Gold Run: The Rescue of Norway’s Gold Bullion from the Nazis, 1940

by Pearson, Robert

  The soldiers were also asked to keep off the deck to avoid arousing undue interest. With everyone embarked the passage north began. After only an hour they stopped as dawn was approaching. Haslund did not want the boats caught out in the open and so close together – it would be too suspicious if not for preying local eyes then certainly for the Germans. The skippers and Haslund had concluded that it would be wise to anchor at Kvalvåg for the day and proceed north the next night.

  The arrival of the puffers at the anchorage had not gone unnoticed though. Haslund knew the risks of being seen, but had calculated that it would be better to avoid the Germans as best they could. The risk of being seen by a collaborator by stopping at a port or anchorage was a gamble he had to run with. But their presence caused a stir with the local inhabitants who noted the unusual appearance of five puffers entering the anchorage at the same time. They also noted that there were a large number of people onboard the boats who were disembarking their puffers looking utterly exhausted and dishevelled.

  Whilst the passengers sought shelter in the farms and local alehouse the guard soldiers kept watch on the boats from the edge of a wood. This was a sensible move as it allowed the soldiers to stretch their legs a little, but more importantly the boats would look as if they were unmanned to any snooping aircraft.

  Although the weather had been poor, the morning turned into a beautiful spring day. This did not match the mood of the locals who were suspicious. Despite requests for comfort in the way of coffee and maybe a place to sleep some of the group were turned away even though they showed their passports to confirm who they were, with some locals thinking that they were spies. It was not a pleasant situation. Others were a little more fortunate and managed to find rest at a prayer house, but even here the comforts were few with a only a cold stone floor to lay down upon. Tragedy was also to strike the group when Sverre Belle, one of the Norges Bank men, suddenly collapsed and died that day. Haslund wrote about the tragic death stating that he thought Sverre Belle had most probably died of a heart attack brought about by the shock of the air attack on the Driva and the stresses suffered afterwards. This obviously led to concerns amongst the bank staff and perhaps it was this event plus the injury to another member of the banking staff that prompted some of them to request permission to return home. Their request was accepted and the puffers continued northwards minus the men from Norges Bank.

  Looking back in retrospect it is easy for one to view this action as defeatist, but that was apparently not the case. It was clear to Haslund and the others that not all banking personnel were required for the trip and in many ways it would be easier to transport the bullion with fewer people, thereby reducing the risk of injury and worse. To get over this problem a ‘declaration of release’ was issued stating that the bank employees had been relieved of their duties and that their participation was no longer required. To support their actions the Minister of Finance, Oscar Torp was contacted to inform him of the decision. Torp endorsed the undertaking thereby removing any doubts as to the integrity of the bank employees. It would seem, though, that misgivings might have been expressed after the war as Einar Gerhardsen later wrote seeking to give an explanation:159

  Unfortunately somebody died, and this made a great impression and I believe it was the catalyst for most of the employees of Norges Bank in wanting to go home. This was not easy, however, and the worst was the uncertainty. We held a counsel of war and agreed that each employee of the Norges Bank be paid 3 months salary for their duty. We had quite a lot of money as together with the gold there were two big crates of cash. I later learned that they contained a total of 12 million Krone. Who opened one of those boxes I do not know. I just know that never in my life had I seen so much money. Everyone, of course, had to sign for the amount that they were given. The money to be paid was counted and issued by two men. Receipts were then placed back in the boxes with the rest of the money.

  Sverre Belle was buried at Flemma churchyard. His colleagues from the bank, who attended the funeral to bid a sad farewell to a respected colleague, conducted the funeral arrangements. His resting place can still be seen today with a tall erect stone and accompanying inscription marking the spot.

  The ordeal for the returning bankers was far from over. An unnamed Norwegian Army colonel advised the bankers to travel to Molde to collect travel permits signed by the Germans so that they could journey relatively unmolested to their homes. This appears a strange decision as it must have been apparent to all that the returning bankers would be interviewed about why they were all travelling together, but Haslund factored this in to his planning.

  Sverre Belle’s grave – Flemma Churchyard. Picture Credit: author

  The bank officials reached Molde on May 5th staying at the Retiro. Their arrival did not go unnoticed and the next day a party of Gestapo officers arrived, along with a Norwegian aide. The men were promptly arrested and questioned about their reasons for being in Molde; who were they, where had they been and where were they were going? The Gestapo permitted them to stay at the Retiro, although under house arrest. They were not permitted to leave the building and a German guard was posted to ensure that this was adhered to. Later, the Gestapo returned to carry out more interviews and interrogations. The Germans knew that the bullion and much of the country’s money had disappeared, but they had absolutely no idea where it was. The sudden appearance of a group of bank employees was clearly going to draw their attention, but fortunately the interrogation techniques of the Germans had not yet been honed and it would appear from the answers given by the bank employees that the Germans were afterwards none the wiser on the whereabouts of the bullion. The Norges Bank men had given nothing away.

  As the bank staff travelled back to Molde the bullion was already being moved northwards. German bombers had flown overhead searching for opportunistic targets, but fortunately no bombs fell on Kvalvåg. Haslund knew it was time to move on and during the evening of May 1st made ready his plans to depart once more. Unable to attend the funeral of Sverre Belle he was well aware of the risks of staying too long in one place and attracting too much attention. He also calculated the risks of the bank men being detained as they returned to Molde and the possibility of the Germans extracting the information from them. The odds were not favourable.

  With everyone that needed to be embarked onboard their allotted puffers the convoy duly set off. Their destination was Tunsta, just off the coast of Kristiansund. The passage required very careful and skillful navigation due to the danger of small islets and hidden rocks, but the journey was fortuitously trouble free and the convoy eventually reached the relative safety of the narrow fjord that led to Tustna. Haslund later wrote about the trip:160

  As soon as dusk fell and we felt that the puffers could not be seen from any height we left Kvalvåg and headed outwards (westwards) to sea. The meeting next day had already been decided upon and it would be Tustna where the puffers could split up to their various landing places. No incidents occurred that night, a huge bonfire was burning behind us…it was Kristiansund well alight. In the morning of Thursday 2nd May (Ascension Day) we arrived at Gullstein at Tustna where among others the local shop owner, Mr Guldssten, helped us to find a place to stay and to get some food. For most of us it was the first decent sleep we had had in days. The situation at Tustna, though, was much like the same chaos at Gjemnes. Large numbers of refugees had arrived from Kristiansund and several groups of military types tried to find some transport to move northwards. Others had been dismissed and had taken off their uniforms. The sizeable unknown entourage from Eastern Norway together with soldiers in military uniform and a couple with German backgrounds were met with hefty amounts of scepticism from the locals.

  The two Germans were a couple; one a dentist, the other a lawyer and understandably their very presence was causing alarm, despite the fact that they were political refugees and were seeking to distance themselves from Nazism. Rumours of collaborators and spies ran rife and the two German civilians only
added to the maelstrom mix of fear and confusion. The five puffers, heavily armed with soldiers also aroused suspicion. Locals attempted to question the new arrivals, but were met with a wall of silence; no one from the puffers was allowed to say who they were, where they had been, where they were going or what they were carrying. This only served to fuel the distrust of the locals, which in turn caused difficulties when the entourage attempted to find places to rest.

  The situation in which Haslund and his followers found themselves in can only best be described as a frenzied, chaotic muddle of a like never experienced before and Tustna, like many other Norwegian towns and ports, had become a destination for refugees desperate to get away from the bombing. Kristiansund, only a short distance away, was in flames. Was Tustna next? No one knew, but it must have filled the thoughts of many soldiers attempting to organise themselves as best they could to carry on the fight in the north of Norway. Radio reports from London warned of Fifth columnists, spies and Germans dressed as Norwegian soldiers. British newspapers, with their reports from journalists in Norway, merely added to this hysteria that was sweeping the country, along with German radio reports stating that Norway had been taken with little resistance. Earlier, Vidkun Quisling had broadcasted to Norwegians via the state radio that:161

  England had violated the neutrality of Norway without calling more than a feeble protest from the Nygaardsvold government…the German government had offered their assistance to the government of Norway, together with solemn assurances that our national independence would be respected.

  Quisling’s very sudden rise to power had taken everyone by surprise, including the Germans, but his position, later sanctioned by Hitler, merely augmented ill feeling, suspicion and bewilderment.

  Meanwhile at Tustna, the scenes that unfolded are cited and described in detail by Nordahl Grieg as he attempted to reason with a certain Mr Guldssten, a local shop owner, that the assemblages of people from the puffers were not German spies, but refugees en passage with Norwegians. Grieg later wrote:162

  I met an old shop owner with an unquenchable belief that we were Germans in disguise and Norwegian traitors at the same time. With a voice that was quite low and full of hate he gave me his arguments…we had Germans among us. Quite rightly there were two immigrants onboard and we always tried to keep them away from people, but they did not like to sleep on the floor of the building, which had been given to the others, the man [German] therefore had the inspiration of walking amongst the community asking in broken Norwegian if there were any beds available. He [Guldssten] continued – ‘your officer calls himself Major Sunde, but I just heard on the radio from London a Major Sunde speaking’. I tried to tell the shop owner that there were two brothers who were both majors. The shop owner replied that the major had taken the identity papers and the uniform. [Guldssten]‘You are so stupid, one of the women onboard the puffers always stays with that German you call Major Sunde and says it is a Major Sunde in London to whom she is married’. I wanted to tell him that actually was the case, but he looked at me with dead eyes that were full of hatred. He turned away from me.

  Several people on the pier agreed with him and if they had weapons available to them then they wouldn’t have accepted this German rubbish among them anymore.

  The circumstances that Haslund, Grieg and Gleditsch had found themselves in are clear. But bravely Haslund did not forsake his German passengers when it would have been quite easy to have handed them over to Norwegian officials or the military.

  Radio reports from the BBC informed Haslund that the war was over in Southern Norway. What Haslund did not know was that these BBC reports were late in broadcasting and that due to some oversight no one from the government had informed the BBC what the latest situation in Norway was.163 News was a little more accurate from the newspapers, but it was the radio broadcasts from London that Haslund was relying upon. The situation really could not have been more desperate; the Germans were over-running Norway with very little resistance at great speed.

  A worried Haslund still believed that the best chance of success was to move northwards. As he sought to transport the bullion it had become obvious to many that the British campaign in Norway was in complete tatters and that southern and central Norway was lost to the invaders. Denny’s report is clear and concise and details the moment when evacuation was advised:164

  During Friday 26th April, the situation deteriorated and the newly arrived Military Base Staff, under Brigadier Hogg, were able to see for themselves how precarious the situation had become. Late that night I was asked to proceed from Molde to Åndalsnes for a Base Staff Conference, and on arrival in the early hours of the 27th was informed by Captain Maxwell-Hyslop of the frame of mind of the Military Base Staff and of the signal that he himself had made to the Admiralty stating that evacuation might be necessary, timed at 0050/27. A Staff Conference was held from 0800 to 1030, at which the Staff Officers, Naval and Military, unanimously advised Brigadier Hogg to inform the War Office, and other authorities that evacuation was necessary and the sooner the better.

  Subsequently, the command was issued to re-embark ‘Mauriceforce’ and ‘Sickleforce’. Soldiers were retreating headlong towards Åndalsnes by any means that they had at their disposal; foot, train or lorry. For many Norwegian soldiers skiing was the only option. According to Kersaudy (Norway 1940) the situation became close to a catastrophe on several occasions, with two armies in full flight. The Gudbrandsdal valley and all of southern Norway was now in the hands of the Germans, despite the many brave and heroic battles by Norwegian and British troops at places such as Lillehammer, Tretten and Kvam. It would be wrong to give the impression that it was complete rout, which was far from the case. However, the Allies were without air-cover, heavy armour and a wealth of essential war material usually needed to put up a fight and as a result the Allied troops began the process of evacuation from Åndalsnes on May 2nd. The fight was still being carried on in the north of Norway, but even from here the British and French troops were later to be evacuated. The sombre flight from Norway was taking place. Unfortunately the Norwegians were not initially made aware of the intentions of the Allies. This policy did not rest easy with the British commanders in the field: it was a dark time for Norway…and Britain.

  Haslund was unaware of what was happening with the British, but fully realised that there was no time to lose. He later wrote:165

  On the night of the 2/3rd May we left Tustna heading to Titran on Sør-Frøya. I had a memo from the Tustna coastguard station to the Titran coastguard asking them to help us to find new puffers for onward transport. It had now become quite obvious that it would be difficult to convince our current puffer captains to move northwards from Frøya. They were of the opinion that they had been requisitioned for short trips in known waters and had no willingness to enter the waters northwards. At Titran there was quite a mess when we arrived in the early morning of the 3rd May. There was a great fear of spies and the people were quite scared of all these strangers arriving at such a little place. We succeeded, however, in finding quarters in some local Bed & Breakfasts – school houses and so on. We also found new food and supplies.

  Upon landing, Haslund immediately sought out the senior officer of the Titran coastguard station. Reports were needed of the military movements along the coast and Haslund knew it would be foolish to sail again until he had some insight in to what was happening at sea. He goes on to describe events:166

  The coastguard station said that British warships had been observed at sea the day before and we believed that it was worthwhile to make contact in order to have some escort going northwards. Kristian Gleditsch and Nordahl Grieg volunteered to give it a try. Skipper Alf Larsen of the fishing vessel Roald volunteered to take them out.167 [Kristian] Gleditsch and [Nordahl] Grieg were equipped with warm clothes and dressed like fishermen and we put some fishing equipment on-board on the deck so as to fool the Germans of their intent. The plan was to put to sea outside Frøya, where the British warships h
ad been observed the day before, to try and meet them to ask for assistance. From Titran coastguard station the people had been issued with signal flags to be hoisted in case of visual contact. The four signal flags were to read ‘I am in need of immediate assistance and seek communication with you’.

  In addition to the fishing equipment they also took with them a powerful torch so that they could flash an SOS signal in case they met a ship. The hope was that if the party managed to make contact with the Royal Navy then Haslund was to hand over a formal note, written in English, requesting their immediate assistance in transporting valuable equipment and secret documents to the Norwegian authorities in Northern Norway. It was agreed beforehand that Kristian Gleditsch would be the representative of the Royal Norwegian Government, which was also stated in the note. The mission with the fishing vessel was supposed to be secret, but somehow word got out and by the time the Roald slipped out of port a crowd had gathered to witness the event. Frustration and immense apprehension must have filled Haslund’s mind as the boat made its way out of port, but he wanted to believe that all would be well and that luck would favour the brave. Gleditsch later wrote:168