Issue link: http://ihouse.uberflip.com/i/703833
56 so many different types of Americans....But I think the Americans are probably one of the most generous people on the earth. They really try to make you feel at home. Yes, I was born in Tromso, and my family is here – quite a big clan. When did I leave Tromso? When I had to escape, during the war. I got over to England in 1944. Of course, in wartime you get trusted with things that are far beyond your experience. After the war, I was put in charge of investigating the non-combatant Air Force officers. We had to decide who would stay on and who would be kicked out.... So, it has been a very varied and sometimes exciting life. My mother had escaped with me, through the mountains, to Sweden – quite a long walk. Sweden was neutral. It was quite strange – I remember the night before we crossed to England, we walked straight through Stockholm, and people were sitting outside having mead or a drink, and all the lights were on, and four or five hours later, we came to a blackened out England – we landed near Dundee, Scotland. And actually, we were four planes that started out: one was shot down, and the other two returned to the Swedish airport. We were the only ones who got through. It was strange: we were sitting there opposite each other on benches in the DC4, and, suddenly, they were shooting at us with the anti-aircraft guns and so on. Suddenly the plane dived, and I remember one of the boys said something in Norwegian which means, "Now the ship is going into the field," an old sailor's expression. But there was no panic, really. What could you do? I left Sweden because I had volunteered to join the Norwegian Air Force – we were all volunteers. I was stationed in Devonshire. I had a high school degree, so I was either going to be with the Air Force or Naval Personnel, but they had more use for me in the Intelligence.... I was actually going to be dropped near the Swedish border, and a friend of mine was going to meet me there, but the Air Force sabotaged it.... But I took over the job of the Lieutenant Commander – I had had quite a lot of experience handling things from home, but now that I think of it, I was twenty-one; I was born in 1923. But things are different in wartime. In Norway, I graduated from high school, and then I was part of an effort to, you might say, deceive the Germans. I went to the north of Norway where the Tirpitz was lying. It was not easy because there were ten Germans to every Norwegian. But I was young and I looked young....I was quite prepared to die. I knew that I would be shot, but I knew also that they would torture me beforehand. That was the only thing I was afraid of – that I would break down during torture, and I would reveal the names of some of my associates. It's so far back that I've a friend from then who is still alive, and he was the commander when they bombed the Tirpitz, and he said recently, "Do you have the feeling that it didn't happen to you?" And I said, "That's exactly the feeling I have. It's like I've seen it on film." What was my job in sinking the Tirpitz? My job was gathering intelligence. I was in England when the actual sinking went on. But before, I'd been sent up there to find out what damage had been done to it during the mini-sub attack in 1943 – I think