We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance Read Online Free PDF Page B

enthusiastically, to hide it in
some caves which they knew. Eskeland did not tell them the whole
story. He did not mention England, but left them with the impression that he had brought the cargo from the south of Norway, and
that it contained food and equipment for the home forces to use
when the tide began to turn. But the two men did not want to be told
any more about it. If it was anti-German, that seemed to be good
enough for them. They said they would come to Toftefjord at halfpast four on the following afternoon to pilot Brattholm out to their
hiding place, so that everything would be ready for unloading as
soon as it was dark.
    It was daylight by the time the dinghy got back to Toftefjord.
Eskeland and then men who were with him were tired, not merely by
being out all night, but by the long hours of careful conversation. When they came aboard, they found that Jan Baalsrud, the only one
of the landing party who had not been either to the shop or the fishermen, had been at work all night checking over their small arms
again. As an instrument maker, Jan loved the mechanism of guns and
always took particular care of them; and like Eskeland, he had been
a little worried about the shopkeeper.

    They made breakfast, and talked about the shop again. It was only
two hours' steaming from Tromso, somebody pointed out, for any
kind of warship; so if they had really had the bad luck to hit upon a
Nazi and he had reported them, they would surely have been
attacked by then. Dawn would have been the obvious time for the
Germans to choose. But dawn was past, and Toftefjord was as quiet
and peaceful as before. They agreed in the end that the landing party
should stay on watch till ten o'clock. If nothing had happened by
then, it really would look as if that particular danger was over; and
then the landing party would turn in and leave some of the crew on
watch till the fishermen came at half-past four.
    The morning passed. The only thing which was at all unusual was
the number of aircraft they could hear. There was the sound of machinegun fire too, from time to time. It was all out at sea. But none of the aircraft flew over Toftefjord. It sounded as though there was a practice
target somewhere beyond the islands, and that seemed a possible explanation. The air forces at Bardufoss must have somewhere for training,
and the sea or the outer skerries would be a likely place. As the day went
by, the men began to relax. By noon, they were reassured. Eskeland and
his party went below to sleep leaving half of the crew on deck.
    A shout awoke them: "Germans! Germans!" They rushed for the
hatch. The men on watch stood there appalled. Two hundred yards
away, coming slowly into the fjord, there was a German warship. As
the last of the men reached the deck, it opened fire. At once they
knew that the aircraft were on patrol stopping the exits from the
sounds. There was no escape for Brattholm. Eskeland shouted
"Abandon ship! Abandon ship!"

    That was the only order. They knew what to do. Somebody ran up
the naval flag to the mizen head. The crew leaped down into one of
the boats and cast off and rowed for shore. The German ship stopped
and lowered two boats. Troops piled into them and made for the
shore a little farther north. Jan Baalsrud and Salvesen poured petrol
on the cipher books and set them all on fire, and cast off the second
dinghy and held it ready in the lee of the ship out of sight of the
Germans. Eskeland and Blindheim tore off the hatch covers and
climbed down among the cargo and lit the five-minute fuse.
    With her boats away the German ship began to approach again.
It was firing with machine-guns and a three-pounder, but the shots
were going overhead. The Germans meant to capture them alive:
they were not expecting much resistance. Eskeland called from the
hold: "Jan, hold them off!" Jan took a sub-machine gun and emptied
the magazine at the German's bridge. The ship stopped for a