Birds of prey

[Lusekofte]

 

 

It wasn’t only James Bond 007 who had a licence to kill. During WW2, British-trained Norwegian agents assassinated over 80 Nazis and collaborators. Two of those agents, their actions mentioned in Arnfinn Moland’s ‘Over Grensen’, have never been identified until recently.  

     During the war the loyalist ‘Home Front’ had suffered enemy infiltrations and denouncers, particularly in and around Oslo. Gunnar Sønsteby, leader of the loyalist Oslo Gang, messaged ‘London’ requesting help in executing some of the most dangerous agents. The answer was soon forthcoming. 

     In the early evening of 28 April 1944, three Norwegians gathered in the fading light at ‘The Barn’ at RAF Tempsford, a secret Special Operations Executive (SOE) airfield; the weather fine and warm. Little was said in the darkening gloom, each lost in his own thoughts as female WAAF assistants helped them with their final preparations. Shortly after the men eased themselves aboard a blacked-out Handley Page Halifax, its engines already running and ready to transport the ‘Joes’, as they were affectionally known, back to occupied Norway.  

     At 20:35, Flight Lieutenant Ashley, of 138 Squadron, eased ‘A’ for Apple into the still night sky, steering NNE for Norway. Operation Pommel I had begun. 

     Four uneventful hours later, the Halifax was over enemy-occupied territory. Heavy cloud had masked the bomber’s presence until approaching the pinpoint, Tyrifjord, when the billows faded. With the landing zone just minutes away, the RAF dispatcher readied the agents before opening the ‘Joe’ hole in the fuselage's floor.       

     A thousand feet below, and far from prying eyes, figures scurried about preparing the ground for the agents’ arrival. On the bomber’s second pass, Ashley spotted the recognition letter, ‘L’, mapped out in lights. Descending to 600 ft and coming in for the final pass, Ashely switched on the green light – a signal for the dispatcher to shove out twelve containers and three packages: the agents followed soon after. The time was 01: 43.

     The drop went well. The agents: Sergeant Olav Krause Sættem MM (SOE code M18), and well known for his part in the Orkla Mines Raids, had been assigned Operation Woodpecker – the destruction of a railroad on the Dombås-Eidsvoll-Oslo line. Whilst the mission for Second Lieutenants, Andreas Aubert (R9), and Henrik Henriksen (Q6), collectively known as Buzzard, was very different…

     Three weeks earlier both had been taken aside and briefed on their new assignment. Buzzard’s mission would be to provide…help…in executing denouncers. They were also told not to make unnecessary contacts and take all possible precautions to avoid any danger…

     Aubert, code name Herman Buzzard, had been a pre-war accountant and keen sportsman. A veteran from Operation Carhampton, Aubert was on the point of being returned to the Norwegian Army because of his poor training record and indiscipline. However, Lieutenant Colonel Wilson, Head of Norwegian SOE, noted a remark in Aubert’s training report that made him think again: 

     *He possesses great strength and has plenty of guts... He is something of a daredevil and would doubtless give a good account of himself in a melee…he has been the most violent member of the party.*

     Aubert’s companion, Henrik Henriksen, a shop assistant from Fana, Bergen, had escaped to Britain in August 1941, sailing across the North Sea in an Oselvar, a small, open rowing boat. Serving first with the Norwegian Army, SOE recruited Henriksen into Kompani Linge in March 1942 where he spent the next two years being ‘educated’ in the art of guerilla warfare at Special Training Schools (STS) across England and Scotland. Regularly scoring high marks in shooting, demolition and use of grenades. As a result, Henriksen became Egil Buzzard.

     The task that faced the men was both difficult and dangerous, and they understood the consequences if captured. If escape to Sweden was necessary, they were to inform the Swedish authorities they were Norwegian refugees and to ask for the ‘Head of the Legal Office’ (Rettskontoret) presenting him with the pass phrase:

 

Holmenkollrennet er avlyst i år.  

(The Holmenkollen ski-jump competition is cancelled this year).

 

The secure reply would be:

Ja det var det ifjor ogsa. 

(Yes, it was last year too).

 

     Satisfied, they would request a message to be sent to Edgar ‘Uncle Tom’ Nielsen at the British Legation in Stockholm:

 

Jeg har meget godt syn. 

(I have good eyesight)

 

     In the meantime, contact was made with No 24, Gunnar Sønsteby, who advised the duo to bide their time, but their chance came sooner than expected. 

     It was a little after 8am on 24 May, when State Police Officer Gunnar Lindvig, a notorious quisling who had overseen the deaths of many Norwegian loyalists, including Knut Mathiesen, traipsed down the stairs at Langaard Gate 1. Aubert, hidden from view, stepped forward with pistol drawn and fired two shots killing Lindvig instantly. Sønsteby later said *Lindvig was our most dangerous enemy, as he knew most about underground work.* A report of the assassination appeared in the 9 June edition of ‘News of Norway’. But Lindvig’s execution came at a price. In retaliation, the SiPo (Sicherheitspolizei) executed Captain Einar Hærland, a resistance man. From this Operation Blumenpflücken, a German counter-resistance operation came into being.   

     Whilst the duo waited for further targets of opportunity, Sønsteby ‘enrolled’ the men into the Oslogjengen. Henriksen helped destroy a mobilization card machine at Watson Norsk A/S; assisted with the theft of 75,000 ration cards; destroyed the bus garage at Korsvoll and helped sabotage the SKF ball-bearing store in Oslo. 

     The destruction at Watson Norsk was particularly galling for the Nazis, stalling their plans for mobilization of Norwegians. Reichskommissar Josef Terboven was furious and immediately ordered National Samling and Hirdens Flyvekorps member, Ulf Winnem, an engineer, to repair the machine. It was to be his last effort. Having tracked their prey for six days the Buzzard men assassinated Winnem in the Oslo suburb, Kjelsås. It was exactly three months after their last killing. 

     Just after 9am on Monday, 18 September on Kirkeveien, Buzzard struck again. Using the busy street as cover, Henriksen walked calmly up to Johan Einarsen Tjørn, a State Policeman, and shot him twice. It was a classic SOE ‘double-tap’ killing. With his target eliminated, Henriksen slipped away unseen from the shocked crowds avoiding the strict Police and Gestapo controls points. Police forensic tests later concluded the gun used was the same one that killed Sigvart Knutsen just a week earlier on the 8th in Bærum. 

     Just three days later, Knut Knutson Fiane, Chief of the Telegraph system, and an active NS member, was shot twice in the back in Majorstuveien. Fiane’s crime? He found out Milorg was listening in to an intercepted telephone line between the Germans and the Norwegian Police 

     On 4 December 1944, Reidar Voigt, a Stapo officer who had played a part in the execution of Gunnar Eilifsen, a police officer with loyalist sympathies, was gunned down by Buzzard, along with Birger Rasmussen (H16), outside his apartment, Vestheimsgata 6. Finn Kaas. Voight’s brother-in-law was also targeted but escaped.

     The killings continued as Aubert and Henriksen targeted Alf Flesland, a so-called entrepreneur and denouncer. Stopping off at a shop off Karl Johan Gate, Flesland had no idea he was being followed or that it would be his last day alive. Aubert moved towards him. Pulling out his pistol hidden under his jacket, he aimed, and squeezed the trigger, but the gun jammed. Startled, Flesland seized his chance and fled the shop. Aubert and Henriksen chased after him until Aubert was close enough to draw his other pistol and fire killing Flesland. Five German officers close by also gave chase, but the Buzzards were too quick, eventually escaping in their car. Sønsteby, knowing the dangers the assassins had placed themselves in, later commented: 

     *In my opinion this work is the most dangerous and the most difficult of all…It is extremely hard to obtain correct information and generally several attempts have to be made before the victim is finally liquidated.*

     There were others. Karl Marthinsen, known as the ‘Heydrich of Norway’, was considered by Sønsteby as the most dangerous Nazi in the whole of Norway, featured top of a list of assassination targets sent to Sønsteby by ‘London’ in December 1944. others listed below Marthinsen were: Erling Arnljot Søvik; Christian Astrup; Finn Kaas; Ragnvald Kranz and Sverre Thorhus.

     Just before dawn on the morning of 8 February 1945, two men concealed themselves amongst a woodpile close to Blindernveien 74, Oslo, the home of Marthinsen. Predicting his movements, the Buzzard men watched as Marthinsen took to his car. As his driver moved off, the assassins stepped out from their cover, opening fire with automatic weapons, killing Marthinsen instantly, and injuring his driver. 

     Sønsteby later commented… *his liquidation was the worst blow the Norwegian State Police could have suffered. His death meant at the time of capitulation the Germans had no important man upon whom they could rely on.* Terboven raged at the killing hastily convening a meeting with the Norwegian and German administrations, including Quisling, Lie and Rediess, demanding seventy-five hostages be shot in retaliation (actual figure was later reported as thirty-four,). The assassinations continued.   

     During February 1945, Milorg came into possession of a letter written by Karl Erling Solheim to the Chief of the State Police in Oslo offering his services as a denouncer. The letter mentioned Sønsteby. This was a threat Milorg couldn’t ignore. Attired as State Policeman, Henriksen and Aubert, along with two other SOE men, Edvard Tallaksen (I 20) and Birger Rasmussen (H 16) travelled to Solheim’s home in Rjukan, but he wasn’t there. The severity of the situation demanded they wait. Two days later the authorities found Solheim’s body in Hegna, south of Rjukan. Despite an intensive search and investigation, the four assassins escaped the scene. 

     Sønsteby wrote of Aubert: *R 9 would allow nothing to stand in the way until the job was over. At the same time, he took it all quite calmly. He showed one of the best fighting spirits I have ever seen in action. He also obtained much information from his numerous contacts, which was of the greatest value to our work in the Oslo group. Although he was a well-known sportsman in Norway, he lived in Oslo for a whole year with nobody recognizing him. He had excellent judgement and knew exactly how far to go.*  

     Of Henriksen, Sønsteby remarked: *In these actions Q 6 showed the greatest courage and daring. He was the best expert we had on all questions of demolition, weapon training, arms etc., and his knowledge was of the utmost value to us. He drew up a list of instructions for attacks on oil and petrol storage, which was of great use to Milorg. He was always very cool and collected on all jobs, and we relied on his judgement and common sense. If the district leadership had a hard job, they would always ask him to do it as they knew it would be done if possible. He worked from April 1944 to May 1945 with only short breaks.*

     *And Rasmussen… was the leader of the job at the liquidation of Solheim and played a part of a State Policeman so well that he managed to get a lot of useful information out of Solheim before the latter was killed…Together with R 9 he was our expert on all things.  *

     Unfortunately, Sønsteby doesn’t comment on Tallaksen’s record, but his personal files states: *Under definite instructions he was also responsible for the removal of six Norwegian traitors. *Tragically, Tallaksen hanged himself in Akershus Fortress after being captured during the shoot-out with Gestapo agents at the Plasskafeen in Oslo, an incident that cost the life of Gregers Gram. For his actions with the Oslo Gang, the British bestowed Tallaksen the Military Cross and Bar. Henriksen and Aubert were awarded the Military Medal. 

     Buzzards’ story, and the comments from Sønsteby on them, Tallaksen and Rasmussen, highlights the cool heads, the daring, and the resources required to carry out missions only a few were capable of. But it came at a bitter price. A price still debated today. 

See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIpRk9An54

https://www.nrk.no/kultur/strengt-hemmelig-_4_-1.6980802?fbclid=IwAR1i4sDW99RbHwjHGWPJK9mYPKkxFAYIeVB1vRiRPVlZ5_L1W9BODzJQJNQ

 

 

Robert Pearson – November 2021.

Sources:

138 Squadron Flight record for Pommel I

Operation instructions for Buzzard - 3rd. April 1944. Hjemmefrontmuseum, Oslo.

TNA: HS9/695/8 – Henrik Henriksen 

TNA HS9/61/2 – Andreas Aubert

TNA HS9/1231/2 – Birger Rasmussen

TNA HS9/1439/7 – Edvard Tallaksen

Moland, Arfinn, *Over Grensen?* (1999)

 

Acknowledgements: Stig Herjuaune; Rolf Henriksen Hop; Espen Flaa Bolstad;  Rolf Greve; Stian Fosland; Frode Færøy; Hjemmefrontmuseum, Oslo & The National Archives (UK)

[Vig]

Fascinating, thank you LuseKofte.