Max Manus
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Max Manus | |
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Winter War Participation Medal Various American/Polish/Italian awards | |
Spouse(s) | |
Relations | Johan Magnussen Juan Manus (father), Gerda Kiørup (mother), Pia Manus (sister) |
Other work | Shop assistant, sailor, author, businessman and personal protection officer |
Maximo Guillermo Manus
Early life
Manus was born in
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
His work was effective, and he soon became a wanted man by the Gestapo. 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 and was dropped in the forests near Oslo with a sabotage team.
In Norway, he resumed his organizational work and made various sabotage attempts on ships in the Oslofjord 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
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
Peacetime
Manus went into the
Personal life
Manus married
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,[5] starring Aksel Hennie 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, was recovered after the war and renamed "Max Manus" (formerly M/S Troma).[6]
Other uses
"Max Manus" is used as a "tail fin hero" on a Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Norwegian Air Shuttle.[7]
Honours and awards
- War Cross with two swords
- Defence Medal 1940–1945 (with rosette)
- Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal
- H. M. The King's Commemorative Medal (1940–1945)
- Distinguished Service Order (United Kingdom)
- Military Cross with Bar (United Kingdom)
- Winter War 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
- ISBN 82-990753-0-0, page 274-276
- ^ Max Manus ansatte nazister etter krigen, Dagbladet 19. desember 2008
- ^ Max Manus AS Norway
- ^ "Max bar på mange vonde følelser". Budstikka. 29 January 2009.
- ^ Nazis marched on Oslo again... as part of a new film Archived 10 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Aftenposten, 16 April 2008
- ^ Morten Conradi; Øystein Rakkenes (30 October 2013). "Urimelig stor belastning". Dagsavisen. p. 5. Archived from the original on 28 January 2015. "... 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."
- ^ Boeing 737 Next Gen Active with Norwegian Air Shuttle www.airfleets.net