Last Kon-Tiki crew member (and WWII badass) Knut Haugland dies (bomb, England)

[Dane_in_LA]

Another childhood hero gone.

Norwegian resistance fighter, arrested by the Nazis, but escaped and managed to get to England. Trained with the OSS. Parachuted into occupied Norway as part of a reconnaissance team for a Commando raid on the Rjukan heavy water plant. The raid went horribly wrong when the Commando team's gliders crashed, and Haugland and his team had to live off the land for months. In winter. In Norway.

Come spring, another OSS team parachuted in and together they skied in, forded a river, blew up the plant, dropped a Sten gun of the type used by British commandos (to avoid repercussions against locals) and proceeded to evade a three thousand strong Nazi force following them - 5 of them by cross-country skiing the 400 km to Sweden. Did I mention the three thousand Nazi troops on their heels?

I guess it was only natural that a guy like that felt a little restless after the war.

So when his buddy Thor Heyerdahl decided that the best way to test his controversial hypothesis of pre-Columbian migration from South America to the Polynesian Islands by way of rafts would be to build a raft and set off, Knut Haugland joined him. Thanks to his wartime experience, he was an expert in radio communication under adverse conditions. (The other radio man had been instrumental in directing British bombers on raids on the Nazi battleship Tirpitz.)

With 4 other crewmembers, they built a balsa raft in Peru, set off and spent 101 days crossing 3500+ nautical miles in the Pacific, eventually making landfall in French Polynesia.

He settled down a bit after that, rounding things off with married life and a military career, retiring as Lieutenant Colonel. Died at 92.

They don't make them like that any more.

Knut Haugland: A real-life adventure story - News, People - The Independent

[cpg35223]

Wow. Now that's a great story.