Vilhelm Andreas Wexelsen Evang (9 November 1909 – 5 January 1983) was a Norwegian military officer. He headed the

military intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

in Norway for almost twenty years, from 1946 to 1965.

Personal life

Evang was born in

Aker Aker may refer to: Places * Aker, Norway, a geographic area in Oslo and a former municipality in Norway * Vestre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Nordre Aker, a district of Oslo within former Aker municipality * Aker Br ...

as the son of Jens Ingolf Evang and Anna Beate Wexelsen. He grew up in

Kristiania 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 ...

, and married Lisbeth Broch in 1938. He was a brother of civil servant

Karl Evang Karl Evang (19 October 1902 – 3 January 1981) was a Norwegian physician and civil servant. He was born in Oslo, Kristiania as a son of assisting secretary Jens Ingolf Evang (1873–1914) and Anna Beate Wexelsen (1875–1954). He was a brother o ...

Career

Early career

Evang finished his

examen artium Examen artium was the name of the academic certification conferred in Denmark and Norway, qualifying the student for admission to university studies. Examen artium was originally introduced as the entrance exam of the University of Copenhagen in 1 ...

in 1927, and started studying natural sciences 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 ...

. As a student, Evang was a member of the radical left-wing organization

Mot Dag Mot Dag (, 'Towards Day') was a Norwegian political group. The group was active from the 1920s to the early 1930s and was first affiliated with the Labour Party. After World War II, many of its former members were leaders in Norwegian politics and ...

, and as such in opposition to military service. He contributed to the encyclopaedia project

Arbeidernes Leksikon (''The Laborers' Encyclopedia'') is a Norwegian encyclopedia published in six volumes in the 1930s. It was the first reference book in Norwegian to have a pronounced class bias, and the first encyclopedia outside of the Soviet Union to be direc ...

in the 1930s, writing articles on geography and natural science. He later became a member of the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party ( nb, Arbeiderpartiet; nn, Arbeidarpartiet; A/Ap; se, Bargiidbellodat), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party ( no, Det norske Arbeiderparti, DNA), is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centr ...

World War II

During the German attack on Norway in April 1940, Evang participated in the fighting against the German troops, and eventually had to flee to Sweden. In Sweden he came to be the head of the refugee camp in

Öreryd Öreryd () is a village and parish in Småland, Sweden, in the county of Jönköping. During World War II, Öreryd hosted a refugee camp and transit center for refugees fleeing Nazi persecution in occupied Norway, from March 1941 until June 1942, w ...

. In 1942 he was called to London to work for the exiled Norwegian government. In London he was employed at the

Norwegian Ministry of Defence The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Defence ( no, Det kgl. Forsvarsdepartement) is a Norwegian government ministry in charge of the formation and implementation of national security and defence policy, and for the overall management and control of th ...

, working with security.

Post war

Evang served as head of the

Norwegian Intelligence Service The Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) or Etterretningstjenesten (E-tjenesten) is a Norwegian military intelligence agency under the Chief of Defence and the Ministry of Defence. History Olav Njølstad says that the "stay-behind cooperation ...

from 1946 to 1965, first as a Major, and from 1953 with the rank of Colonel. He was responsible for developing and expanding the intelligence service during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. Evang was also a controversial person, and had conflicts both with military officers and with the head of

Norwegian Police Security Service The Norwegian Police Security Service (, ) is the police security agency of Norway. The agency was previously known as ''POT'' (' or Police Surveillance Agency), the name change was decided by the Parliament of Norway on 2 June 2001. History an ...

Asbjørn Bryhn Asbjørn Johan Bryhn (24 August 1906 – 21 January 1990) was a Norwegian police officer, known for his resistance work during World War II, and later head of the Norwegian Police Surveillance Agency. Personal life Bryhn was born in Drammen as th ...

. These conflicts eventually led to his resignation in 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evang, Vilhelm 1909 births 1983 deaths Military personnel from Oslo Mot Dag Norwegian resistance members Norwegian Army personnel of World War II