Six Sacks of Potatoes
Although the aircrew were in uniform, there was no guarantee that the Germans would imprison them as prisoners of war and not execute them as spies.
MTB 345 was a motor torpedo boat that was newer and smaller than the others that operated to the the Norwegian coast from the Shetland Islands. It had sunk in Solund in the summer of 1944, a few months before the Wellington made its forced landing in Os. The crew of MTB 345 was captured by the Germans. Although the crew of six Norwegians and one Briton were in regular navy uniforms, they were shot under direct orders from Adolf Hitler's headquarters. The execution took place at Ulven, a few kilometres from the place the Canadians were hiding. Admiral von Schrader, who was in charge of the hunt for the Canadians, had handed over the captured sailors from the MTB 345 to the Sicherheitdienst.
The head of the execution squad of the security police in Bergen was SS Obersturmfuhrer Erwin Lang [23]. During post-war trials, Lang testified that the Gestapo believed that the Wellington had arrived bringing equipment to underground troops and that the flight crew would immediately head west back to Britain, so the Germans made an all-out effort to catch the aircrew before they could escape. [A]
The Germans did make a major effort to find the aircrew. German troops searched on foot, on motorcycles and in cars. Trucks were used to transport troops. They searched the countryside and villages, concentrating on the area nearest the landing site. They used dogs and all the soldiers that could be mustered up within Fortress Os. They set up roadblocks and questioned everyone they saw, even little old ladies on the way to the store. Boats continually patrolled Bjørnafjord and around Austevoll and the islands to the west. The walls and pillars of the towns were covered with posters warning of the consequences of giving any aid to the pilots. Anyone providing help to them would be shot.
Magnus Hauge had promised Einar Evensen that Evensen would not have to wait long to hear from him. On his way on his bike to meet Evensen, Hauge saw soldiers everywhere. A helmeted sentry with a machine pistol and grenades stopped him at an intersection.
“Pass,” he demanded.
“Not again,” replied Hauge.
His little bluff let him get by after only a quick glance at Hauge's pass. But it was not always easy going – Hauge had to swerve off the road to avoid a speeding black car with two German officers in the front. As he approached the sea, he saw a patrol boat move slowly around a bay a few meters from shore and another patrolling around one of the small islands.
Evensen strolled up and down on the pier where they were to meet and was relieved to finally see his company commander. He pulled Hauge into a weather-beaten shed and gave a status report. He let Hauge know that he had taken the Canadians to Strøno where they were now hiding, but that this was only a temporary solution – they could not stay long there without being discovered. Evensen told Hauge that he did not like the idea of heading west across Bjørnafjord to Austevoll this soon in the rescue operation because the Germans had increased their naval patrols on the fjord and because Evensen did not have many underground connections there. The only way that approach would work would be to involve other undergroups with better contacts with Austevoll.
Hauge agreed that the best thing would be for the crew to stay hidden somewhere in Os, but they had to be moved, and the sooner the better. When they were starting to discuss who else to involve, they were interrupted by soldiers who looked in and wanted to know what they were doing in the shed. Evensen explained that they were going fishing. “Fischen gehen” were two of the few words he knew in German. One of the soldiers was smoking, and Evensen, with a hopeful look on his face extended his hand as if he were smoking. It was not often that the occupiers had encountered any willingness to communicate by the Norwegians, to the contrary, they were being used to being given the cold shoulder. So the soldier took out his cigarette package with a “naturlich” and handed one over. He and the other soldiers said “wiedersehen” and disappeared around the nearest corner.
On the return trip, Hauge had to go by the same sentry, who just gestured with his thumb that Hauge could pass. When he got home again, he called Johan Viken: “Whether you believe it or not, I have managed to fill up six sacks of potatoes,” he said, “and of unusually fine quality.” The sacks had to be picked up as soon as possible.
Viken immediately went to Jakob Hjelle at Troppabakken and asked him if his cover group could hide the airmen. Hjelle said the best option would be to hide the the Canadians in the woods in the Indregardane area near Lønningdal where Lange-Johannes had hideouts in case one might be needed in a situation like this. After considering various options for moving the aircrew, they finally agreed that the simplest and best approach would be for a couple of the Islanders to take them by boat across Bjørnafjord. The Germans did not spend much time in the woods in the Lønningdal area, and it should be possible to land and get the aircrew into the forest. The Canadians would go east, not west. It wouldn't be a bad idea, they thought, because the Germans undoubtedly thought that the Canadians would try to head west out to sea and would be less likely to be watching for them to head east.
Hjelle got on his bike and pedaled for an hour over to Lønningdal to report to Mowinckel Nilsen and plan the next step. They agreed that the Canadians should go to a new cabin in Botnane, above Lønningdal. Botnane is the ridge area that on the border between the kommunes of Os and Samnanger.
Early the next morning Hjelle started organizing supplies. It did not take too long, because the cover group had plenty of experience helping people in hiding. But they had to find more sleeping bags and clothing than they had at their disposal.
Hjelle and the cover group had been taking care of people hiding from the Germans, using cabins deep in the woods in eastern Os. Those in hiding included both young men conscripted into the German Labour Service [24] and members of the underground who were being sought by the Gestapo. The forest was also used for training Milorg groups. However, the cover group's job became more difficult after the Wellington made its emergency landing because the Germans stepped up their patrols. They stopped people at all hours, examining their passes and asking questions.
Mowinckel Nilsen and Hjelle, his faithful right-hand man, had organized young women to put together ration boxes of food to take to people in hiding. They now used those women to spread rumours that there had been eight commandos on board the plane. The rumour quickly reached the Germans and they increased the number of men in each patrol, and kept closer together, and as a result could cover less ground.
After speaking with Magnus Hauge, Einar Evensen rowed to Vedholmen. A large patrol boat was tied up at the dock with its motor idling. A crowd of sailors stood talking in a circle on the dock. Germans who had been in the country for a while often had learned some basic Norwegian. Evensen preferred talking with sailors rather than with soldiers. The sailors were somehow freer and more than once they had given him a packet of cigarettes, but that day they didn't pay attention to him or any Norwegian. They spoke with low voices and serious faces, and he had no doubt what they were talking about. Suddenly an alarm signal sounded and the sailors all leaped aboard. The lines were pulled in, the guard boat slipped away from the pier and headed out through the strait.
Inside the store, everyone breathed more freely now that the sailors were gone. The conversation was about the plane and those who had been on board. All agreed that the airmen could not make it by themselves. One had heard that the last anyone had seen of them was that they had disappeared in the direction of Bjørnen and Bjørnatrynet where they would not have any hope of staying free for long. Evensen joined the chorus – he was very afraid that the Germans were going to encircle the fliers very soon.
He was relieved when he got back in the boat. It was very clear that no one had seen anything the night before and no one had the slightest clue as to what had happened after the Canadians left the crash-site.
Home in Bjørnarøy, Evensen worried about his mother and father. They had to have figured out what he was doing, even if they did not know the details. He did not want either of them to share the consequences if the Germans learned what he was doing.
Although the aircrew were in uniform, there was no guarantee that the Germans would imprison them as prisoners of war and not execute them as spies.
MTB 345 was a motor torpedo boat that was newer and smaller than the others that operated to the the Norwegian coast from the Shetland Islands. It had sunk in Solund in the summer of 1944, a few months before the Wellington made its forced landing in Os. The crew of MTB 345 was captured by the Germans. Although the crew of six Norwegians and one Briton were in regular navy uniforms, they were shot under direct orders from Adolf Hitler's headquarters. The execution took place at Ulven, a few kilometres from the place the Canadians were hiding. Admiral von Schrader, who was in charge of the hunt for the Canadians, had handed over the captured sailors from the MTB 345 to the Sicherheitdienst.
The head of the execution squad of the security police in Bergen was SS Obersturmfuhrer Erwin Lang [23]. During post-war trials, Lang testified that the Gestapo believed that the Wellington had arrived bringing equipment to underground troops and that the flight crew would immediately head west back to Britain, so the Germans made an all-out effort to catch the aircrew before they could escape. [A]
The Germans did make a major effort to find the aircrew. German troops searched on foot, on motorcycles and in cars. Trucks were used to transport troops. They searched the countryside and villages, concentrating on the area nearest the landing site. They used dogs and all the soldiers that could be mustered up within Fortress Os. They set up roadblocks and questioned everyone they saw, even little old ladies on the way to the store. Boats continually patrolled Bjørnafjord and around Austevoll and the islands to the west. The walls and pillars of the towns were covered with posters warning of the consequences of giving any aid to the pilots. Anyone providing help to them would be shot.
Magnus Hauge had promised Einar Evensen that Evensen would not have to wait long to hear from him. On his way on his bike to meet Evensen, Hauge saw soldiers everywhere. A helmeted sentry with a machine pistol and grenades stopped him at an intersection.
“Pass,” he demanded.
“Not again,” replied Hauge.
His little bluff let him get by after only a quick glance at Hauge's pass. But it was not always easy going – Hauge had to swerve off the road to avoid a speeding black car with two German officers in the front. As he approached the sea, he saw a patrol boat move slowly around a bay a few meters from shore and another patrolling around one of the small islands.
Evensen strolled up and down on the pier where they were to meet and was relieved to finally see his company commander. He pulled Hauge into a weather-beaten shed and gave a status report. He let Hauge know that he had taken the Canadians to Strøno where they were now hiding, but that this was only a temporary solution – they could not stay long there without being discovered. Evensen told Hauge that he did not like the idea of heading west across Bjørnafjord to Austevoll this soon in the rescue operation because the Germans had increased their naval patrols on the fjord and because Evensen did not have many underground connections there. The only way that approach would work would be to involve other undergroups with better contacts with Austevoll.
Hauge agreed that the best thing would be for the crew to stay hidden somewhere in Os, but they had to be moved, and the sooner the better. When they were starting to discuss who else to involve, they were interrupted by soldiers who looked in and wanted to know what they were doing in the shed. Evensen explained that they were going fishing. “Fischen gehen” were two of the few words he knew in German. One of the soldiers was smoking, and Evensen, with a hopeful look on his face extended his hand as if he were smoking. It was not often that the occupiers had encountered any willingness to communicate by the Norwegians, to the contrary, they were being used to being given the cold shoulder. So the soldier took out his cigarette package with a “naturlich” and handed one over. He and the other soldiers said “wiedersehen” and disappeared around the nearest corner.
On the return trip, Hauge had to go by the same sentry, who just gestured with his thumb that Hauge could pass. When he got home again, he called Johan Viken: “Whether you believe it or not, I have managed to fill up six sacks of potatoes,” he said, “and of unusually fine quality.” The sacks had to be picked up as soon as possible.
Viken immediately went to Jakob Hjelle at Troppabakken and asked him if his cover group could hide the airmen. Hjelle said the best option would be to hide the the Canadians in the woods in the Indregardane area near Lønningdal where Lange-Johannes had hideouts in case one might be needed in a situation like this. After considering various options for moving the aircrew, they finally agreed that the simplest and best approach would be for a couple of the Islanders to take them by boat across Bjørnafjord. The Germans did not spend much time in the woods in the Lønningdal area, and it should be possible to land and get the aircrew into the forest. The Canadians would go east, not west. It wouldn't be a bad idea, they thought, because the Germans undoubtedly thought that the Canadians would try to head west out to sea and would be less likely to be watching for them to head east.
Hjelle got on his bike and pedaled for an hour over to Lønningdal to report to Mowinckel Nilsen and plan the next step. They agreed that the Canadians should go to a new cabin in Botnane, above Lønningdal. Botnane is the ridge area that on the border between the kommunes of Os and Samnanger.
Early the next morning Hjelle started organizing supplies. It did not take too long, because the cover group had plenty of experience helping people in hiding. But they had to find more sleeping bags and clothing than they had at their disposal.
Hjelle and the cover group had been taking care of people hiding from the Germans, using cabins deep in the woods in eastern Os. Those in hiding included both young men conscripted into the German Labour Service [24] and members of the underground who were being sought by the Gestapo. The forest was also used for training Milorg groups. However, the cover group's job became more difficult after the Wellington made its emergency landing because the Germans stepped up their patrols. They stopped people at all hours, examining their passes and asking questions.
Mowinckel Nilsen and Hjelle, his faithful right-hand man, had organized young women to put together ration boxes of food to take to people in hiding. They now used those women to spread rumours that there had been eight commandos on board the plane. The rumour quickly reached the Germans and they increased the number of men in each patrol, and kept closer together, and as a result could cover less ground.
After speaking with Magnus Hauge, Einar Evensen rowed to Vedholmen. A large patrol boat was tied up at the dock with its motor idling. A crowd of sailors stood talking in a circle on the dock. Germans who had been in the country for a while often had learned some basic Norwegian. Evensen preferred talking with sailors rather than with soldiers. The sailors were somehow freer and more than once they had given him a packet of cigarettes, but that day they didn't pay attention to him or any Norwegian. They spoke with low voices and serious faces, and he had no doubt what they were talking about. Suddenly an alarm signal sounded and the sailors all leaped aboard. The lines were pulled in, the guard boat slipped away from the pier and headed out through the strait.
Inside the store, everyone breathed more freely now that the sailors were gone. The conversation was about the plane and those who had been on board. All agreed that the airmen could not make it by themselves. One had heard that the last anyone had seen of them was that they had disappeared in the direction of Bjørnen and Bjørnatrynet where they would not have any hope of staying free for long. Evensen joined the chorus – he was very afraid that the Germans were going to encircle the fliers very soon.
He was relieved when he got back in the boat. It was very clear that no one had seen anything the night before and no one had the slightest clue as to what had happened after the Canadians left the crash-site.
Home in Bjørnarøy, Evensen worried about his mother and father. They had to have figured out what he was doing, even if they did not know the details. He did not want either of them to share the consequences if the Germans learned what he was doing.