Max Manus

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Key events
Norway and World War II
Norwegian Campaign · Weserübung Elverum Authorization Midtskogen · Vinjesvingen Occupation and Resistance Camps · Telavåg Festung Norwegen Heavy water sabotage Post-war purge
People
Haakon VII · Nygaardsvold · CJ Hambro CG Fleischer · Otto Ruge · Max Manus Jens Chr. Hauge · Gunnar Sønsteby
Quisling · Jonas Lie · Henry Rinnan Josef Terboven · Wilhelm Rediess von Falkenhorst
Organizations
Milorg · XU · Linge · Nortraship
Nasjonal Samling

Max Manus

Max Manus (born December 9, 1914 in Bergen, died September 20, 1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II.

After fighting as a volunteer in the Soviet-Finnish Winter War of 1939/1940, he returned to Norway on the day of the German occupation on April 9, 1940. He was one of the pioneers in the Norwegian resistance movement, and was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941. He escaped to England for training and went back as a saboteur in the Norwegian Independent Company 1. He became a specialist in ship sabotage and sunk ships that were important for the German Kriegsmarine using limpet mines, including the Monte Rosa in 1944 and the Donau on January 16, 1945. Max Manus eventually rose to the rank of lieutenant.

He was famous for being one of the most brilliant saboteurs during World War II, and after the war he wrote several books about his adventures. After the war, he started the successful office supply company Max Manus AS.

He was awarded the War Cross with two swords, the highest Norwegian medal for bravery (only Gunnar Sønsteby was awarded the version with three swords), as well as the British Military Cross with bar.

He lived in Spain for the last part of his life and died in 1996.

[edit] His autobiographical accounts

Two books were written by Max Manus shortly after the 2nd WW. The first, Det vil helst gå godt – 1945 (i.e. 'It Tends To Go Well') describes some of his enterprising and event-filled wandering and working in the jungles of South America and in Latin America. He returned to Scandinavia before the outbreak of WW2, upon which he soon joined up with the Norwegian Army and went to fight in a volunteer detachment with the Finns against the Russian invaders of their land.

After the debacle in Finland, Max Manus returned to Norway and was there when the Nazis occupied on April 9th, 1940. He fought during the retreat of Norwegian forces from Norway, whereupon he decided to return to Oslo and work underground against the occupiers, both organising a resistance movement, illegal public propaganda and the manufacture of weaponry. He and his comrades nearly managed to assassinate Himmler and Goebbels when they visited Oslo. His work was nonetheless so effective that he became a much wanted man by the Gestapo, and he was eventually captured by them, receiving injuries as he tried to escape. He had to be treated in the main Oslo hospital. The doctor at the hospital gave the Gestapo officer a false explanation and said Max Manus needed treatment for a broken back, damaged shoulder and serious concussion. The truth was different - he was only bruised and had a light concussion. With the aid of his patriotic nurse, he managed after 27 days on his back to escape through a second-floor window with a rope. In a dramatic flight he went to Sweden. By then, Russia had entered the war against Nazi Germany, so Manus travelled through Russia, via Turkey, Arabia, by ship via Capetown to the U.S., all to eventually be able to return to the fight in Europe.

He reconnected with the Norwegian military in the US and went on to further training in Canada and later crossed the Atlantic again to Belfast, then England. Here and in Scotland he trained further and developed professional skills at sabotage and undercover work of many kinds. He was then required to learn parachuting and was dropped in the forests near Oslo with a sabotage team. In Norway he resumed his organisational work and made various sabotage attempts on ships in Oslofjord with home-designed limpet mines and even ‘swimmer-assisted torpedoes’. The former were the more successful than the latter, sinking and damaging some vessels. It was a long but intense learning process of great practical difficulty and hazard. He made numerous hazardous trips back and forth across the border to Sweden, where he was able to get a respite from the constant mental and physical pressures of being undercover. Many of his comrades in arms were killed, captured and tortured, but Manus managed to survive through a combination of determination not to be taken and some very lucky narrow escapes.

Max Manus’ second book was 'Det Blir Alvor' (i.e. 'It Gets Serious'), in which he continues the saga of his resistance work and his great successes in sinking in 1945 two large vessels of great importance to the German war machine. When peace was declared, Max Manus found himself to be chosen to sit as a ‘living target’ beside the Crown Prince of Norway on his triumphal parade in Oslo, and then also with King Haakon. This was really an honour too, and he was lorded as one of Norway’s most resilient and successful fighters, aged only 29 at the time.