Operation Martin

Operation Martin
Part of World War II
DateMarch 1943
LocationRebbenesøya, Norway
Result The vessel lowered. Crew and soldiers executed. Mission failed.
Belligerents
 Norway  Nazi Germany
Strength
12 Company Linge R56 and Gestapo
Casualties and losses
11 1

Operation Martin (Red) was an Allied World War II clandestine operation aimed at destroying a German air control tower at Bardufoss. It was also tasked with organizing secret military resistance groups in Tromsø in German-occupied Norway in 1943.

The operation consisted of twelve Norwegian nationals under Company Linge group, who had been trained by British in Scotland and returned to Norway in March 1943. This mission was compromised when the Norwegian operatives seeking a trusted local resistance contact, accidentally made contact with an unaligned civilian shopkeeper with the same name as their contact. The civilian reported them to the Germans.

The escape failed when the group's vessel MK "Bratholm I" was discovered and attacked by the German frigate Räumboote R56. To escape, the MK "Bratholm I" was scuttled by its own Norwegian crew. An 8-ton explosive was detonated using a time delay fuse. The crew fled in a small boat, which was promptly sunk by the Germans. Eleven Norwegian soldiers from the Company Linge died, one was shot on site while ten were captured, interrogated by the Gestapo, and executed in Tromsø. Only one person managed to flee over from Rebbenesøya to Sweden, a neutral country. The survivor was Jan Baalsrud. His three-month escape was made through Lyngen and Manndalen with the help of local villagers.

Operation Members

  • Løytnant Sigurd Eskeland
  • Fenrik Jan Baalsrud
  • Fenrik Per Blindheim
  • Kaptein Sverre Odd Kverhellen
  • Erik Reichelt
  • Harald Peter Ratvik
  • Bjørn Normann Bolstad
  • Gabriel Salvesen
  • Magnus Johan Kvalvik
  • Frithjof M. Haugland
  • Sjur Ludvigsen Trovaag
  • Alfred A. Vik

Posting

The executions of the prisoners in Tromsø were investigated after the war under the case of Toftefjordsaken.

The Gestapo officers who tortured and executed eight of the MK "Bratholm 1" crew were ordered in the late summer of 1945 to dig the bodies from the mass grave at Grønnåsen Skytebane. First with spades, hand to hand, not to damage the bodies. They also had to wash their bodies before placing them in chests.

The prosecution after the war became problematic as the main target, Kurt Stage, was not in Norwegian custody. Stage was executed in 1947 in Yugoslavia for war crimes there, while no criminal proceedings were brought against the four others who were charged in the case.[1]

Two films have been made based on Operation Martin, the 1957 Ni Liv (Nine Lives) and the 2017 Den 12. Mann (The 12th Man). The latter directed by Norwegian director, Harald Zwart, and starring Thomas Gullestad and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Berit Nøkleby War crimes – Breach of the law of war in Norway 1940–45 (2004) Pax Forlag, s. 82–85.
  2. ↑ "Incredibly, the jaw-dropping scenes in this vivid WWII survivalist film are true". Retrieved 9 October 2018.

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