Erik Welle-Strand

Erik August Lindhè Welle-Strand (2 June 1915 – 17 July 2001) was a Norwegian mining engineer and resistance member during World War II. He is best known as leader of the illegal radio post Skylark B.

Early life He was born in June 1915 in Bergen. He was a brother of Erling Welle-Strand. As a teenager he was active in the theater (Den Nationale Scene), prior to beginning his compulsory military service in 1935. He also worked briefly as a coal miner for Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, before enrolling at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1936. He travelled the Norwegian Sea with the cutter Nordlys, landed in Florø together with Sverre Midtskau, Sverre Haug and Finn Juell and continued to Trondheim with Juell. In this city he had attended the Institute of Technology.

Among others, the group helped spread vital information about German activity at Vemork heavy water plant.

Post-war life After the war Welle-Strand started his own engineering company, Argo, He founded his own company in Canada in 1951, but later returned to Norway and Argo. Welle-Strand was married and had four children. He lived in Oslo in his later life, and died in July 2001 at Aker Hospital.