Ole Martin Siem (6 January 1915 – 3 November 1996) was a Norwegian businessperson and World War II resistance member. He was born in Horten as a son of naval commander Ole Siem (1882–1979) and Marie Augusta Ursin Holm (1888–1961). The family moved to

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

, where Siem finished secondary education in 1933. He took his education in shipping engineering at the Norwegian Institute of Technology, graduating in 1938. He also worked one year at Trondhjems Mekaniske Verksted. In February 1939 he married Inger Aagaard (1916-2012). His sister married diplomat Thore Boye, a son of Thorvald Boye, in 1945. When

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 opposing ...

reached Norway with the

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...

, Siem fought for his country in the Battle of Hegra Fortress. After the conventional Norwegian armed forces capitulated, Siem returned to his job at Akers Mekaniske Verksted. While working there he became an informant for the secret intelligence organization RMO, which was established in 1942. His information on the Port of Oslo became especially important for Norwegian ship saboteurs, such as

Max Manus Maximo Guillermo "Max" Manus DSO, MC & Bar (9 December 1914 – 20 September 1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II, specialising in sabotage in occupied Norway. After the war he wrote several books about his adventu ...

Gregers Gram Gregers Winther Wulfsberg Gram (15 December 1917 – 13 November 1944) was a Norwegian resistance fighter and saboteur. A corporal and later second lieutenant in the Norwegian Independent Company 1 ( no, Kompani Linge) during the Second World ...

and Roy Nielsen. When the leader of RMO, A.K. Rygg, had to flee the country in the autumn 1943, Siem took over the leadership together with Sigurd Sverdrup. Among the results of Siem's information was the sabotage towards SS ''Donau''. After the war Siem continued at Akers Mekaniske Verksted, except for a period between 1946 and 1950. In this period he worked for Westfal-Larsen & Co. In 1965 he was promoted to director-general of Akers Mekaniske Verksted. He resigned due to a controversial case involving

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, when a group of gunboats produced in Cherbourg for the Israeli navy circumvented

de Gaulle Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Governm ...

's export boycott and sailed to Israel. He then became executive in Fred. Olsen AS from 1970–72, CEO of

Saga Petroleum Saga Petroleum ASA was a Norwegian upstream petroleum company established in 1972 that was acquired by Norsk Hydro in 1999. In October 2007 it was made part of Statoil. The company was the only fully private oil company in Norway. It had partial ...

from 1972 and 1973 and board chairman of Timex Corporation from 1973 to 1978. Siem was decorated as a Commander of the

Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a ci ...

in 1969. He died in November 1996 in Oslo. Siem helped Israel retrieve missile boats purchased and then embargoed by French president Charles de Gaulle in a Christmas Eve raid at Cherbourg Harbour in 1969.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siem, Martin 1915 births 1996 deaths 20th-century Norwegian businesspeople 20th-century Norwegian engineers Norwegian Institute of Technology alumni Norwegian Army personnel of World War II Norwegian resistance members People from Tromsø People from Horten