Sunde At Work

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 240, 28 January 1944, Page 21

Sunde At Work

SBJOERN SUNDE, son of a work-ing-class family in a town near Norway’s capital, Oslo, is a man whose whereabouts greatly interest the Gestapo. The reason was explained by «4 countryman of his, now in Britain, who spoke not long ago to listeners to the BBC’s | overseas. service. When war came, Sunde, like thousands of his compatriots, took up arms. The invader was resisted for two bitter months. Against overwhelming odds Norway fell. Sunde went back to his home. Gradually the word . "sabotage" was heard till it echoed from all sides in Norway. One day the Gestapo visited a prison hospital. Some of the sick prisoners were hustled into a waiting car and driven away. Whither, or why, none knew. Outside the town, a trick of great daring was revealed. All the

"Gestapo" men were patriots. Who had organised them, led them? "Sunde," it was whispered. A little later, a lorry-load of Norwegians arrived at Oslo Labour Exchange. Ninety thousand of Norway’s men had just been registered for compulsory labour mobilisation. The occupants of the lorry threw hand grenades and petrol bombs through the windows. The exchange was gutted by fire, its records perishing, of course. Sunde again? Quite likely. Certainly as these reckless feats are reported, Sunde becomes more and more sought after by the real Gestapo, who have offered 50,000 Norwegian crowns for information leading to his discovery. Notices are plastered up urging the denunciation of this "communist" and leader of the saboteurs. The most widespread manhunt the Gestapo have yet instituted in Norway has failed to track this illusive Pimpernel. Meanwhile, sabotage goes on.