Jan Baalsrud

Infobox Military Person
name=Jan Baalsrud


caption=
allegiance=Norway
rank=Fenrik
commands=
unit=Company Linge
family=
nickname=
lived= birth date|1917|12|13|df=y — death date and age|1988|12|30|1917|12|13|df=y
placeofbirth= Kristiania, Norway
placeofdeath= Kongsvinger, Norway
currentlyresides=
serviceyears=1940 – 1943
laterwork=Chairman of the Norwegian Disabled Veterans Union (1957 — 1964)
battles=
awards=flagicon|UK Order of the British Empire (MBE)
flagicon|Norway St Olav's medal
portrayedby= Jack Fjeldstad in the Oscar nominated movie Ni liv (Nine lives)

Jan S. Baalsrud (born December 13, 1917 in Kristiania, Norway – died December 30, 1988 in Kongsvinger, Norway) was a commando in the Norwegian resistance trained by the British.

Biography

Early life

Jan Baalsrud was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), and moved to Kolbotn in the early 1930s, where he lived until the 1950s. He graduated as a instrument-maker in 1939.

World War II

During the German invasion of Norway in 1940, he fought in Vestfold. He later escaped to Sweden, but he was convicted of espionage and expelled from the country. He eventually arrived in Britain in 1941, after having travelled through the USSR, Africa and USA, where he joined the Norwegian Company Linge. In early 1943, he and numerous other commandos embarked on a dangerous mission to destroy a German air control tower and recruit for the resistance movement. This mission was compromised when he and his fellow soldiers, seeking a trusted resistance contact, accidentally made contact with an ordinary civilian who betrayed them to the Nazis who were occupying their country.

The morning after their blunder, on March 29, their boat – containing 8 tons of explosives intended to destroy the air control tower – was attacked by a German vessel. The Norwegians scuttled their boat by exploding their payload, and fled in a small boat, however the boat was promptly sunk by the Nazis.

Jan and others swam ashore in ice cold arctic waters. Jan was the only soldier to escape the Nazi attack alive and, soaking wet and missing one shoe, he escaped up into a ravine, where he shot and killed the leading German officer with his pistol. He evaded capture for roughly two months, suffering from frostbite and snow blindness. His deteriorating physical condition forced him to rely on the assistance of Norwegian patriots. It was during this time in a wooden hut, he called Hotel Savoy, that Jan was forced to amputate nine toes to stop the spread of gangrene. Not long after that Jan was left on a high plateau on a stretcher in the snow for eighteen days, his survival hanging in a thin thread. After that it was thanks to the efforts of his fellow Norwegians that Jan was transported by stretcher towards the border with Finland. Then he was put in the care of some Sami (the native tribe of the scandinavian arctic) who with reindeeer pulled him on a sledge across Finland and into neutral Sweden where he was safe at last. From Saarikoski in northern Sweden he was collected by a seaplane of the Red Cross and flown to Boden.

He spent seven months in a Swedish hospital in Boden before he was flown back to Britain in a Mosquito aircraft of the RAF. He soon went to Scotland to help train other Norwegian patriots who were going back to Norway to continue the fight against the Germans. However, the damage suffered during his escape from Norway left him disabled, and he never returned to active duty.

He was awarded the MBE by the British (London Gazette: 27th April, 1944). From Norway, he received the Sanctolavsmedaljen med Ekegren (the medal of St. Olav, with oakleaves). He was a Second Lieutenant (Fenrik).

Later years and death

After the war Baalsrud made a substantial contribution to the local scout and football associations in addition to the Norwegian Disabled Veterans Union of which he was chairman from 1957 to 1964. In 1962 he moved to Tenerife, Spain where he lived for the most of the remainder of his life. He returned to Norway during his final years, and lived here until his death on 30th December 1988. He was 71 years old. His ashes are buried in Manndalen near the grave of Aslak Fossvoll and others whose efforts made his successful escape to Sweden possible.

An annual remembrance march in his honour takes place in Troms on July 25 where the participants follow his escape route for nine days. A meadow in Oppegård is named "Baalsrud plass" in his honour.

Books

* "", by David Howarth – 1955 – ISBN 1-55821-973-0
* "Defiant Courage - Norway's Longest WW2 Escape" by Astrid Karlsen Scott and Tore Haug (authors), Nordic Adventures, 2001. ISBN-10: 0963433989; ISBN-13: 978-0963433985

Movies

* "Ni Liv" (en. "Nine Lives") – 1957

External links

* [http://www.godoy.no/weber/2verdskrigweb/Sara03/index.htm A school paper on Baalsrud (Norwegian)]
* [http://karlsoy.com/baalsrud/ About the remebrance march (Norwegian)]
* [http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/film/tfk/v95/omtaler/0508-NiLiv.html About the 1957 film (Norwegian)]

References

* "Ultimate Survival: Defiant Courage", The History Channel