Arvid Kristian Storsveen (9 July 1915 – 27 April 1943) was a Norwegian Military Officer and organizer of the secret agency XU, the main intelligence gathering organisation within occupied

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Biography

Arvid Kristian Storsveen was born in

Aker, Norway Aker was a former independent municipality in Akershus, Norway, that constitutes the vast majority of the territory of the modern city of Oslo. The name originally belonged to a farm which was located near the current Old Aker Church. The church ...

. Storsveen studied engineering at the

Norwegian Institute of Technology The Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norwegian: ''Norges tekniske høgskole'', NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was m ...

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

. After graduation in 1939, he was employed at the Norwegian Water Resources and Electricity in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, Norway. Lt. Storsveen took part in the Norwegian Campaign against the Nazi German invasion forces in the spring of 1940. Following the Norwegian surrender, he soon saw the value of an intelligence-gathering organisation for the Allies. This organisation, called ' XU', was started as early as July 1940 and became a reliable source of information for the

Supreme Allied Commander Supreme Allied Commander is the title held by the most senior commander within certain multinational military alliances. It originated as a term used by the Allies during World War I, and is currently used only within NATO for Supreme Allied Comm ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. Many of the members were obtained from science students at the

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

. After two years of dangerous work, Storsveen was forced to escape to neutral Sweden in July 1942, successfully evading the German units who were tracking him down. He returned to Oslo in the spring of 1943, but due to an accident he was found and killed by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one organi ...

on 27 April. Storsveen carried false documentation on his person; even after his death, the Gestapo never realised the true identity of the man they had killed and so his organisation was able to recover from the incident. Øistein Strømnæs assumed the leadership of XU when Storsveen was killed. 1st Lt. Storsveen was posthumously awarded Norway's highest decoration for military gallantry, the

War Cross with sword The War Cross with Sword (Norwegian Bokmål: ''Krigskorset med sverd, '' Norwegian Nynorsk: ''Krigskrossen med sverd'') is the highest ranking Norwegian gallantry decoration. It is awarded for extraordinary brave actions or extraordinary leadersh ...

. He was buried at

Vestre gravlund Vestre Gravlund is a cemetery in the Frogner borough of Oslo, Norway. It is located next to the Borgen metro station. At , it is the largest cemetery in Norway. It was inaugurated in September 1902 and also contains a crematorium (''Vestre kre ...

in Oslo .

Legacy

Arvid Storsveens plass is a small park with playground at

Blindern Blindern is the main campus of the University of Oslo, located in Nordre Aker in Oslo, Norway. Campus Most of the departments of the University of Oslo are located at Blindern; other, smaller campuses include Sentrum (law), Gaustad (medicine), ...

in the district Nordre Aker in Oslo. A memorial to Storsveen has been unveiled at the site.

Biography

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading