Knut Haugland

Knut Magne Haugland, DSO, MM, (23 September 1917 – 25 December 2009 ) was a resistance fighter and noted explorer from Norway, who accompanied Thor Heyerdahl on his famous 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition.

Early life and World War II Haugland, born in 1917 in Rjukan, Telemark, Norway, took his examen artium in 1937 qualifying him for university study. In 1938 he enrolled in military radio studies and afterward joined the Norwegian Army. In February 1940 he was stationed in Setermoen, and soon fought in battles near Narvik as a part of the Norwegian Campaign against Germany. After Germany's defeat of the Norwegian forces and the Nazi occupation, Haugland went to work at the factory Høvding Radiofabrikk in Oslo while also secretly involved in the Norwegian resistance movement. After evading arrest several times, in August 1941 he was arrested by Statspolitiet, but escaped and fled to the United Kingdom via Sweden. There he enrolled in the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (Kompani Linge).

Heavy water sabotage

Haugland, with nine other Norwegian resisters organised and carried out the famous raid on the Norsk Hydro Rjukan plant at Vemork. Haugland was parachuted over Hardangervidda on 18 October 1942 together with Arne Kjelstrup, Jens-Anton Poulsson and Claus Helberg. Their codename was Operation Grouse, and their first mission was to await the British Operation Freshman. Freshman became a disastrous failure, but Grouse was ordered to wait for another team: Operation Gunnerside. The plant at Vemork was successfully sabotaged in February 1943.

Rest of the war Haugland and others, stayed in Hardangervidda for two months with Einar Skinnarland, whom he trained. Haugland then went to Oslo to train marine telegraphers. After a trip to the United Kingdom for radio supplies, he returned to Norway in November, being parachuted at Skrimfjella together with Gunnar Sønsteby. Haugland was arrested for a second time, by Gestapo in Kongsberg, but again escaped and commenced his training duties. On 1 April 1944 he narrowly escaped another capture by the Gestapo when one of his transmitters, hidden in the Oslo Maternity Hospital, was located by radio direction finding. Haugland fled to the United Kingdom again, and did not return. Haugland also served as J. S. Wilson's attaché at the 1949 12th World Scout Conference in Elvesæter. Five of the six men in the Kon-Tiki expedition were Scouts.

Kon-Tiki expedition

Haugland first met Thor Heyerdahl in 1944 at a paramilitary training camp in England. It was here that Haugland first heard of Heyerdahl's theories about Polynesian migration patterns, and his plans to cross the Pacific on a balsa wood raft. In 1947 Haugland was invited by Heyerdahl to join the Kon-Tiki expedition as a radio operator. On the expedition Haugland and Torstein Raaby (another former resistance member) were in frequent radio contact with American amateur operators, sending meteorological and hydrographic data to be passed on to the Meteorological Institute in Washington, DC. Haugland died on 25 December 2009, and was the last living crew member who served on the Kon-Tiki expedition. and the Peruvian Order of Merit for Distinguished Service.

In 1988, Haugland was made Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav for his efforts as a museum manager. He also received the Defence Medal with three stars.