Sverre Granlund
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Corporal Sverre Granlund was a Norwegian commando during the Second World War. His first operation was in May 1941 when he set the Frostfile machine room of the factory in Bodø on fire.
[edit] Life
He was born on November 9th 1918 in Sauherad, Norway. He was a member of SOE/Linge Company. He initially ived in Saltdal and later Bodø.
In 1942 he participated in the commando raid against the Glomfjord generator plant in Operation Musketoon, where he and Captain Joseph Houghton served as scouts for the twelve-man team ascending the Black Glacier. Granlund was the only member of the team who had to kill a German, shooting a guard at the plant. After the explosions had torn apart the local dam, he sought refuge at Fykandalen, a mountain resort where he was given a map to a bridge that would lead him further up on the mountain. Unable to find the bridge by nightfall, he met up with Houghton and Corporal Erling Djupdraet and the three returned to the resort where a scuffle broke out between the group and some Germans who had come to question the owners. After the fight, with Djupdraet wounded by a bayonet, Trigg, O'Brien, Granlund and Fairclough split off and avoided capture, flying to Stockholm, then London. Corporal Erling Magnus Djupdraet died on September 24th at the hospital in Bodø. Only O`Brien and Fairclough survived the war. The distance from Bjærangfjord to Sweden walked on foot by Granlund was 250 kilometers and took him over seven days.
He died on February 10th, 1943 when the KNM Uredd hit a German minefield southwest of Fugløyvær, while carrying his team as part of Operation Seagull. The mines had been laid by the German minelayer COBRA. Sverre Granlund was 25.
Some years after the end of the war, the Norwegian Navy located KNM Uredd in Fugløyfjord southwest of Bodø, by studying German maps of minefields along the Norwegian coast.
He particularly enjoyed poems, especially those written by Nordahl Grieg , who also lost his life in 1943.
In 1995, Norwegian artist Laila Lorentzen commemorated his role in the war with a statue built for Saltdal museum in Rognan.
