by Tony Insall
Although it may be true that many of my agents have run similar risks and have been in my service longer, I feel nevertheless that the special nature of Pettersen’s work and his courage in remaining at his post after the first attack when he knew full well that the enemy were on his track, do single him out for special reward. I would ask you, therefore, to consider whether my suggestion that he should be granted the DSO might not be forwarded with the support of yourself or a member of the Board of the Admiralty. I enclose a memorandum citing Pettersen’s services and should add that I have in writing the agreement of the Norwegian Commander in Chief‡ to such an application being made.
The citation read:
Second Lieutenant Pettersen, 26, first arrived in this country in June 1943 and entered our service at once. Directly he was trained he was sent by submarine to the north of Norway as one member of a team of W/T operators which we proposed to set up in that area, in an attempt to control enemy fleet movements to and from Altafjord. Pettersen was given the most important and also the most difficult task of establishing a station at the actual German base. He was not a native of that part of the world but nevertheless succeeded in establishing himself at Elvebakken at the southern end of the Altafjord. Elvebakken is a small place and security measures there are naturally very strict. He obtained an appointment as second cashier with the road authorities and he so arranged the details of payments at the various sites that he was able to travel continuously and at irregular intervals by car past the Tirpitz. In order to build up further his reputation for carrying out an irregular routine, he managed to acquire the reputation of being a drunkard. This helped to explain his absences from work during working hours at times when it was especially important for him to be at home operating his W/T set.
It was about two months after landing that Pettersen was able to start operating but from November 1943 onwards his reports have been of very great value. From the start they have dealt with movements of the German fleet units, the state of repairs of the Tirpitz, and the probable date of her readiness for sea. From February 1944 onwards he provided most valuable information on which the plan for the Fleet Air Arm attack on the Tirpitz was largely built up. This included detailed information concerning radar, aircraft, high tension cables, and the position of flak in the neighbourhood. Finally it was arranged that Pettersen should take an active part in the actual attack by providing two-hourly weather reports prior to the attack, the question of the weather at the actual position of the anchorage being a vital element in the operation. Pettersen carried out this work with the greatest success though the danger to himself in sending a message every two hours from his home can be imagined. As a result of the attack there was an intense search by the Germans for the wireless station in that area which they believed must exist, and Pettersen told us that he would have to try and escape. However, a second attack on the Tirpitz was then in contemplation and after consultation with the Admiralty we explained the situation to Pettersen and left the choice to him. He decided to stay on and he remained there while three further operations against the Tirpitz were in preparation. None of the operations materialised, but from the station’s point of view they were fraught with considerable danger. Pettersen finally left for Sweden in the middle of May.
Although Pettersen has only been in our service for twelve months he can be credited with the greatest individual success achieved by any of our agents. The establishment of a resident W/T reporting agent in the Altafjord area in proximity to the main anchorage is a task which we had been attempting without success ever since this German base was first established. We had almost reached the conclusion that the sparseness of the population combined with the intensity of the enemy’s security measures made the problem insoluble. It was only finally solved as a result of Pettersen’s exceptional courage and resource combined with his natural flair for the collection of intelligence. Pettersen is now in the UK and has been able to have some useful interviews with members of the Admiralty staff and Commander in Chief Home Fleet. He will be leaving again shortly for Norway to carry out a further mission on our behalf.1
Notes
1 TNA, ADM 223/475.
* Vice-Admiral Neville Syfret.
† Admiral Sir Henry Moore.
‡ Major-General Wilhelm Hansteen.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Arnfinn Moland and Ivar Kraglund, who sowed the seed which developed into this book when we met at a conference in London a few years ago. It has been a privilege to be able to tell this remarkable story.
I have had much valuable support from the Gerry Holdsworth Special Forces charitable trust, the Hjemmefrontmuseum in Oslo, and the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.
Ingrid Winther Øyslebø has given me a great deal of assistance – not just in carrying out research in Norwegian archives but also in her preparation of the maps we have used. She was, too, a source of much good humour. My long-standing friends Haavard and Marianne Martinsen have shown me much generous hospitality on numerous visits to Oslo.
I also wish to thank the staff of the National Archives, and to Ivar Kraglund, Frode Færøy, Sigurd Stenwig and Hanne Rollag in particular at the Hjemmefrontmuseum, all of whom dealt with my innumerable requests with considerable patience. Olivia Beattie and Steph Carey at Biteback Publishing have been a great source of patient and helpful advice.
I am grateful to Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum and the Scalloway Museum for permission to use their photographs.
I am also grateful to a range of people who have helped me in a wide variety of ways, by giving me advice or making helpful suggestions, reading my drafts and painstakingly helping to improve them, lending me rare books or generally providing encouragement. They include Nick Adamson, Mats Berdal, Antony Beevor, Gill Bennett, Mike Goodman, Nick Hills, Tom Kristiansen, John Lunde, Stephen Mallet, Joe Maiolo, Bill Moore, Alastair Noble, Russell Pullen, John Ranelagh, the late Olav Riste, Mark Seaman, Patrick Salmon, Michael Smith, Duncan Stuart, Leif Tronstad Jr, Stephen Twigge and the late Carl Wallin.
Finally, I am – as always – grateful to my wife Nonie for her patient support and forbearance.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
There has been a considerable number of books written about this subject, or important parts of it. I have only included here those books which I have cited in the text, or consider to be especially relevant.
Barman, Thomas, Diplomatic Correspondent (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1968)
Bascomb, Neil, The Winter Fortress (London: Head of Zeus, 2016)
Beevor, J. G., SOE: Recollections and Reflections 1940–1945 (Bodley Head: 1981)
Bennett, Gill, Churchill’s Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007)
Bergh, Sverre and Sæter, Svein, Spion i Hitlers rike (Oslo: N. W. Damm & Søn, 2006)
Berglyd, Jostein, Operation Freshman: The Hunt for Hitler’s Heavy Water (Solna: Leandoer & Ekholm, 2006)
Bishop, Patrick, Target Tirpitz: X-craft, Agents and Dambusters – The Epic Quest to Destroy Hitler’s Mightiest Warship (London: Harper Press, 2012)
Collier, Basil, Hidden Weapons: Allied Secret or Undercover Services in World War II (London: Hamilton, 1982)
Conradi, Morten and Skjeseth, Alf, Osvald: Storsabotøren Asbjørn Sunde (Oslo: Spartacus, 2016)
Conway, Martin and Gotovich, José, Europe In Exile: European Exile Communities in Britain 1940–45 (New York: Berghahn, 2001)
Cookridge, E. H., Inside SOE: The Story of Special Operations in Western Europe (London: Arthur Barker, 1966)
Croft, Andrew, A Talent for Adventure (Upton upon Severn: Self-Publishing Association, 1991)
Denham, H. M., Inside the Ring: A Naval Attaché in Sweden 1940–45 (London: John Murray, 1984)
Foot, M. R. D., Memories of an SOE Historian (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2008)
Foot, M. R. D., Resistance: European Resistance to the Nazis, 1940–1945, 2nd edn (London: Biteback, 2016)
>
Foot, M. R. D., SOE, 1940–1946 (London: Bodley Head, 2014)
Gilmour, John, Sweden, the Swastika and Stalin: The Swedish Experience in the Second World War (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011)
Gjelsvik, Tore, Hjemmefronten: den sivile motstand under okkupasjonen 1940–1945 (Oslo: Cappelen, 1977)
Goulter, Christina, A Forgotten Offensive: Royal Air Force Coastal Command’s Anti-Shipping Campaign, 1940–1945 (London: Frank Cass, 1995)
Haukelid, Knut, Skis Against the Atom (Minot: North American Heritage Press, 1989)
Hinsley, F. H. and Stripp, Alan (eds), Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993)
Hinsley, F. H., British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, Vol. 1 (London: HMSO, 1979)
Hinsley, F. H., British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, Vol. 2 (London: HMSO, 1981)
Hinsley, F. H., British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, Vol. 3, Part I (London: HMSO, 1984)
Hinsley, F. H., British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, Vol. 3, Part II (London: HMSO, 1988)
Hinsley, F. H., British Intelligence in the Second World War, Vol. 4: Security and Counter-Intelligence (London: HMSO, 1990)
Howarth, David, The Shetland Bus (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1951)
Howarth, David, Escape Alone (London: Armada, 1989)
Insall, Tony, Haakon Lie, Denis Healey and the Making of an Anglo-Norwegian Special Relationship 1945–1951 (Oslo: Oslo Academic Press, Unipub, 2010)
Insall, Tony and Salmon, Patrick (eds), The Nordic Countries: From War to Cold War, 1944–1951, Documents on British Policy Overseas Series I, Vol. 9 (London: Routledge, 2011)
Jeffery, Keith, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service, 1909–1949 (London: Bloomsbury, 2010)
Jones, R. V., Most Secret War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939–1945 (London: Coronet, 1979)
Jones, R. V., Reflections on Intelligence (London: Mandarin, 1989)
Kersaudy, François, Norway 1940 (London: Arrow, 1991)
Kiszely, John, Anatomy of a Campaign: The British Fiasco in Norway, 1940 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017)
Kjeldstadli, Sverre, Hjemmestyrkene: Hovedtrekk av den militære motstanden under okkupasjonen (Oslo: Bokstav og Bilde, 2011)
Kramish, Arnold, The Griffin (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986)
Lie, Haakon, Krigstid 1940–1945 (Oslo: Tiden Norsk Forlag, 1982)
Mackenzie, William, The Secret History of SOE: the Special Operations Executive 1940–1945 (London: St Ermin’s, 2002)
McLachlan, Donald, Room 39: Naval Intelligence In Action 1939–45 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968)
Mann, Christopher, British Policy and Strategy towards Norway, 1941–45 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2012)
Manus, Max, Underwater Saboteur (London: William Kimber, 1953)
Masterman, J. C., The Double-Cross System 1939–1945 (London: Granada, 1979)
Midtskau, Sverre, London svarer ikke (Oslo: Ernst G. Mortensen Forlag, 1968)
Moland, Arnfinn, Gunnar Sønsteby 24 kapitler i Kjakans Liv (Oslo: Orion, 2004)
Moland, Arnfinn, Over grensen?: Hjemmefrontens likvidasjoner under den tyske okkupasjonen av Norge 1940–1945 (Oslo: Orion, 1999)
Munthe, Malcolm, Sweet is War (London: Gerald Duckworth, 1954)
Murphy, Christopher J., Security and Special Operations: SOE and MI5 During the Second World War (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
Myklebust, Gunnar, Tungtvannssabotøren (Oslo: Aschehoug, 2011)
Njølstad, Olav, Jens Chr.: Hauge – fullt og helt (Oslo: Aschehoug, 2008)
Njølstad, Olav, Professor Tronstads krig 9 april 1940–11 mars 1945 (Oslo: Aschehoug, 2012)
Nøkleby, Berit, Pass godt på Tirpitz! Norske radioagenter i Secret Intelligence Service 1940-1945 (Oslo: Gyldendal, 1988)
Nygaardsvold, Johan, Norge i krig: London 1940–1945 (Oslo: Tiden Norsk Forlag, 1983)
Ottosen, Kristian, Natt og tåke: Historien om Natzweiler-fangene (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1989)
Ottosen, Kristian, Theta, Theta (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1983)
Pearson, Robert, Gold Run: The Rescue of Norway’s Gold Bullion from the Nazis, April 1940 (Oxford: Casemate, 2015)
Poulsson, Jens-Anton, The Heavy Water Raid: The Race for the Atom Bomb 1942–1944 (Oslo: Orion, 2009)
Preisler, Jerome and Sewell, Kenneth, Code Name Caesar: The Secret Hunt for U-Boat 864 During World War II (London: Souvenir, 2013)
Reed Olsen, Oluf, Two Eggs On My Plate (London: Companion Book Club, 1954)
Riste, Olav, London Regjeringa I: Prøvetid (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1973)
Riste, Olav, London Regjeringa II: Vegen heim (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1979)
Riste, Olav, The Norwegian Intelligence Service 1945–1970 (London: Frank Cass, 1999)
Roberts, Adam (ed.), Civilian Resistance as a National Defence (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1969)
Rørholt, Bjørn, Amatørspionen ‘Lerken’ (Oslo: Hjemmenes, 1985)
Rørholt, Bjørn, Usynlige soldater: Nordmenn i Secret Service forteller (Oslo: Aschehoug, 1990)
Sæter, Einar and Sæter, Svein, XU I hemmeleg teneste 1940–1945 (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 2007)
Salmon, Patrick (ed.), Britain and Norway in the Second World War (London: HMSO, 1995)
Salmon, Patrick, Deadlock and Diversion (Bremen: German Maritime Museum, 2012)
Seaman, Mark (ed.), Special Operations Executive: A New Instrument of War (London: Routledge, 2006)
Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh, Enigma: The Battle for the Code (London: Orion, 2000)
Skodvin, Magne, Krig og okkupasjon 1939–1945 (Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget, 1990)
Smith, Michael, Foley: The Spy Who Saved 10,000 Jews, 2nd edn (London: Biteback, 2016)
Sønsteby, Gunnar, Report from No. 24 (Fort Lee, New Jersey: Barricade, 1999)
Stafford, David, Britain and European Resistance 1940–1945 (London: Macmillan, 1980)
Sverdrup, Jakob, Inn i storpolitikken 1940–1949 (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget 1996)
Tennant, Peter, Touchlines of War (Hull: University of Hull Press, 1992)
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Ulstein, Ragnar, Etterretningstjenesten i Norge 1940–1945 Bind 1 Amatørenes tid (Oslo: Orion, 2008)
Ulstein, Ragnar, Etterretningstjenesten i Norge 1940–1945 Bind 2 Harde år (Oslo: Orion, 2008)
Ulstein, Ragnar, Etterretningstjenesten i Norge 1940–1945 Bind 3 Netten strammes (Oslo: Orion, 2008)
Unpublished PhDs
Cox, Nechama Janet Cohen, The Ministry of Economic Warfare and Britain’s Conduct of Economic Warfare (King’s College London, 2001)
Herrington, Ian, The Special Operations Executive in Norway 1940–1945: Policy and Operations in the strategic and political context (De Montfort University Leicester, 2004)
INDEX
Entries in italics refer to illustrations.
Aaberg, Harald Konrad 1n
Abwehr espionage 1
Abwehr (German military intelligence) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Abwehrstelle (station) 1
Adamson, Joe 1, 2, 3, 4
Adding, Karl 1
Admiral Scheer (heavy cruiser) 1, 2, 3
aerial reconnaissance 1, 2, 3
aftermath, resistance 1, 2
Agadir crisis (1911) 1n
Air Ministry 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
air supply drops 1
air transport 1
airbases, Norwegian 1
Akers, Wallace 1
Aksdal, Otto 1, 2
Aksel (fishing boat) 1, 2n
Aktiv (ship) 1
Aliens Order 1
Alseth, Sigurd Edvard 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Altmark incident (1940) 1, 2, 3, 4
Amland, Henry 1
Andersen, Johannes
1
Anderson, Sir John 1, 2, 3, 4
Angermeyer, Fritz (Karl Andersen) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Anglo-Norwegian alliance 1, 2, 3, 4
Anglo-Norwegian Collaboration Committee (ANCC) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
anti-aircraft guns 1, 2, 3, 4
archives 1
Arild, Anton 1, 2
Arnvid (ship) 1
Arthur (fishing boat) 1, 2
Askildsen, Ernst 1
Aspaas, Leonard 1
assets, Norwegian 1
Atkinson, Sir Edward 1
Atlantic, Battle of the 1, 2
Aubert, Axel 1
Aubert, Christian 1
Årsæther, Reidunn Havnevik 1
Baalsrud, Jan 1, 2, 3, 4
Bacon, Allon 1
Bakka, Magne 1, 2n, 3
ball bearings 1, 2
Barman, Thomas 1, 2
Barry, Adm. Claud 1
bases, post-war 1
BBC broadcasting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7n, 8
Beaumont-Nesbitt, Frederick 1
Bedell Smith, Gen. Walter 1n
von Beeren, Gen. Karl 1
Beetle (Abwehr agent) 1
Belgian government 1
Berge, Hjalmar 1
Bergen–Oslo railway 1
Bergholm (fishing boat) 1, 2, 3
Bevin, Ernest 1
Binney, George 1
Bismarck (battleship) 1, 2n, 3, 4
Bjørnøya (Bear Island) 1
Black Chamber (US cryptographic agency) 1
Bletchley Park, Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) 1
Blia (fishing boat) 1
Blomberg, Hans Wilhelm 1
Blücher (heavy cruiser) 1, 2
Bodø (ship) 1
Bolshevism 1
Boreas (ship) 1
Borghild (ship) 1, 2, 3, 4
Boyle, Archie 1, 2