Alfred Henningsen, a most unusual and highly decorated Norwegian WWII veteran, has passed away. Like Lars Åhlander, who also recently passed away, he was very helpful towards me.
Alfred Henningsen was incredibly active during WWII, serving as a Norwegian soldier in 1940; secret agent for the Soviet Union; special operator for the British Secret Intelligence Service and finally as a Norwegian Army officer in the Arctic. In 1945 he was in close combat against SS-soldiers, just barely survived and was taken prisoner. The full story will appear in a coming book of mine.
Here is Alfred's Wikipedia-page and obituary, published today. His uniform and many medals - only the Norwegian ones are on the uniform above - are on permanent display in the Troms Defence Museum in Setermoen.
Who was Lars Åhlander then? A talented writer and editor and certainly one of the greatest researchers on the subject of the Swedish minority in Ukraine. During both WWI and WWII these Swedes were conscripted to fight, during WWII both for the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. Many of the most interesting passages about them in Swedes at War 1914-1945 are the result of Lars Åhlander's research. Here is his obituary.
Thank you, Alfred and Lars, for all your support.
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