Lark was the code word for the group that was sent from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

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 ...

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 ...

as part of the preparations for a possible Allied invasion of Norway. Lark developed into the main organisation for the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

(SOE) in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; sma, Trööndelage) is a county in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County ( no, Trondhjems Amt); in 1804 the county was split into Nord-Trøndelag and Sør-Trøndelag by the King of Denmar ...

, and became the effective leadership of

Milorg Milorg (abbreviation of militær organisasjon – military organization) was the main Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. Resistance work included intelligence gathering, sabotage, supply-missions, raids, espionage, transport of ...

in the region. The plan for a possible Allied invasion in Norway was to split Norway in half around

Nord-Trøndelag Nord-Trøndelag (; "North Trøndelag") was a county constituting the northern part of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. The county was established in 1804 when the old Trondhjems amt was divided into two: Nordre Trondhjems amt and S ...

and southern

Nordland Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...

, and thus isolate the German troops in the north (Operation Jupiter). Lark started its operations in Trøndelag on 10 February 1942, when and came to Trondheim from the UK. The group's mission was to start training men in weapons and guerrilla tactics. Lark had been reinforced by , Herluf Nygaard, Olav Krause Sættem and by April 1942, while Pevik went to London where he wrote an extensive report to Major

Malcolm Munthe Major Malcolm Grane Ludovic Martin Munthe MC (30 January 1910 – 24 November 1995) was a British soldier, writer, and curator, and son of the Swedish doctor and writer Axel Munthe and his English second wife Hilda Pennington-Mellor. Early li ...

. Sættem, Christiansen, Hansen and Sørli went to

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

later the same year. During this time, Lark was mainly occupied with a plan to sink the German battleship '' Tirpitz'', which at the time was situated in the

Trondheimsfjord The Trondheim Fjord or Trondheimsfjorden (), an inlet of the Norwegian Sea, is Norway's third-longest fjord at long. It is located in the west-central part of the country in Trøndelag county, and it stretches from the municipality of Ørland in ...

. Nygaard and Hansen were captured and tortured in December 1942; Nygaard later escaped, while Hansen died at

Falstad '', '' no, Falstad fangeleir'', construction=1895-1910 Falstad concentration camp (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Falstad fangeleir'', German language, German: ''SS-Strafgefangenenlager Falstad'') was situated in the village of Ekne in what was ...

. Lark was reinforced by

Erik Gjems-Onstad Erik-Ørn Gjems-Onstad, MBE (22 February 1922 – 18 November 2011) was a Norwegian resistance member, officer, lawyer, sports official, politician, author and anti-immigration activist. Gjems-Onstad joined the Norwegian resistance movement af ...

, and

Nils Uhlin Hansen Nils Uhlin Hansen (6 May 1919 – 11 January 1945) was a Norwegian long jumper and resistance member during World War II. He had a successful athletics career before the war; setting a Nordic long jump record which was not surpassed for 20 ...

in March 1943. With the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis powers ( Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany). It bega ...

in July 1943, it became clear that Norway would not be the scene of at least the primary Allied invasion of Europe. Lark continued to organise Milorg-groups, and planned offensives against Nazi collaborators.Gjems-Onstad, 1990, p. 51.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, year=1990, title=LARK: Milorg i Trøndelag 1940-1945, publisher=Midt-Norge Forlag, isbn=82-7358-017-2, first=Erik, last=Gjems-Onstad, location=Stjørdal

References

Bibliography

See also