November 17, 2022
* Music Credits *
American Legion / Headed to the Hillside / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Phoenix Tail / Dark Woods / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
King Peaks / Bury Your Secrets in Me / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
American Legion / Summer Knot / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com
Narration
A big part of Bjorg’s life was spending time with her friends who lived closeby in Drange. Tio, Tonnes, Hildur – and many others. Her friends were very special to her. Bjorg spent a lot of time outdoors with them, away from the adults.
Bjorg made a new friend during the war – Borgny. Borgny and her family came to Drange during the war. They were forced out of their home in Lista. You will hear more about her in the next episode.
Last time you heard about how Bjorg tried to help the prisoner. Going against what the Nazis allowed was not a new concept to Bjorg. In fact, her own grandpa kept a secret radio to hear the news about the war.
In this story, Bjorg and her friends had their own secret adventure, and their actions helped the British get away.
The kids were hanging out together up on the mountain one day, when a British torpedo ship came into Drange.
Bessa: I told you about the English torpedo ship that came in the fjord?
Kristen: No.
Bessa: They – they came in the fjord all the way into Drange and they docked over by and you look at that picture there on that side and the English people, they sank it there because the Germans were after them to get that ship and the Germans followed them in the fjord.
But the English people, they managed to sink that ship before the Germans came in. And we were standing – you remember (Norwegian name) on that point and we used to sit on, yeah, we could sit there, the kids and we’d – so we watched them sink. It had disappeared and the crew on the ship took off up in the mountains. They took off.
They were our people, you know.
So but when the ship went down, a lot of stuff on that ship would float to the top. So we’re sitting there and Tonnes. He was always the leader, you know, Let’s get a boat and go over there and look.
Kristen: Weren’t the Germans right there?
Bessa: And they hadn’t come in they hadn’t come as far as Kolones yet, but we knew they were on the way. So and we wanted to take away what was floating so the Germans wouldn’t see it.
So what came up was blankets, clothes. They floated to the top, even a couple of pots so we took whatever and put it in the boat.
Kristen: So where we where were your parents when this happened?
Bessa: They were doing their work.
And we came home with this stuff, and we were told not to say anything, just to hide it.
But it wasn’t many hours later. Here comes the Germans in their boat. Slow. Going all around the fjord.
Looking and looking down. And looking down and looking down. And. And we knew just exactly where it was. They came so close once. It was unbelievable. But they didn’t see it.
So the Englishmen got away with this.
Years later, or maybe the next winter when the ice – and we were out skating. We skated over there and you could see the ship.
We said, There it is! We could see it.
Kristen: Were the Germans there then?
Bessa: No, no. This is after the war. We would go and look at this ship for years. It was laying there. That ship was brought up about ten years ago by the Norwegians. They dragged it up and got everything ashore. It was a historical moment.
Kristen: Wow. Now, if you hadn’t gone out there and grabbed all the stuff that floated to the top –
Bessa: Then the Germans would have seen it, that they would have found it.
Kristen: So you helped?
Bessa: Yeah, without knowing it. We just dragged into the boat and the public hid it behind a rock or something. I don’t know what the boys did with it.
Kristen: But why do you think you are getting all this stuff? Because you wanted the stuff or because you wanted to help hide the ship?
Bessa: We wanted to hide it. We knew – somehow we knew. But -just seeing the guys run up the mountain up and disappeared, they got away.
Kristen: Did they see you?
Bessa: They probably did. But they couldn’t care less. We were just kids.
Narration
There were a few things I was curious about. Like, how come the Nazis who were stationed there in Drange didn’t see what was going on. I asked my grandmother this, and she said the Nazis weren’t able to see from where they were stationed.
Also, the fjord there is very deep, but the British sank their ship close to the shore. That’s why the kids were able to find it later when they were skating.
I want to tell you next time about Bjorg’s friend Borgny. They had a very special friendship that lasted through my grandmother’s lifetime. You’ll get to hear about one of their fun adventures making caramel and the clever ways the two friends were able to get sugar.
Thank you for listening to Bessa’s Story. I’d like to thank our sound engineer, Kalyn Pedde. You can now listen to this podcast on iTunes and on Google Podcasts. You can subscribe on either platform. I invite you to please go and leave a rating and a comment. Thank you!