Finn Varde Jespersen (4 April 1914 – 6 June 1944) was among Norway's leading orienteers in the late 1930s. During World War II, he was a pilot with the rank of lieutenant. He perished during the

invasion of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the Norm ...

Orienteering career

He was born in Kristiania. His parents were Per Mathias Jespersen and Anna Jespersen née Johnsen, both from Skien. In the 1930s he was an active sportsman competing in

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...

for the club IL Heming. He represented the Norwegian national team in the third Scandinavian cup in September 1939, where only Sweden and Norway participated because of travel restrictions for the Finnish athletes due to the recent outbreak of war, and Jespersen placed third in the individual contest. In the 1940 season he won a contest in Finland ahead of the Finnish orienteers Börje Malmström, Jan Gripenberg and Birger Lönnberg. This result has been described as the first noted Norwegian orienteering victory in Finland.

World War II

Jespersen participated in the fighting during the German invasion of Norway in 1940. He then embarked on a long journey via Finland, Russia, Japan, crossing the Pacific Ocean and finally reaching North America. He received his pilot training at the Little Norway training camp in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fellow orienteer Per Bergsland from IL Heming was also trained as a pilot in Toronto. Jespersen served as an instructor at the training school, and later as a pilot flying transport planes. After having been trained on combat aircraft, he joined

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

. Lieutenant Jespersen's Lancaster of 97 Squadron was shot down over

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 Feb ...

the night between 5 and 6 June 1944. He was awarded the

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 ...

posthumously. His diaries from 1940, edited by and with comments by John Berg, were published in 1983 as ''9. april kommer jeg aldri til å glemme.... ''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jespersen, Finn Varde 1914 births 1944 deaths Sportspeople from Oslo Writers from Oslo Norwegian male orienteers Norwegian foot orienteers Norwegian Army personnel of World War II Norwegian expatriates in Canada Norwegian World War II pilots Norwegian Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Bomber pilots Royal Air Force personnel killed in World War II Aviators killed by being shot down Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in France Norwegian diarists 20th-century Norwegian writers 20th-century diarists