The 12th Man

by Astrid Karlsen Scott

  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.

  The expedition leaders in England had high hopes for, and much confidence in, the operation planned so carefully in top secret meetings.

  Martin Linge

  THE LINGE COMPANY

  WHEN HITLER’S war machine brutally attacked Norway on April 9, 1940, in reality, the battle was over within two months. But not everyone gave up. Many Norwegian youths wished to continue the fight; they had not capitulated morally. They wanted another chance against their powerful enemy. An inner moral strength, idealism, eagerness to fight and a deep love and patriotism for their country kept them going and were the motives behind their optimism.

  After a while, many a Norwegian youth had to escape from Norway, and some were able to work their way over to England.

  There they contacted the Norwegian division of S.O.E., where they received a short period of training before they were sent back to Norway on secret missions as early as the summer of 1940.

  One man, Captain Martin Linge, participated in the battle at Åndalsnes. He was wounded, and came to England in September 1940. This idealistic man refused to give up the fight for Norway until she was liberated. He realized that the Germans were vulnerable, and that they could be thwarted as long as the right method was chosen.

  He understood that specially trained Norwegian commando soldiers, who knew the Norwegian nature, climate, geography and the Norwegian temperament, could cause havoc for the enemy. Soon, Martin Linge was given the responsibility for representing the Norwegian Government in S.O.E. An office was established in London, and from there, Norwegian fugitives who arrived in London were recruited for these well-planned assignments. Linge personally selected the men.

  In March of 1941, British forces together with Norwegian soldiers from England carried out a raid against Svolvær in Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands in northern Norway. Linge led the Norwegian soldiers. The raid was successful; they did not lose one man.

  Because of the success, they made the decision to further develop a Norwegian military company, about 200 men. In the end, the whole company was transferred to the Scottish Highlands, a place which was chosen with great care. The terrain was excellent for the type of training necessary for commando soldiers. The group was divided between three buildings, Glenmore Lodge, Forest Lodge and Drumintoul Lodge. Company Linge was given their own division within the Norwegian High Command in July 1941.

  Company Linge participated in two separate raids against occupied Norway during Christmas of 1941, one raid against Reine in Lofoten and the other against MÅløy. Again Captain Linge led the Norwegian forces. The Germans fought bravely, but in the end had to fall back. Captain Linge ran in front leading his men, and he reached his goal, but was felled by a bullet.

  The Company had lost a great leader, and it was a heavy loss. But new leaders took over, and the assignments never stopped. That same year, plans were laid for sabotage work to begin along the Norwegian coast to be carried out by the Linge men.

  FEARLESS MEN

  THE FOUR saboteurs were members of the Linge Company, a group of selected Norwegian men who were part of the Special Operations Executive, S.O.E., and who received sabotage training in Scotland. They all lived for the opportunity to return to Norway to fight the Germans.

  The Linge men were chosen for the special sabotage services because of their abilities. They were men from all walks of life, farmers and office workers, students and fishermen. For some, it was their first contact with the military. Others were veterans from the Winter War in Finland and in Norway.

  Lieutenant Sigurd Eskeland was chosen as the Brattholm expedition’s leader. Sigurd’s slender build masked his physical strength. His wisdom and maturity qualified him for the job. He was 41 years old, born in Gjerstad by Risør in southern Norway.

  Though several years senior to most of the men in Company Linge, Sigurd participated in the same training as the younger men without showing any sign of fatigue or lack of will.

  Lt. Sigurd Eskeland

  Aboard Brattholm he was the only man who knew the whole story and all the demanding tasks assigned the saboteurs once they reached Norway.

  As a young man, he’d served for a time as a postal official in northern Norway. While there, he made many friends among the stalwart Norwegians in the Troms District and had become familiar with the city of Tromsø and the geography of the surrounding islands.

  Later, Sigurd immigrated to Argentina where he became a successful mink farmer. Not long after he had established a comfortable future in Argentina, Germany attacked Norway. The news of the April 9, 1940 attack caused him great anguish. He left the comforts of his home and set out for Europe, arriving in England in May of 1941.

  Second in command was 25-year-old Second Lieutenant Jan Baalsrud. He grew up in the city-center of Oslo, Norway’s capital. Jan attended ILA School. When he was sixteen years old, his mother perished in a car accident. The oldest of three siblings, Jan shared with his father the responsibility for taking care of his 12-year-old brother, Nils Ivar, and his eight-year-old sister, Bitten, fell to him.

  2nd Lt. Jan Baalsrud

  Jan enjoyed sports - soccer was his favorite. He was a rough-and-ready guy with a tender heart and a high tolerance for pain.

  Coal-black hair and dark brows framed Jan’s resolute blue-gray eyes. Strikingly good-looking with an athletic build, he was 182 cm tall. In 1938, following a stint in the military, he traveled to Hannover, Germany where he studied cartography at Wetzlar. In 1939, he received his certificate for apprenticeship as a land surveyor and instrument maker.

  Two days before the Germans invaded Norway, Jan returned home from Junior Officer School in Fredrikstad. On April 9, he reported for service in the Norwegian Army. Later he saw combat at Østfold, south of Oslo near the Swedish border. His unit put up a gallant fight, but the Germans outmaneuvered and outnumbered them with their superior strength and war materials. Soon the Norwegians were surrounded.

  Jan escaped to Sweden. Here, almost chaotic conditions existed because of the great influx of escapees coming across the borders. He was interned in Gothenberg; however, his former commander came to his defense and within three weeks he was freed.

  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.

  Sergeant Per Revold Blindheim came from Ålesund, and was the same age as Jan. Per was the son of a master baker who owned a bakery located at Kirkegaten 8 in Ålesund, and he learned much of the trade from his father. Per finished middle school and business school and then followed in his father’s footsteps, training as a baker.

  Sgt. Per Blindheim

  When the Soviet Union launched an unprovoked attack on Finland on November 30, 1939, Per was angered at the injustice and volunteered to fight with Finland. At the war’s end on March 8, 1940 Per returned home. Within weeks, his homeland was at war. He was mobilized into the Norwegian Army and fought at the battles of Romsdalen and Gudbrandsdalen Valleys.

  Subsequent to Norway’s capitulation, Per worked in an office in Ålesund, and later in Tromsø. Near the end of 1942 he escaped to Sweden with the hope of reaching England. Like Jan Baalsrud, he traveled nearly the world around to get there.

  Per wanted a second chance to fight off the Nazi grip. He was an outdoorsman, and a loyal friend with a happy outlook, strong and yet compassionate. Without hesitation, Per fought for what to him was priceless, Norway’s freedom.

  The fourth saboteur, Sergeant Gabriel Salvesen, came from Farsund. He was among the many patriotic youths who raged against the Nazi occupation of Norway and had determined to fight against the tyranny. Like many other Norwegians, he escaped Norway and sailed across the Atlantic in a fishing vessel. He arrived in England in August 1941. The following spring he joined the Linge Company.

  Sgt. Gabriel Salvesen

  Salvesen was an experienced seafarer with great technical insight. He excelled in all his training, and became an excellent wireless telegrapher. Within the Linge Company he was highly respected by his leaders and teammates. It came as no surprise when he was one of the four men chosen to participate in the perilous top secret mission to northern Norway. His mastery of wireless telegraphy was vital to the establishment of a radio communication system between occupied northern Norway and England.

  Strong of mind and will, the four saboteurs were well trained for their mission, having spent months in England and Scotland preparing for this assignment. They’d learned every weapon skill and military drill known. The men climbed ropes up precipitous mountains and ran for hours through obstacle courses in difficult terrain. When near exhaustion, they swam raging rivers. They learned compass and map reading, and learned to deviate from true north because of the Earth’s magnetic field. They studied Morse code and became proficient at receiving long messages by signals and lamps.

  Quick to learn about fuses, detonators and explosives, they were given actual assignments to plan and execute, demolishing railways, oil refineries, and large construction sites. As the saboteurs gained confidence, their assignments grew in difficulty.

  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.

  Erik Reichelt

  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 expedition leaders at the headquarters in London had chosen early spring for this mission to increase the chances of the saboteurs’ survival in the Arctic. The North Atlantic was frequently calmer at this time of the year, which made navigation easier for a small boat.

  With the four saboteurs aboard Brattholm was another man, 25-year-old mate Erik Reichelt, from Kragerø. Erik had important work to perform once they landed in Norway. He was graduated from Middle school and Mate school. In 1941 Erik married Kari Rønning in Tønsberg. They had one child.

  Since the beginning of the war, Erik had been heavily involved in intelligence work and in the transport of fugitives in Tønsberg and the Oslo area. He left Norway in 1942 but returned several times on secret missions.

  His father, Captain Gerhard Reichelt, lost his life on December 21, 1941 when his ship, D/S Annovare, was torpedoed in the Atlantic Ocean. His brother, Borti, was shot in 1944.

  CROSSING THE ATLANTIC

  MARCH 24, 1943: Brattholm made good headway as she left the Shetland Islands heading northeast toward the Norwegian coast. The weather was pleasant and the seas calm. Some five hours after they had left Scalloway, with more than 200 miles to go, the engine acted up. It coughed, muttered, and sputtered until it gave out. The boat floated with the current, rolling and bobbing sideways on the swells. The cook turned green with seasickness from the motion and he retired below deck.

  The rest of the men worked feverishly on the motor, their skipper joining in, but to no avail. The hours dragged on. It seemed an impossible task. Every test known was made. They continued work for the better part of the day, drifting helplessly in the North Atlantic. Eight hours after the motor stopped, they found the cause: a small metal piece in the oil conduit had stopped the flow of fuel to the motor. The piece was removed and the motor started easily.

  Following the mishap, the motor functioned smoothly. With its steady thumping, and a speed of seven knots, the men sailed on.

  The cook stayed below for most of the crossing, unable to attend to his duties. Per took over the cooking. His experience in his father’s bakery in Ålesund made the men happy with the change - his cooking was a vast improvement over the food the cook had served.

  March 26, 1943: The day dawned with a light cloud-cover and with some blue patches shining through. It looked to be another day with fairly good weather, and it gave the men more time to ensure the equipment was in top condition, to mentally contemplate their training in Scotland and to rehearse their challenge ahead. Each man aboard Brattholm knew his assignment and was busy throughout the voyage.

  Machine guns were concealed in fishing barrels.

  Three German planes broke the calm productivity. One, a large four-engine bomber, flew low, heading straight for them.

  “Action stations!” shouted captain Kvernhellen.

  The men rushed to their positions by the fishing barrels with the concealed machine guns. The bomber circled the vessel a couple of times, and then, to everyone’s surprise, turned and disappeared over the horizon. On other days the men spotted two warships. Since they paid Brattholm no mind, her crew assumed they were allies.

  March 28, 1943: The Norwegians expected to reach their home waters this day. All peered toward the east, but Norway still hi
d on the horizon. The Germans kept close control of the Norwegian coastline. As Brattholm neared the coast, her passengers expected a German patrol to emerge at any moment. The saboteurs had to be prepared for all eventualities; hand grenades were readied and preparations to demolish Brattholm, should it be necessary, were taken. Under no circumstances could Brattholm be confiscated with all her papers, maps, ammunition and other provisions aboard.

  A vague outline of the Norwegian coast came into view in the late afternoon. A deeply personal experience for these young men, the sight of their homeland brought a shine to their eyes. A cry went up, “Alt for Norge,” All for Norway!

  “We’re home at last!”

  “Jaja, we’ll give what it takes!”

  “Nothing can stop us now.”

  “We’ll make the Germans wish they had never come.” The lively conversation broke loose in the midst of back slapping, hand clasping and hugs.

  “Jaja. Now it is our turn!”

  All were forced to leave Norway because of the war. Their lives had turned to chaos. Some had lost friends and family, but now they were back with a vengeance. Several of them had journeyed around the world before they landed in England and signed up with the Linge Company. Now the circle was complete: the Norwegian coast was close at hand.

  Brattholm reached the Norwegian fishing limits and sailed within its boundary. German patrol planes paid no attention to the innocent looking cutter, shielding eight tons of explosives in her hull and plowing her way northward. The men, however, took note of the many German planes flying above them. All headed northward, no doubt toward the Arctic Ocean in search of the Allied convoys headed for Russia.

  Salvesen looked up toward the sky. “We will soon put a stop to that!”

  March 29, 1943: Brattholm and her twelve men arrived safely at their goal, the majestic island of Senja some 320 miles above the Arctic Circle. Occasionally, the prevailing winds enclose the island in a veil of low-hanging clouds; at other times fog completely blocks her beauty. But today, Norway’s second largest island stood proud and tall. Linked together, a chain of boldfaced jagged granite mountains ranging from 200 to some 1800 feet high constituted Senja. Granite walls surrounded the island’s narrow strips of land while the ocean skirted the frontage of the clustered, quaint homes. Small boats of every variety crowded the docks, some secured to the buoys. This was Norway! It felt good to be home.