Six Sacks of Potatoes

On Saturday September 30th, the Norwegians visited us at about 3:00 in the afternoon at our shelter in the clearing on Strono. We were quite surprised at their arrival in daylight, but they told us we were going to be moved again the next day, Sunday October 1st. In preparation for this move it would be necessary for all of us to shave. This was to include the mustaches of Maurice Neil and Gord Biddle, both of which hadn't been touched by a razor in several years. It was quite an ordeal for all of us and especially for those two as we had to use ice cold water, no soap and dull escape kit razor blades.

They had picked Sunday because Hattwik, the U-boat training center, was extremely active during the week with about fifteen to twenty vessels and submarines doing their exercises on the fjords. On Sundays the activity was considerably less due to weekend time off for the majority of the training crews. Einar owned a twenty-one foot motorboat of a type commonly used by the fishermen in the area. The Milorg felt that the Germans would not be too suspicious of Einar's boat out on the water this current weekend.

The next day Einar, along with an associate Torwald, returned to our shelter and they led us across the island to a small dock where his boat was tied. Five of us were told to lay down in the hold of the boat where the fish catch was usually kept. A heavy smelly tarpaulin was then thrown over us and we were told to keep quiet and be sure to keep our heads down. Fortunately after several days of dull, rainy weather the skies had cleared and it was a bright sunny day. Even the winds had died down which made for a much calmer sea. The boat was powered by an old diesel engine which sputtered along with a dull thump-thump.

After a few minutes we were out on the open water of Bjornafjord and for several minutes all went quite smoothly. Suddenly Einar noticed a German patrol boat approaching us at high speed. He was afraid they might have noticed that his fishing boat was riding quite low in the water and think that it could have on board a good catch of fish, some of which they might purchase. If told there was no fish on board they would undoubtedly want to know why the heavy load. Einar decided there was no way he could avoid the confrontation so he just kept going in the same direction, pretending to be trolling. While approaching, the Germans appeared to be watching us with binoculars and luckily for us they were satisfied all was in order and turned back to their original course without asking any questions.

When we reached the top end of Bjornafjord, Einar navigated his boat into a point of land near Hattwik, dropped us off and left us there saying they would return later. They left us with pair of good binoculars and we took turns watching as several large German gun boats and submarines passed close by, taking advantage of the shelter afforded by the dense woods along the shoreline.

A short time later our friends returned and motioned for us to follow them. We guessed that they had been scouting the area, or making some additional contacts to ensure that all was in order to continue. Einar, who up until now had been quite incommunicative for several hours, finally started to ask us a few questions with the help of a Norwegian-English dictionary, and universal sign language. His questions concerned our aircraft, the purpose of our mission, and the guns and ammunition carried. He seemed to get quite upset when we told him we had thrown all our ammo, about 20,000 rounds, overboard into the North Sea. He felt those rounds could have been used to rid Norway of 20,000 Germans. We found it was quite difficult to make ourselves understood, but we kept trying.

When we arrived at the shore where they had tied the boat, we again took up our positions in the hold under the tarpaulin. We kept traveling on Fusaljord for about half an hour and then quietly drifted into shore, towards a small dock where the Norwegians tied up the boat and then sat down to apparently wait while we kept under cover in the boat. Darkness approached and we still waited with no one saying a word. Suddenly a light flashed in the trees a short distance away. Einar immediately flashed a signal in reply. He then motioned for us to follow him and Torwald. We all jumped out of the boat and trailed them through the woods to a small shed. They both appeared to be quite excited and kept saying "Tyske" which means German in Norwegian. They motioned for us to stay put while they checked the surrounding area. After waiting in the dark for half an hour they returned and indicated we were again to follow them.

We had to hurry to keep up with our Norwegian helpers as we made our way through the woods. There was no sight or sound of anyone following us and after a short while we came upon three boathouses and we entered the middle one. Einar and Torwald seemed to be quite pleased that they had reached this boathouse undetected. They indicated that we were not to make any noise, light a lamp or leave the boathouse. They then left without giving us any additional information.

As we had no idea how long we were going to be at this location we decided to investigate our surroundings and get some sleep if possible, We climbed up to the loft via a rickety old ladder and found a storage area with enough space for five of us to stretch out on the floor while one kept watch. After the kind of day we had been through we were all pretty tired.