Sønsteby, Gunnar Fridtjof Thurmann "Kjakan"

Special Operations Executive (SOE)

Date of birth:: January 11th, 1918 (Rjukan/Telemark, Norway)
Date of death:: May 10th, 2012 (Oslo, Norway)
Buried on:: Vestre gravlund
Nationality:: Norwegian

Biography

Gunnar Sønsteby participated in the Norwegian resistance from 1940 onwards. He joined the Norwegian forces in Østlandet and fought against the Germans until he developed pneumonia. Then he joined the resistance. He went to Sweden in 1941 where he made contact with the British Secret Service Special Operations Executive (Soe). In 1941 he performed a series of courier and intelligence missions in Norway ordered by the British. He was arrested in 1942 and was kept prisoner by the Swedish (? Norwegian more likely) police for three months but he managed to convince the Swedes that he was someone other than the Sønsteby they were looking for.
In 1942 he was stationed in Oslo as a secret agent by SOE, codenamed Nr. 24. After barely having escaped from the Gestapo in 1943, he fled to Sweden again. After having been trained as a saboteur in Great Britain, he returned to Norway in 1943 by parachute and became the liaison for all SOE agents in Norway and head of the Oslojengen, the branch of the Linge company in Oslo. The group performed a series of spectacular acts of sabotage. He stole templates of bills from Norges Bank with which the Norwegian government in exile could print money; he was responsible for the theft of at least 75,000 ration cards and he blew up an oil dump in Oslo. February 23rd, 1943, Sønsteby’s father was arrested by the Gestapo and remained in captivity until December 1944. Sønsteby himself was never caught.
After the war, both the British and Norwegian secret service attempted to recruit him but Sønsteby had enough of the war. He left for the United States instead where he studied at Harvard Business School. He also worked for Standard Oil before his return to Norway in 1949, continuing his employment in the oil industry until 1985.
After his retirement, he was active as a volunteer for the Museum of Norwegian Resistance (Norges Hjemmefrontmuseum). He delivered lectures about the war to school children and fought for war pensions for Norwegian seamen who had participated in the resistance.
He is the only person to have been awarded the Norwegian War Cross three times.
He has also been awarded the:
Forsvarsmedaljen med laubærgren
Kongens Erindringsmedalje med spenne 1940-1945
US Special Operations Command Medal (2008)

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Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Captain
Unit:: Norwegian Independent Company 1, S Section, Special Operations Executive (SOE), British Government
Awarded on:: 1945

Krigskorset

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Awarded on:: August 16th, 1946

With Sword.

Krigskorset

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Awarded on:: August 16th, 1946

Second Krigskorset awarded as third Sword.

Krigskorset

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Awarded on:: August 16th, 1946

Third Krigskorset awarded as third Sword.

Distinguished Service Order (DSO)

Period:: Second World War (1939-1945)
Rank:: Kaptein (Captain)
Unit:: Norwegian Independent Company 1, S Section, Special Operations Executive (SOE), British Government
Awarded on:: 1946

Recommendation (drawn up by General Gubbins:
"....he took his former work and also organised and led the "OSLO DETACHMENT OF NORIC". This consisted of U.K. trained officers and men in the OSLO area who planned and took part in various sabotage actions, with or without local trained men.
From May to October 1944, Fenrik Sonsteby took the leading part in the planning of 17 seperate actions in the OSLO area. He also advised and collected intelligence in regard to several others. He worked in liaison with the C.O.S. of the Military Organisation and under W/T instructions from LONDON.
His campaign opened with the series of attacks on Labour records and Labour exchanges in and near OSLO."

WO 373/108/972