Editing Jan Baalsrud

{{short description|Commando in the Norwegian resistance}}
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Jan Baalsrud
| image         = Jan Sigurd Baalsrud (1917- 1988) (47953919208).jpg
| caption       = 
| allegiance    = [[Norway]]
| rank          = [[Second Lieutenant|Fenrik]]
| commands      = 
| unit          = [[Company Linge]]
| family        = 
| nickname      = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1917|12|13|df=y}}
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1988|12|30|1917|12|13|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Kristiania]] (today Oslo), Norway
| death_place   = [[Kongsvinger]], Norway
| placeofburial = Manndalen, Norway
| serviceyears  = 1940&ndash;1945
| laterwork     = Chairman of the Norwegian Disabled Veterans Union (1957 — 1964)
| awards        = [[Member of the Order of the British Empire]] (MBE)<BR> [[St Olav's medal|St Olav's Medal with Oak Branch]]
}}

'''Jan Sigurd Baalsrud''', [[Member of the Order of the British Empire|MBE]] (13 December 1917 – 30 December 1988) was a [[commando]] in the [[Norwegian resistance]] trained by the British during [[World War II]].

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===
Jan Baalsrud was born in [[Kristiania]] (now Oslo), Norway and moved with his family to [[Kolbotn]] in the early 1930s. He lived there until the 1950s. He graduated as a cartographical instrument-maker in 1939.

=== World War II ===
During the [[German invasion of Norway]] in 1940, Baalsrud fought in [[Vestfold]]. He later escaped to [[Sweden]], which was neutral, but he was convicted of espionage and expelled from the country.

In 1941, Baalsrud reached Great Britain after having travelled through the Soviet Union, Africa and the US. He joined the Norwegian [[Company Linge]]. In early 1943, he, three other commandos, and a boat crew of eight, all Norwegians, embarked on a mission to destroy a German airfield control tower at [[Bardufoss]], and recruit for the [[Norwegian resistance movement]].

This mission, [[Operation Martin]], was compromised when Baalsrud and his fellow soldiers, seeking a Resistance contact, accidentally made contact with a civilian shopkeeper who had taken over the store run by their intended contact and had the same name. Fearing for his life and suspecting it was a test by the Germans, he reported them to the local police office, which notified the Germans.

The morning after their blunder, on 29 March, their fishing boat ''Brattholm'' &nbsp;&ndash; containing around 100 kilograms of [[explosive]]s intended to destroy the air control tower&nbsp;&ndash; was attacked by a German vessel. The Norwegians scuttled their boat by detonating the explosive using a time-delay fuse and fled in small boats, but they were promptly sunk by the Germans.

Baalsrud and others swam ashore in ice-cold [[Arctic]] waters. Baalsrud was the only commando to evade capture and, soaking wet and missing one sea boot, he escaped into a snow gully, where he shot and killed a German [[Gestapo]] officer with his pistol.

Kolker summarises what happened next as follows: 
<blockquote>What happened over those nine weeks remains one of the wildest, most unfathomable survival stories of World War II. Baalsrud's feet froze solid. An avalanche buried him up to his neck. He wandered in a snowstorm for three days. He was entombed alive in snow for another four days and abandoned under open skies for five more. Alone for two more weeks in a cave, he used a knife to amputate several of his own frostbitten toes to stop the spread of [[gangrene]]. He spent the last several weeks tied on a stretcher, near death, as teams of Norwegian villagers dragged him up and down hills and snowy mountains.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kolker |first1=Robert |title=The Fugitive |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/the-fugitive.html |work=New York Times Magazine |date=16 March 2016 |access-date=29 November 2020}}</ref></blockquote>

He evaded capture for approximately 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, that he hid in a wooden hut at Revdal, which he called [[Savoy Hotel|Hotel Savoy]]. Baalsrud operated on his feet with a pocket knife, as he suspected he had gangrene in two toes, resulting from the frostbite. Fearing it would spread, he cut off his big toe and the infected bit of the index toe.

Not long after that, Baalsrud was left on a high plateau, on a stretcher in the snow, where he was supposed to be collected by the Norwegian resistance. Due to weather and German patrols in the town of Manndalen, Kåfjord, he was there for 27 days and was close to death for lack of food. It was during this time, while he lay behind a snow wall built around a rock to shelter him, that Baalsrud amputated nine of his toes to stop the spread of gangrene. This action saved the rest of his feet.

Fellow Norwegians transported Baalsrud by stretcher toward the border with Finland. He was put in the care of some [[Sámi people|Sámi]] (the native people of northern [[Fennoscandia]]). While driving their reindeer on spring passage, they pulled him on a sled across Finland and into neutral Sweden. From Kilpisjärvi, in northern Finland, Baalsrud was collected by a Red Cross seaplane and flown to [[Boden, Sweden|Boden]].

Baalsrud spent seven months in a Swedish hospital in Boden before he was flown back to Britain in an RAF [[de Havilland Mosquito]] aircraft. He soon went to Scotland to help train other Norwegian patriots, who were going to enter Norway to continue the fight against the Germans.

After a long struggle to learn to walk without his toes, Baalsrud eventually was sent to Norway as an agent at his request. He was still in active service at the time of the war's end, in 1945. That ended  German occupation, and Baalsrud traveled to Oslo to reunite with his family, whom he had left five years before.<ref>{{cite book|title=We Die Alone|author=Horwath, David |date= 1955 |publisher=Canongate |isbn=978-1-84767-845-4}}</ref>

Baalsrud was appointed honorary [[Member of the Order of the British Empire]] by the British.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=7692775|title=Recommendations for Honours and Awards (Army)—Image details—Baalsrud, J S|website=DocumentsOnline|publisher=[[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]|format=fee usually required to view pdf of full original recommendation|access-date=15 January 2010}} The date given for publication in the ''[[London Gazette]]'' is misleading, other honours listed in this recommendation were gazetted on that date, but honorary appointments to the Order of the British Empire are not gazetted.</ref> He was awarded the [[St. Olav's medal with Oak Branch]] by Norway. He was a Second Lieutenant ([[Fenrik]]).

=== Later years and death ===
After the war, Baalsrud contributed to the local scout and football associations. In addition, he was chairman of the Norwegian Disabled Veterans Union from 1957 to 1964. In 1962, he moved to [[Tenerife, Canary Islands]], where he lived for most of the remainder of his life. He returned to Norway during his final years.

He lived there until his death on 30 December 1988, aged 71. His ashes are buried in [[Manndalen]], in a grave shared with Aslak Aslaksen Fossvoll (1900–1943), one of the local men who helped him escape to Sweden.

==Legacy==

An annual remembrance march in Baalsrud's honour takes place on 25 July in [[Troms]], where the participants follow his escape route for nine days.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://karlsoy.com/baalsrud/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515232424/http://karlsoy.com/baalsrud/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-05-15 |website=karlsoy.com|title=Baalsrud}} About the remembrance march</ref>

A street in [[Kolbotn|Kolbotn, Norway]] is named Jan Baalsruds plass (Jan Baalsrud's Place) in his honor.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.google.com/maps/place/Jan+Baalsruds+plass,+1410+Kolbotn,+Norway/@59.8106937,10.7986382,18z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4641686165690185:0x32c52e46e3ef6d39!8m2!3d59.8108235!4d10.799467 |website=maps.google.com|title=Jan Baalsruds plass}}</ref>

In 2020, a bust in bronze created by sculptor [[Håkon Anton Fagarås|Håkon Anton Fagerås]] on commission was unveiled.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rian |first=Vivi |date=2020-11-08 |title=(+) Hemmelig avduking av Jan Baalsrud-bysten |url=https://www.oblad.no/5-68-925377 |access-date=2022-04-19 |website=Østlandets Blad |language=no}}</ref>

==In media==
=== Books ===
* {{cite book |title=Operation Martin; List of Norwegian Refugees; Lt Jan Siguard Baalsrud's Report |id=HS 2/161 |last=Baalsrud |first=Jan |year=1943 |publisher=UK National Archives |location=London}}
* {{cite book |last=Howarth |first=D. |author-link=David Howarth (author) |title=We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance |year=1955 |publisher=Lyons Press |location=Guilford, Connecticut |isbn=1-55821-973-0}}
* {{cite book |title=Defiant Courage - Norway's Longest WW2 Escape |last1=Scott |first1=Astrid Karlsen |last2=Haug |first2=Tore |publisher=Nordic Adventures |location=Olympia, Washington |year=2001 |isbn=0-9634339-8-9}}

===Films ===
* ''[[Nine Lives (1957 film)|Ni Liv]]'' ([[English language|En]]. ''Nine Lives'') &ndash; 1957<ref>{{cite web|website=nvg.ntnu.no|title=Ni Liv|url=http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/film/tfk/v95/omtaler/0508-NiLiv.html}}</ref> 
* ''[[The 12th Man (film)|Den 12. mann]]'' (En. ''The 12th Man'') &ndash; 2017

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928055247/http://www.godoy.no/weber/2verdskrigweb/Sara03/index.htm A school paper on Baalsrud] {{in lang|no}} https://web.archive.org/web/20120205182131/http://www.godoy.no/weber/2verdskrigweb/Sara03/index.htm
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160909124152/http://www.jimmayer.co.uk/arctic-escape---podcast.html A 30 minutes audio programme by Jim Mayer retracing Jan's route, including interviews with some of those who helped him escape.]
*[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/externalrequest.asp?requestreference=HS2/161 Piece details HS 2/161—Special Operations Executive: Group C, Scandinavia: Registered Files—Norway—Operation MARTIN; list of Norwegian refugees; Lt Jan Siguard Baalsrud's report], ''The Catalogue'', [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]]
*{{cite news|author=Brooks, David|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/02/opinion/02brooks.html?ref=opinion |title=Opinion|work=The New York Times | date=2 March 2010 }}
*{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/magazine/the-fugitive.html |title=The Fugitive|work=The New York Times Magazine |author=Kolker, Robert |date=16 March 2016}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baalsrud, Jan}}
[[Category:1917 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Oslo]]
[[Category:Norwegian Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Norwegian Special Operations Executive personnel]]
[[Category:Recipients of the St. Olav's Medal with Oak Branch]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Norwegian resistance members]]
[[Category:Sole survivors]]