Created in June of 2017, this is one of my earlier (earliest) posts. It’s now been updated to include two more images…
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Colorized portrait of Norwegian Resistance hero Jan Sigurd Baalsrud (by Julius Jaaskelainen), from reddit. You can read more about Jan Baalsrud’s life at his FindAGrave profile.
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Author David Howarth (at left) and Jan Baalsrud. Image from rear of book jacket.
From book jacket…
“This amazing true story stands alone in the annals of World War II as a record of unbelievable hardship, blood-chilling excitement and super-human courage.
In the winter of 1943 twelve Norwegian saboteurs sailed for their native land in a fishing boat fitted with hidden armament. Their orders were to destroy the great German airfield near the Arctic Ocean. They had hardly touched shore when the Nazis, alerted by a Quisling, attacked and killed or captured all but one of the party. Jan Baalsrud alone escaped – swimming to a tiny, frozen island, hunted like a beat by fifty of the enemy. His only hope was to reach Sweden – eighty miles away.
What happened to Jan in the next two months is the story of a man who would not die – although his body was cracked by cold, although he was crippled, starved, delirious, blinded by snow, and lost in uncharted mountains.
We die alone is a story which no one could believe if the central figure had not survived to prove it true, together with scores of witnesses who took part in his dramatic escape. It is a story of desperate violence, warm friendship, charity and sacrifice, and of one man’s undying faith and triumphant spirit.”