![]() Villagers mentioned above, the ordinary Norwegians on whose doorstep Jan appears – who truly deserve the accolade of ‘heroic’. But it is those who help him – the housewives, fishermen and Jan’s courage and bravery are without any doubt exceptional and deserving of fulsome admiration, even adulation. What other word adequately describes the level of resolve required to methodically amputate his own toes to rid himself of gangerene while lying, wet and cold, under a rock? Or to doggedly maintain a daily routine of basic survival tasks when convinced that he has been abandoned? His physical perseverance is phenomenal, but even more impressive is his mental resolve and determination – superhuman is what comes to mind. Unable to walk because of a gangrenous leg, he endures days on a mountain lying in a hole in the ice under a boulder – his “snow grave”. He suffers severe frost-bite and starvation. Caught in an avalanche, he survives a 300ft fall that leaves him concussed, hallucinating and snow-blind. The harsh conditions of the Artic mountains presented an even more formidable threat. Add heroic, superhuman and phenomenal and we get a little closer – but it is difficult to find the superlatives to truly do justice to what Jan Baalstrud endured over these 68-days.Įvading capture was only one of his many challenges. Actually, epic doesn’t even begin to describe it. So begins Jan’s epic 68-day escape journey across artic Norway to eventual safety in neutral Sweden. Only Jan – wounded and minus a boot – escapes into the adjoining snow-covered hills. The ensuing battle results in 11 of the 12-man commando unit being killed or captured (and subsequently executed). Next morning a German gunboat sails into the bay. He calls a friend in the Department of Justice. The message on a poster in his own shop: “Contact with the enemy is punished by death” is no idle threat. Too late they realize that their contact has died a year earlier and the new owner of the store, who has the same name, is terrified. The mission goes horribly wrong when, having sailed from Scotland to a remote bay north of Tromso, the leader of the mission reveals their identity to a local store owner who they have been told is a trusted contact. He was a Norwegian commando sent from England as part of an under-cover sabotage mission to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance during World War II. Jan Baalsrud is not a fictional character. This is the recurring real-life dilemma faced by housewives, fishermen and villagers when Jan Baalsrud lands on their doorstep in this month’s book, it’s We Die Alone by David Howarth. Not only you, also your children – who are sleeping upstairs – could also be killed to make an example of “collaborators” or transported to a ‘labour’ camp. You know that if you do, you will be tortured and killed if found out. You open it to find a wounded and disheveled stranger, close to exhaustion. On a bitterly cold, dark, mid-winter evening there’s a knock on your door. Imagine you’re living on the outskirts of a small rural village or in an isolated farmstead – in Nazi occupied Norway, north of the Artic circle. SOLOMON’S DEBUT TAKES ME ON A LOVELY JOURNEY INTO THE HISTORICAL FICTION GENREĪnnecater on THE VERDICT IS A RESOUNDING YE…Īnnecater on WOHLLEBEN REACHES NEW HEIGHTS,…Īnnecater on BROTHERTON KEEPS THE WHEELS IN….TOWNSEND’S DEBUT, MAKES ME WARY OF FOREIGN PRACTICES AND BUILDERS, NOT JUST SPANISH.WOHLLEBEN REACHES NEW HEIGHTS, WITH A POWERFUL INSIGHT INTO THE LIVES OF TREES. ![]() THE VERDICT IS A RESOUNDING YES, FOR AN INTRIGUING AND BANG UPTO DATE THRILLER.YOU AND YOUR KIDS WON’T BE SHORT CHANGED BY WILLAMSON’S SIXTH OFFERING.Meticulously researched for more than five years, Karlsen Scott and Haug bring forth the truth behind this captivating, edge-of-your-seat, real-life survival story. Suffering from snow blindness and frostbite, more than sixty people of the Troms District risk their lives to help Baalsrud to freedom. The only survivor and wounded, Baalsrud begins a perilous journey to freedom, swimming icy fjords, climbing snow-covered peaks, enduring snowstorms, and getting caught in a monstrous avalanche. However, they were betrayed, and a German boat attacked the cutter, creating a battlefield and spiraling Jan Baalsrud into the adventure of his life. In late March 1943, in the midst of WWII, four Norwegian saboteurs arrived in northern Norway on a fishing cutter and set anchor in Toftefjord to establish a base for their operations. Summary: "The 12th Man is the true story of Jan Baalsrud, whose struggle to escape the Gestapo and survive in Nazi-occupied Norway has inspired the international film of the same name.
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