The German occupation of Norway began when they invaded the neutral country on 9 May 1940, and the country remained under Wehrmacht rule until 8 May 1945. The government and King Haakon VII had escaped and formed a government in exile in London, whilst their home country was ruled by the ‘puppet’ government of Vidkun Quisling. Many Norwegians fought in the resistance or as part of the Free Norwegian Forces, including the establishment of the Royal Norwegian Air Force in 1944. The fortitude and bravery of the Norwegian people is surely exemplified by the struggles hundreds of intrepid, detemined souls endured to escape and find their way to the Island of Last Hope where they could continue the fight against their homeland's occupiers. We salute the bravery of Norway's finest! Germany's hold on the country was prised from its brutal fist on 8 May 1945 and five days later Crown Prince Olav and five government ministers returned. The rest of the royal family returned on 7 June 1945, five years to the day since the King and Queen had been forced to leave.

A prime source for some of the material in this database is the extraordinary site Våre Falne - de Norske Ofrene (Our Fallen - the Norwegian Victims). This unique memorial effort attempts to capture the story of every Norwegian who died during the German occupation - every man, woman and child. We thank them for permission to use selected extracts from their material.
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You searched for: “bergsland”

#	Name*	First Names	Title	Rank	RAF Equivalent Rank	Service No.	Photo (Click to Expand)	Born	Commemorated	Nationality	Role	Awards	Air Force	Command	Unit	DateofIncident *See Note	Aircraft	Type	Serial	Code	Victories (Fighters)	Base	Time	Mission	Incident	Fate	Referring Database	Notes	Links/Archive Reports
1	Bergsland	Per		*Sjt.				Bærum 1918-01-17		Norway	Pilot	MC	RNoAF	Fighter Command	332Sqn Norwegian	1942-08-19	SPITFIRE	V	AB269	AH-D		North Weald	06.20 - unk	Dieppe Raid	Failed To Return GERMAN A/C, FRANCE Fw190, Crash near Dieppe	PoW. Died 1992-06-09		Pilot bailed out. Pilot later successfully escaped, 'The Great Escape' 25-03-1944. Per Bergsland served as an instructor at flight school in Canada before he transferred to the RAF Ferry Command, where he was assigned to fly with a combat unit. As a member of 332Sqn stationed at North Weald airfield, Bergsland's Spitfire Mk.Vb AB269 was shot down by a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 during the Dieppe Raid on 19 August 1942. After arriving at the POW camp, he gave his name as 'Peter Rockland' (Per = Petrus, meaning rock in Greek, and Berg meaning mountain or rock in Norwegian), in order to protect his family in Norway from German persecution. In what later became known as The Great Escape, he was escapee #43 among the 76 prisoners of war who managed to escape from the camp via tunnel with another Norwegian pilot, escapee #44 Jens Müller. 'Bergsland was wearing a civilian suit he had made for himself from a Royal Marine uniform, with an RAF overcoat slightly altered with brown leather sewn over the buttons. A black RAF tie, no hat. He carried a small suitcase which had been sent from Norway. In it were Norwegian toothpaste and soap, sandwiches, and 163 reichsmarks given to him by the Escape Committee. We caught the 2:04 train to Frankfurt an der Oder. Our papers stated that we were Norwegian electricians from the Arbeitslager [labor camp] in Frankfurt working in the vicinity of Sagan. For the journey from Frankfurt to Stettin we had other papers ordering us to change our place of work from Frankfurt to Stettin, and to report to the Birgermeister of Stettin.' Bergsland and Müller made it to the nearby town of Sagan, where they caught a train to Stettin in Germany (now: Szczecin, Poland). At the port, the pair were snuck onto a neutral Swedish ship by friendly sailors and made it to the safety of Gothenburg. There, they entered the British consulate, who arranged travel by train to Stockholm, where they were flown to Scotland from the Bromma airport. From there they were sent by train to London and shortly afterwards to 'Little Norway' in Canada. See AB269 Liby Signed Cover	The Great Escape Wikipedia Bio

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