Maximo Guillermo "Max" Manus DSO, MC & Bar (9 December 1914 – 20 September 1996) was a Norwegian resistance fighter 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, specialising in sabotage in occupied Norway. After the war he wrote several books about his adventures and started the successful office supply company ''Max Manus AS''.

Early life

Manus was born in

Bergen, Norway Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

in 1914, to a Norwegian father and a Danish mother. His father's name was originally Johan Magnussen, but he changed his name to Juan Manus after living several years in foreign (mainly Spanish-speaking) countries.

Career

After many years of extensive travelling, Manus returned to Scandinavia before the outbreak of World War II, upon which he soon joined up with the

Norwegian Army The Norwegian Army ( no, Hæren) is the land warfare service branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces. The Army is the oldest of the Norwegian service branches, established as a modern military organization under the command of the King of Norway ...

and went to fight in a volunteer detachment with the Finns against the Soviets. Manus returned to Norway upon hearing the news of the German invasion on 9 April 1940. He fought during the Norwegian campaign, after which he decided to return to Oslo and work underground against the occupiers, both organising a resistance movement, illegal public propaganda and the manufacture of weaponry. He and his comrades tried to assassinate

Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...

and

Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 19 ...

when they visited Oslo. His work was effective, and he soon became a wanted man 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 orga ...

. He was eventually captured and was injured trying to escape. He had to be treated in the main Oslo hospital. The doctor at the hospital lied to the Gestapo officers, saying Manus needed treatment for a broken back, an injured shoulder and a serious concussion. The truth, however, was that he was only bruised and had a light concussion. After 27 days, with the aid of a nurse, he managed to escape through a second-floor window using a rope. In a dramatic escape, he crossed the border into Sweden. By then, the Soviet Union had entered the war against Nazi Germany, so Manus travelled through the Soviet Union, Turkey, Arabia, by ship via Cape Town to the US, to eventually return to fight in Europe. He reconnected with the Norwegian military in the US and went on to further training in Canada, before crossing the Atlantic again to Belfast, then England. There, and in Scotland, he trained further and developed professional skills in sabotage and undercover work. He was then required to learn

parachuting Parachuting, including also skydiving, is a method of transiting from a high point in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere to the surface of Earth with the aid of gravity, involving the control of speed during the descent using a parachut ...

and was dropped in the forests near Oslo with a sabotage team. Donau

In Norway, he resumed his organizational work and made various sabotage attempts on ships in the

Oslofjord The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the N ...

with home-designed limpet mines and even 'swimmer-assisted torpedoes'. The former were the more successful, sinking and damaging some vessels. It was a long but intense learning process of great practical difficulty and danger. He made numerous hazardous trips back and forth across the border to Sweden, where he was able to get a respite from the constant mental and physical pressures of being undercover. Many of his comrades-in-arms were killed, captured and tortured, but Manus managed to survive through a combination of determination and luck, with some very narrow escapes. Shortly after the end of the war, Manus wrote two books about himself. The first, ''Det vil helst gå godt'' (''"It Usually Ends Well"''), describes some of his enterprising and event-filled wandering and working in the jungles of South America and Latin America. Manus' second book was ''Det blir alvor'' (''It Gets Serious''), in which he continues the saga of his resistance work and personal successes in the 1945 sinking of two large vessels of great importance to the German war machine. When peace was declared, Manus found himself chosen to be the personal protection officer of the then

Crown Prince of Norway Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway (; Haakon Magnus; born 20 July 1973) is the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne. He is the only son of King Harald V and Queen Sonja. Haakon represents the fourth generation of the sitting Norwegian royal fami ...

on his triumphal parade in Oslo, and then also with King Haakon VII. This was a great honour, and he was lauded as one of Norway's most resilient and successful fighters, aged only 30 at the time. Manus' books have been translated into English twice; initially an American, very loose and somewhat brief translation entitled ''9 Lives Before Thirty'', and, a few years later, ''Underwater Saboteur'', a one-book adaptation of both of Manus' books, also somewhat concise. Both of these translations were made in the early years after the war, and names were changed in the interest of "protecting the guilty", although Manus himself never changed any names.

Recognition

He was twice awarded Norway's highest decoration for military gallantry, the War Cross with sword (twice means he got one cross with two swords; no recipient received several crosses). In addition to his Norwegian decorations, Manus received the British Distinguished Service Order (DSO) as well as the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC ...

(MC) and

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

(see list below).

Peacetime

Manus went into the office supply business after the war: in the fall of 1945, he and Sophus Clausen went to the United States to set up contracts for office machines. Together they started the company ''Clausen og Manus''. In the years after the war, Manus also hired people who had been convicted for collaborating with Nazi Germany, among them

Walter Fyrst Walter Fyrst (né Fürst; 6 July 1901 – 23 February 1993) was a Norwegian filmmaker. He was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), the son of the physician Valentin Fürst and Margarethe Christiane Dedekam. His first film was '' Troll-elgen'' from 1 ...

. Manus did this after internal discussions and was motivated by a wish for reconciliation, as well as professional considerations. In 1952, the company was split into Sophus Clausen AS and Max Manus AS which now distributed

Olivetti Olivetti S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of computers, tablets, smartphones, printers and other such business products as calculators and fax machines. Headquartered in Ivrea, in the Metropolitan City of Turin, the company has been par ...

and

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...

office machines. The company still exists today.

Personal life

Manus married Ida Nikoline "Tikken" Lindebrække in 1947, and they moved to

Landøya Landøya is an island situated on the north-western part of Asker, in the province of Akershus just outside Oslo, Norway. The Norwegian figure skating star Sonia Henie lived on Landøya, and one of the roads, the Sonja Henies vei, is named after ...

Asker Asker ( no, Asker), properly called Askerbygda in Norwegian, is a district and former municipality in Akershus, Norway. From 2020 it is part of the larger administrative municipality Asker, Viken (also known as Greater Asker) in Viken county, ...

. They met while she was working as liaison for the Norwegian saboteurs at the British consulate in Stockholm. Tikken was the daughter of the County Governor of Bergen and was the sister of

Sjur Lindebrække Sjur Lindebrække (6 April 1909 – 1 October 1998) was a Norwegian banker and Conservative Party of Norway politician. He was born in Voss. During the 1940 Norwegian Campaign, Lindebrække was mobilized by the Norwegian 4th Division. Fro ...

, a bank manager who later became chairman of Høyre. In 1947, Lindebrække gave birth to Max Manus Jr. Manus suffered from nightmares, alcoholism and bouts of depression after his experiences in the war, some of which he talked about in interviews.

Death

After retirement, Manus and Tikken moved to Spain. Max died there in 1996 aged 81.

Film

In December 2007, it was announced that a film about the life of Max Manus was to be made in Norway, starring

Aksel Hennie Aksel Hennie (born 29 October 1975) is a Norwegian actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for his roles in the films '' Headhunters'' (2011), ''Hercules'' (2014), and '' The Martian'' (2015). Early life Hennie was born in the Lamber ...

in the leading role. The film premiered on 19 December 2008 and received mostly positive reviews.

Ship renamed "Max Manus"

A ship that was destroyed and sunk as a result of planning by the

Pelle group The Pelle group (Norwegian: Pelle-gruppen) was a Norwegian resistance group that conducted acts of sabotage against the German occupation of Norway in Østlandet during the autumn of 1944. ''Aftenposten'' called the group's 23 November 1944 ship s ...

, was recovered after the war and renamed "Max Manus" (formerly M/S Troma). "... var i nærheten da aksjonen ble utført. – Det var derimot de fem skipsbyggerne Ellef Baastad, Osvald Kristiansen, Gunnar Andersen, Johan Grønholdt og Erik Marcussen, alle opplært av Ragnar 'Pelle' Sollie. ... Etter krigen byttet tre av de fem navn."

Other uses

"Max Manus" is used as a "tail fin hero" on a Boeing 737-800 aircraft from

Norwegian Air Shuttle Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA, trading as Norwegian, is a Norwegian low-cost airline and Norway's largest airline. It is the fourth largest low-cost carrier in Europe behind Wizz Air, easyJet and Ryanair, the second-largest airline in Scandinavia ...

.Boeing 737 Next Gen Active with Norwegian Air Shuttle
www.airfleets.net

Honours and awards

* War Cross with two swords * Defence Medal 1940–1945 (with rosette) *

Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal is a Norwegian military award, which was instituted by King Haakon VII of Norway on 27 October 1942. It was awarded in recognition of military personnel who served in the Norwegian armed forces in Britain on the ...

* H. M. The King's Commemorative Medal (1940–1945) *

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, ty ...

(United Kingdom) *

with

(United Kingdom) *

Winter War The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...

commemorative with "Lappi" clasp * Medal of Freedom with silver palm (United States) * Medal of Norwegian volunteers to Finland (1940)

Bibliography

* ''Det vil helst gå godt'' – 1945 * ''Det blir alvor'' – 1946 (sequel to ''Det vil helst gå godt'') * ''Sally Olsen: Fangenes engel i Puerto Rico'' – 1975 (biography on social worker and missionary Sally Olsen) * ''Mitt liv'' – 1995 * ''Rottejegeren'' - 2021 (posthumously released)

References

External links

*
Max Manus AS – Hvem var Max Manus?

from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' *
Dagbladet – Han var storforlangende og utålmodig (in Norwegian)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Manus, Max 1914 births 1996 deaths Norwegian people of Danish descent Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Norwegian Army personnel of World War II Norwegian Special Operations Executive personnel Volunteers in the Winter War Norwegian escapees Escapees from German detention Norwegian World War II memoirists Recipients of the Military Cross Recipients of the War Cross with Sword (Norway) Recipients of the Medal of Freedom 20th-century Norwegian writers