Lark was the code word for the group that was sent from the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

as part of the preparations for a possible Allied invasion of Norway. Lark developed into the main organisation for the

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

(SOE) in

Trøndelag Trøndelag (; or is a county and coextensive with the Trøndelag region (also known as ''Midt-Norge'' or ''Midt-Noreg,'' "Mid-Norway") in the central part of Norway. It was created in 1687, then named Trondhjem County (); in 1804 the county was ...

, and became the effective leadership of

Milorg Milorg (abbreviation of militær organisasjon – military organization) was the main Norwegian resistance movement during World War II. Resistance work included intelligence gathering, sabotage, supply-missions, raids, espionage, transport of ...

in the region. The plan for a possible Allied invasion in Norway was to split Norway in half around

Nord-Trøndelag Nord-Trøndelag (; "North Trøndelag") was a counties of Norway, county constituting the northern part of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Sør-Trøndelag ("South Trøndelag") county as well as the county of Nordl ...

and southern

Nordland Nordland (; , , , ) is one of the three northernmost Counties of Norway, counties in Norway in the Northern Norway region, bordering Troms in the north, Trøndelag in the south, Norrbotten County in Sweden to the east, Västerbotten County to t ...

, and thus isolate the German troops in the north (Operation Jupiter). Lark started its operations in Trøndelag on 10 February 1942, when and came to Trondheim from the UK. The group's mission was to start training men in weapons and guerrilla tactics. Lark had been reinforced by ,

Herluf Nygaard Herluf Nygaard (1 October 1916 – 3 December 2001) was a Norwegian military officer. He was born in Lurøy Municipality. He graduated from the Norwegian Military Academy in 1946. He was promoted to Colonel in 1965, and Major General in 1968. ...

, Olav Krause Sættem and by April 1942, while Pevik went to London where he wrote an extensive report to Major

Malcolm Munthe Major Malcolm Grane Ludovic Martin Munthe MC (30 January 1910 – 24 November 1995) was a British soldier, writer, and curator, and son of the Swedish doctor and writer Axel Munthe and his English second wife Hilda Pennington-Mellor. Early ...

. Sættem, Christiansen, Hansen and Sørli went to

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

later the same year. During this time, Lark was mainly occupied with a plan to sink the German battleship ''

Tirpitz Tirpitz may refer to: People * Alfred von Tirpitz (1849–1930), German admiral ** Tirpitz Plan, a plan for Germany to achieve world power status through naval power Ships * German battleship ''Tirpitz'', a World War II-era Bismarck-class ...

'', which at the time was situated in the

Trondheimsfjord The Trondheim Fjord or Trondheimsfjorden (), an inlet of the Norwegian Sea, is Norway's List of Norwegian fjords, third-longest fjord at long. It is located in the west-central part of the country in Trøndelag county, and it stretches from Ørl ...

. Nygaard and Hansen were captured and tortured in December 1942; Nygaard later escaped, while Hansen died at Falstad. Lark was reinforced by

Erik Gjems-Onstad Erik-Ørn Gjems-Onstad (22 February 1922 – 18 November 2011) was a Norwegian Norwegian resistance movement, resistance member, officer, lawyer, sports official, politician, author and anti-immigration activist. Gjems-Onstad joined the Norwegi ...

, and Nils Uhlin Hansen in March 1943. With the

Allied invasion of Sicily The Allied invasion of Sicily, also known as the Battle of Sicily and Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II in which the Allies of World War II, Allied forces invaded the island of Sicily in July 1943 and took it from the Axis p ...

in July 1943, it became clear that Norway would not be the scene of at least the primary Allied invasion of Europe. Lark continued to organise Milorg-groups, and planned offensives against Nazi collaborators.Gjems-Onstad, 1990, p. 51.

References

Bibliography

* {{cite book, year=1990, title=LARK: Milorg i Trøndelag 1940-1945, publisher=Midt-Norge Forlag, isbn=82-7358-017-2, first=Erik, last=Gjems-Onstad, location=Stjørdal Special Operations Executive Norway in World War II Norwegian resistance movement

See also

References

Bibliography