway against the Germans. The seven Norwegian underground workers were sent on to London where some ended up in the Norwegian Merchant Marine and others in the Navy."
............
"FEBRUARY 2, 1942: A gruesome battle over Stalingrad in the Soviet Union took place between the Germans and the Russians. Germany lost the battle against the Russians but not before leaving the city in ashes. It would have been an impossible victory for the Soviet Union without the huge weapon supplies delivered from the United States and England.
"When Denmark was attacked and invaded by the German Army in 1940, England occupied Iceland with the consensus of her people. Iceland was strategically located in the North Atlantic.
"Convoys to the Soviet Union with war materials and other provisions were sent from the West via Iceland, the shortest and the safest route at the time. They sailed through the Arctic Ocean a few hundred nautical miles above the North Cape, the northern tip of Norway, and on to Murmansk and Archangel in the Soviet Union.
"The plan worked well, with most ships bearing the desperately needed materials reaching their destination. The convoys only lost one ship, but after the first few months, the situation changed drastically.
"Arctic pack ice forced the convoys within 300 nautical miles of the Norwegian coast.
"To pinpoint the convoys’ position, German reconnaissance planes were sent out from Bardufoss Airport in the Troms District, as well as seaplanes from Skatøyra seaplane-harbor close to the city of Tromsø, in the same district.
"As summer had returned and the midnight sun did not set, it was easy for the German pilots to detect the convoys. The information from these sorties was forwarded to the German High Command.
"June 27, 1942: Convoy P.Q.17 left Iceland for Archangel with 34 ships. German spy planes spotted them, and soon the German bombers and U-boats were on their way. They sank 23 ships and several hundred men went down.
"Due to the terrible loss of lives and ships, the convoys were briefly halted. This caused large weapon supplies to accumulate in the West. In this serious situation the Allies had to find a way to stop German planes from flying out of northern Norway.
"Early in the War, England had established an organization, Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). Its purpose was to organize secret operations in countries occupied by the Germans. The Norwegian branch of the S.O.E. and the British had, for some time, planned sabotage activities against the German reconnaissance operations originating from the northern Norwegian airports. The military strategists felt these efforts, along with Russian participation in the defense of the convoys and strengthening Allied escorts, would make it reasonably safe for the convoys to resume.
"The four saboteurs’ assigned work placed them at the heart of the war. The importance of the men’s success was beyond measure. A successful outcome of their actions could possibly shorten the war - though their lives were at risk.
"Their most daring assignments, and crucial to the mission’s success, was to detonate the air tower at Bardufoss Airport located 50 miles southeast of the city of Tromsø and to sink the seaplanes at the seaplane harbor in Tromsø. Jan Baalsrud, an expert swimmer, was charged with the perilous responsibility of affixing the explosives to the seaplanes’ pontoons beneath the water."
............
Dr. Sigurd Eskelund was in charge of Brattholm, and Jan Baalsrud was second.
"The Swedes wanted to make use of his talent as an instrument maker, but Jan wanted to use his energies to help Norway. The Norwegian Embassy in Stockholm advised him to contact the British Embassy, who recruited him as a secret agent. In that capacity he made three trips to Norway from Sweden. During the hours of darkness Jan slipped across the border, and hid during the days. When able, he visited Gardemoen Airport and made rough drawings of the German fortifications and their ongoing construction, which he forwarded to England.
"On Jan’s third return trip to Sweden, the Swedish police arrested him. Tried in a Stockholm court, Jan was charged with espionage for a foreign country against a foreign country, and received a six-month jail term. After three months he was transferred to Varmland where his cellmate was the son of a ship owner. While in prison, his cellmate learned he had inherited a great deal of money from an aunt. The prison officials’ attitudes changed toward the rich ship owner and his friend, and soon they were set free. They were ordered out of Sweden – a difficult situation for Jan, who was condemned to die by the Germans in Norway, and now had but two weeks to leave Sweden.
"A few years earlier Madam Kollantay, a close friend of Stalin, had served as the Russian Ambassador to Norway. While serving in that position, she had become a warm friend of the Norwegian people. Presently she was the Russian Ambassador to Sweden, and she learned of Jan Baalsrud’s plight. She arranged a visa for him enabling him to travel to Leningrad in the Soviet Union and continue on to Odessa on the Black Sea.
"From Odessa, Jan traveled via Turkey on to Bombay, India. During his two-month stay in Bombay he met another Norwegian fugitive, Per Blindheim, and the two young men developed a deep friendship.
"They traveled on to Aden, Mozambique, Durban, Cape Town, Brazil, Trinidad, the USA and Canada, and eventually London. In the spring of 1942, their six-month long journey ended when they arrived in Scotland and joined the Linge Company."
Jan Baalsrud, like Dr. Sigurd Eskelund and other Norwegians who returned to fight for Norway and for humanity, had a million chances to save their own lives by staying away, especially across the Atlantic. But Jan Baalsrud did not stop in U.S. or Canada, just as, despite being well settled in Argentina, Dr. Sigurd Eskelund had returned after Norway was occupied. Other saboteurs in the group too had similarly returned to fight for Norway and against the nazis. They were trained in England and Scotland by SOE.
"Highly qualified, with unique talents and strengths, these saboteurs from Company Linge, the Norwegian branch of the British Special Operation Executive (S.O.E.,) were among the best men Norway had to offer in the fight against Hitler.
"Upon their arrival in Norway, their first task was to find a safe hiding place ashore for the explosives and the other provisions. The most daring assignment of their mission was to detonate the air tower at the Bardufoss Airport in the district of Troms. In addition they were to destroy German communication lines, disrupt anything they could, and blow up ferries. They were to slow down and halt, if possible, German troop movements. Lastly, they would organize and train small units of Norwegians in all types of sabotage work."
............
"The instructions were, when they reached Senja, to draw as near the mouth of Malangenfjord as possible. From there, Lieutenant Eskeland and Reichelt were to take the cutter’s small boat and row up Malangenfjord 18 miles to Tromsø. The plan was thwarted when a German patrol boat shooed Brattholm away from the entrance to the fjord (the Germans did not wish to be disturbed during their pursuit of a Norwegian suspected of illegally listening to a radio). Eskeland and Captain Kvernhellen decided to go further north rather than risk contact. Happy to leave unscathed, the men were puzzled at the presence of the patrol boat. They had not been forewarned to expect any German patrols in this particular area, although information from northern Norway to England was scarcer than that from southern Norway."
They went on north and found refuge behind Rebennes at Toftefjord, and were surprised to see a cottage, inhabited by a family.
"On leaving the Shetland Islands, the plan had been to contact a person in southern Troms, known to be quite reliable, and in whom the expedition leaders in England had great faith. Even so, when in their attempt to dock on the island of Senja they were forced out to sea by the German patrol boat, they had chosen Toftefjord because of its remote location, and the convenience of being fairly close to several other trustworthy contacts.
"The next person they hoped to reach after their frustrated attempt at Senja was a merchant in Mikkelvik, a few miles from where they had anchored. Subsequent to their visit with the merchant, they intended to visit underground leaders Kaare Moursund and Tore Knudsen in Tromsø."
Merged review:
It's a little startling to realise within the first few sentences of the introduction that one has begun reading, not merely a tale of daring and more, but a part of history that involves a crucial time of WWII and is very intricately connected to the very survivalof the planet and of human civilisation. For nazi ideology was intent on destroying the civilisation and enslaving the globe to enable Germany to reproduce as it spread over the earth and was enabled by slave labour of the rest to occupy, own and enjoy the earth, and if Germany had been able to own the Norwegian heavy water plant stock, they might have succeeded in annihilation of any part of the earth. Their ideology certainly did not limit them in this except as it might affect Germany, and perhaps not even that, for at the end Hitler issued instructions of destroying everything as allied advanced into Germany - an order sent out explicitly everywhere, and countermanded only with great difficulty by personal efforts of Speer arguing with various officials high and low about future well being of people of Germany.
So this story about Norwegian underground is all the more evidently a crucial part of history that future of humanity depended on, whether they knew it or not, and chances are, they did, whoever risked and often lost their lives opposing the nazis.
............
Quoted from Foreword by Harald Zwart:-
"TROMS, WAY above the Arctic Circle in northern Norway. Snow-capped mountains pierce the horizon and valleys open up to glaciers. It is March, 1943, and the dramatic landscape is slowly waking up from the third long, dark winter under Nazi rule. In this spectacular landscape, one of the most amazing stories of World War II is about take place.
"Twelve Norwegians have boarded a small fishing boat in Scotland. They have crossed the treacherous North Sea to get to their beloved country in order to fight the German invaders. It is not to be. Norwegian collaborators give them away. The boat is attacked and sunk with an explosion of eight tons of dynamite. Eleven of the twelve men are captured and eventually killed by the Germans, most of them after enduring horrific torture.
"But one man escapes. The one who gets away is the twenty-five-year-old Jan Baalsrud. All Jan has to rely on is his moral fiber, his incredible strength—and eventually dozens of Norwegians willing to risk their lives to help him.
"With a head start of only a hundred meters, shot in the foot and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, Jan embarks on one of the most legendary escapes of World War II. With the Gestapo on his heels, in storms and freezing cold, he swims across sounds, walks across mountains on foot, and skis to try to get to neutral Sweden. Along his route, he is housed, fed, and hidden from the Nazis by locals who know that the punishment for helping a fugitive is death.
"As a Norwegian, I grew up with the story of Jan Baalsrud. When we were out cross-country skiing and fatigue got the better of us, we were always reminded of a man who never stopped and never gave up."
............
" ... How far can a man go to stay alive? How much can he take before he gives in? My generation has never come near the fear and terror our parents and grandparents experienced during World War II; we have not experienced war and have never been tested like they were.
"My father was a prisoner in the Japanese concentration camps in Indonesia. The Dutch had colonized the country and when the Japanese moved in, those they did not kill, they threw into camps. My father has had a hard time telling me about it, but I understand that this was a defining period for him.
"My grandfather was a Norwegian captain on a ship that sailed in allied convoys in German submarine-infested waters. He too was traumatized, although I’ve only realized this in recent years.
"The stories of the men and women who made great sacrifices during all wars need to be told. We need to tell them to our children, and they need to tell them to theirs. But some stories resonate deeper than others--they speak to us on a profound level. Jan Baalsrud’s story is in a class of its own."
............
"Jan’s story has been told many times, but never with the painstaking accuracy of this book. The authors manage not only to tell one hero’s story, but also that of the many who helped Jan and became heroes themselves. Unsung heroes—until this book."
"I never met Jan Baalsrud personally, but I did meet many of those who helped him. When they me told about those days when they risked their lives to keep Jan Baalsrud alive, something happened in their eyes. Just like for my father and grandfather, these are not stories they visit without pain."
............
"If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought – let him look to Norway.
"If there is anyone who has any delusio
March 4, 2021
The story is so astounding that it makes up for any flaws in the telling. It’s obvious that the book was a labor of love for the authors. Kudos to them for filling in any details that have been incorrectly told in previous books and films. The research used many stories from civilians who helped. It’s good that many were still alive for interviews.
It is amazing that Baalsrud was able to survive and is just as amazing that so many courageous people were willing to risk their lives to help. Heroes all. It would be interesting to know what makes a survivor like Jan besides what is obvious—youth, good health, training, determination and bravery.
It is amazing that Baalsrud was able to survive and is just as amazing that so many courageous people were willing to risk their lives to help. Heroes all. It would be interesting to know what makes a survivor like Jan besides what is obvious—youth, good health, training, determination and bravery.
September 19, 2018
This was quite the story! First I was overwhelmed by the setting close to the Arctic Circle. Then there was the extreme adventure and the characters willing to lay down their lives for someone else that they hardly knew. Finally, the will of one man to live through unthinkable challenges.
February 19, 2021
Remarkable true story of courageous patriots looking out for a fellow hero. A community with a common purpose against evil with a humble spirit.
April 3, 2024
This is the amazing survival story of Jan Baalsrud a Norwegian who returned to Norway in 1943 as part of a commando group to fight the Nazi occupiers. The team was betrayed and Jan was the only member of the 12 men sent to Norway to escape the Germans. The story focuses on Jan's torturous light from near Tromso to Sweden.
It is difficult to comprehend how Jan could have ever survived for the 6 weeks it took him to get to Sweden, with his injuries and frostbite. His positive attitude and determination were amazing, but he also benefitted from a surprisingly large number of ordinary Norwegian villagers who helped him along the way. These people risked their own lives, their families, and other residents of their town by helping him. German extreme retaliation was standard practice there.
The short epilog is wonderful as it gives you a perspective on the post-war life of Jan, as well as many of the Norwegians who made his survival possible.
It is difficult to comprehend how Jan could have ever survived for the 6 weeks it took him to get to Sweden, with his injuries and frostbite. His positive attitude and determination were amazing, but he also benefitted from a surprisingly large number of ordinary Norwegian villagers who helped him along the way. These people risked their own lives, their families, and other residents of their town by helping him. German extreme retaliation was standard practice there.
The short epilog is wonderful as it gives you a perspective on the post-war life of Jan, as well as many of the Norwegians who made his survival possible.
July 20, 2018
Astounding. There is such dedication to uncovering the real events of this epic escape during WWII. The courage, determination and will to live in Jan is truly immense. The desire of the people, risking everything to help him and their country against the occupiers is something that will live long in the memory. A remarkable book and story of all that is good in the human race. So very glad to have found this book and feel privileged to have been able to learn more about those in these events.
August 11, 2019
A story of many heroes
A great read, the story of a survivor against all odds and the heroes who risked their own lives to help him. Shows the trait of humanity that at the toughest times rises up to be something more than human. It wasn’t a “smooth” read, I fear it suffered in translation, but this made it more real as an account.
A great read, the story of a survivor against all odds and the heroes who risked their own lives to help him. Shows the trait of humanity that at the toughest times rises up to be something more than human. It wasn’t a “smooth” read, I fear it suffered in translation, but this made it more real as an account.
May 3, 2021
A book that defines courage, human kindness and bravery not only for Jan Baalstrud but for those who aided him in his escape.
The book is well written, easy to follow and a real page turner as the reader follows the escape of the lone survivor of the M/K Brattholm from occupied Norway into neutral Sweden during WWII.
The book is well written, easy to follow and a real page turner as the reader follows the escape of the lone survivor of the M/K Brattholm from occupied Norway into neutral Sweden during WWII.
November 13, 2025
This was an excellent book on a man's bravery as he escaped the Germans in northern Norway and all of the brave Norwegians who secretly helped him succeed in his quest to get to Sweden despite the danger of being caught helping an "enemy" of the Germans. It read like fiction in many places. I liked the maps, the pictures, and the epilogue.
March 24, 2018
World War II Story
This is the incredible story of a Norwegian who returned to Norway during the war to carry out sabotage. Informed on, 11 of his compatroits were excuted by the Nazis. He went on to receive help
from many people and to make it to Swedan
This is the incredible story of a Norwegian who returned to Norway during the war to carry out sabotage. Informed on, 11 of his compatroits were excuted by the Nazis. He went on to receive help
from many people and to make it to Swedan
November 4, 2018
Great Historical WWII stiry
This was a most interesting read. I enjoy the stories of threatens this struggle was an epic worthwhile book.
Very factual and a lesson in personal fortitude.
JM
This was a most interesting read. I enjoy the stories of threatens this struggle was an epic worthwhile book.
Very factual and a lesson in personal fortitude.
JM
March 27, 2019
A complete account of a mission that had an unfortunate beginning. And the incredible story of the only survivor who suffered beyond belief from his injuries. And the bravery of those who chose to help him escape.
March 21, 2022
Excellent, excellent
Unbelievable courage and suffering and sacrifice.. A tribute to real humanity.. A story of common people, the very best God has created, would the whole of mankind but be like these totally unselfish folks. Thanks
Unbelievable courage and suffering and sacrifice.. A tribute to real humanity.. A story of common people, the very best God has created, would the whole of mankind but be like these totally unselfish folks. Thanks
August 20, 2019
I never knew that endurance of this magnitude was humanly possible. Amazing story.
October 1, 2019
This was a painful read, but an excellent book. My husband read it first and proclaimed it a must read.
December 18, 2019
Captivating book about a commando soldier that survives and escape showing an unbelievable endurance.
February 4, 2021
What's better? Poorly written but well-researched accuracy or something sensationalized and somewhat fictionalized but excellently written? Tough call.
July 26, 2021
amazing true story of the best that can come out in people in a horrific time
March 9, 2022
Quite a story of survival and endurance of a Norwegian soldier working his way to freedom in northern Norway dodging German Nazis during the months of April and May 1943.
March 19, 2022
Incredible story of survival in the northern mountains of Norway during WWII.
April 3, 2022
This is an amazing story of an amazing rescue in the Artic area of Norway during WWII Highly recommend this book
January 11, 2023
Amazing story of wartime survival. Writing is a bit rough around the edges here and there, but it didn’t detract from the amazing story much.
July 19, 2024
Amazing story of courage and bravery!
February 4, 2025
Amazing story, incredible people and reminder how much good is in the world.
January 19, 2024
This is an amazing and graphic account of the escape of, Jan Baalsrud, a Norwegian commando from the Gestapo during World War II and his subsequent and harrowing flight to safety in Sweden. The subject fled across northern Norway in series of narrow escaped from both the Nazis and the elements. He suffered from near starvation, severe frostbite, and snow blindness. I have also suffered frostbite and snow blindness, but never to the degree experienced by Baalsrud. I found the description of his suffering to be accurate and graphic. In addition to personal perseverance, he would not have survived without the aid of Norwegian patriots who fed him and cared for him at great personal risk and never gave up, despite losing him in the snow near the end.
If you enjoy stories about anti-fascist commandos, or escapes this is a very good book. I highly recommend it.
If you enjoy stories about anti-fascist commandos, or escapes this is a very good book. I highly recommend it.
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