We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance
- Book Review,
by David Howarth, Stephen E. Ambrose (Introduction)
Amazon.com
If this story of espionage and survival were a novel, readers might dismiss the Shackleton-like exploits of its hero as too fantastic to be taken seriously. But respected historian David Howarth confirmed the details of Jan Baalsrud's riveting tale. It begins in the spring of 1943, with Norway occupied by the Nazis and the Allies desperate to open the northern sea lanes to Russia. Baalsrud and three compatriots plan to smuggle themselves into their homeland by boat, spend the summer recruiting and training resistance fighters, and launch a surprise attack on a German air base. But he's betrayed shortly after landfall, and a quick fight leaves Baalsrud alone and trapped on a freezing island above the Arctic Circle. He's poorly clothed (one foot is entirely bare), has a head start of only a few hundred yards on his Nazi pursuers, and leaves a trail of blood as he crosses the snow. How he avoids capture and ultimately escapes--revealing that much spoils nothing in this white-knuckle narrative--is astonishing stuff. Baalsrud's feats make the travails in Jon Krakauer's Mt. Everest classic Into Thin Air look like child's play. In an introduction, Stephen Ambrose calls We Die Alone a rare reading experience: "a book that I absolutely cannot put down until I've finished it and one that I can never forget." This amazing book will disappoint no one. --John J. Miller
From Library Journal
This 1955 volume is one of the most remarkable survival stories ever written. Jan Baalsrud was the only survivor of a Norwegian commando team ambushed by the Nazis during World War II. Wounded and with the Germans in pursuit, Baalsrud escaped and miraculously fought his way through the Norwegian tundra to a distant village, where he was saved by locals who helped spirit him to Sweden. Baalsrud suffered frostbite and snowblindness, came through an avalanche, and lived to tell the tale. This edition has a new introduction by Citizen Soldiers' author Stephen Ambrose. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From AudioFile
In this awe-inspiring story, Jan Baalsrud of Norway, along with other resistance fighters, is sent from Britain to northern Norway in March 1943. Someone rats on them, and they're ambushed with Jan, minus one shoe and a toe, escaping alone in the snow and cold. Helped along the way by a number of his countrymen, Baalsrud survives an avalanche, snow-blindness, being buried alive in the snow for over a week, and more before being taken over the border by the Lapps into Sweden on a reindeer sledge. Stuart Langston's narration is an apt fit. His delivery is as spare as the text and every bit as intriguing. His voice has a force of delivery that makes this exciting and unbelievable tale one that the listener will want to hear in one sitting. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
The New York Times
Fills one with the humble admiration for the stubborn courage of a man who refused to die under circumstances that would have killed ninety-nine men out of a hundred.
Review
"Fills one with humble admiration."--New York Times
Chicago Sun Times
One of the great escape stories of our time.
Review
"Fills one with humble admiration."--New York Times
Book Description
One of the most exciting escape narratives to emerge from the challenges and miseries of World War II chronicles Jan Baalsrud¿s escape from Nazi-occupied arctic Norway.
From the Back Cover
Here is one of the most exciting escape narratives to emerge from the challenges and miseries of World War Two. In March 1943, a team of expatriate Norwegian commandos sailed from northern England for Nazi-occupied arctic Norway to organize and supply the Norwegian resistance. But they were betrayed and the Nazis ambushed them. Only one man survived - Jan Baalsrud. This is the incredible and gripping story of his escape. Frostbitten and snowblind, pursued by the Nazis, he dragged himself on until he reached a small arctic village. He was near death, delirious, and a virtual cripple. But the villagers, at mortal risk to themselves, were determined to save him, and - through impossible feats - they did. We Die Alone is an astonishing true story of heroism and endurance. Like Salvomir Rawicz''s The Long Walk, it is also an unforgettable portrait of the determination of the human spirit. (5 1/2 X 8 1/4, 272 pages, b&w photos)
About the Author
David Howarth served as a naval officer during World War Two, running the Norwegian-manned spy ring whose name later became the title of his first best-selling book, The Shetland Bus. He died in 1991. Stephen E. Ambrose is the best-selling author of Citizen Soldiers, D-Day, Undaunted Courage, and numerous other books. He is the founder of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans.
Excerpted from We Die Alone by David Howarth, Stephen E. Ambrose. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
A SHORT EXCERPT FROM WE DIE ALONE Jan Baalsrud set out in 1943 with a team of commandos to establish resistance to the Nazis in his native Norway. Upon landing, his eleven comrades were captured and killed. Only Baalsrud survived by killing a Gestapo officer and swimming through frigid waters. Shot in the foot, he set off for neutral Sweden. During his mountainous trek, he goes snowblind, is injured in an avalanche, suffers frostbite, and nearly starves while hiding in a snowcave. He is finally-remarkably-pulled to freedom by a team of reindeer as German bullets fly overhead. This short excerpt explains how, while hiding in a snow cave awaiting help, he found the courage to amputate his toes. This act of self mutilation probably saved his life. It is just one short, amazing piece of a fascinating book. "He was still under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that gangrene would go on spreading, unless one got rid of it, like dry rot in a house. The source of it all was his toes. They were not part of him any more, although they were still attached to him, and it seemed only common sense that he would be better off without them. There was nobody he could expect to help him; but now the time and the chance had come, and he made his preparations to cut off his toes himself. He still had his pocket-knife, and he still had some brandy. With the brandy as anaesthetic, and the knife as scalpel, lying curled up on his side in the snow with his leg drawn up so that he could reach it, he began carefully to dissect them one by one. It would have been best to get it all over quickly, but apart from the pain and the sickening repulsion, it was difficult to cut them; more difficult than he had expected. He had to find the joints. His hands were rather clumsy and very weak, because there ha! d been some frostbite in his fingers too, and the knife was not so sharp as it had been. He grimly persevered, and slowly succeeded. As each one was finally severed, he laid it on a small ledge of rock above him where he could see it, because he no longer had the strength to throw it far away. After each one he had to stop, to get over the nausea and dope himself with brandy. Someone had brought him some cod liver oil ointment, and he smeared a thick slab of it on each wound and tied it in place with a strip of blanket. This grisly operation was spread out over nearly three days. At the end of it, there were nine toes on the ledge. The little toe on his left foot did not seem so bad as the others, so he kept it." --From We Die Alone (pages 194-195)
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