2023
The book tells the story of nine friends who fought the German forces from April 1940 till May 1945. In 1942 they established a secret British army to support the allied forces if they invaded Norway.
After fighting the Germans in April-May 1940, all nine entered the resistance movement and engaged in several illegal activities. One of them, Odd Sørli, was enrolled in the Norwegian Independent Company No 1, part of SOE. In February 1942 Sørli returned to Norway from Britain with orders to build up and train a secret British army in the middle of Norway – operation Lark. After having established a large number of battle groups and carried out extensive weapons training in 1942, they took part in planning the attack on Tirpitz.
In 1944, Lark was reorganised, though the overall strategy had changed. An Allied invasion in Norway was no longer on the agenda. Instead, SOE wanted Lark to participate in the sabotage of Norwegian railroads. From December 1944 to April 1945, they engaged in operation Woodpecker, Lapwing, Woodlark and Rype. Seven of them survived, but they had to deal with the aftermath of the war.
One of them lost his pregnant wife, another experienced the torture of his fiancé. Two of them lost a brother, one had to cope with experiences from a German concentration camp, and all suffered traumatic experiences from being part of the resistance movement.
The book is peer reviewed and based on documents from British, Norwegian and Swedish archives.
Link to Norwegian edition
Tor Busch
