My novel STEEL TOWN is based on the opioid epidemic that has infected the Steel Town of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.

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Canada Television's W5 produced an excellent video on this subject.

The Norwegian resistance movement played an important part in World War Two. The people who fought in the Norwegian resistance had a number of major advantages over the Germans – a long coast line with vast amounts of the country uninhabited. Norway also had a long border with neutral Sweden which could be easily crossed. In such an environment, a focused resistance movement could do great harm to an occupying army.The Norwegian secret army (known as Milorg) was led by General Ruge. Unlike Poland, Czechoslovakiaand Greece, the Norwegians were not split at a political level. There was also a high degree of patriotism despite the actions of Vidkun Quisling.

Ironically, the one major clash Milorg had was with Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE). Milorg wanted to engage in activities that would not lead to Nazi reprisals (the collection of intelligence being the primary one). SOE wanted sabotage and raids by Milorg, even though such an approach had caused atrocities to be committed against civilians elsewhere in occupied Europe.

This air of distrust over methods continued throughout 1942 and was only resolved at the end of that year when SOE had to reconsider its desired approach in Norway. Both sides made compromises and attacks on factories became a stock in trade of the Norwegian resistance. In particular, Milorg played a critically important part in ending the attempts by Nazi Germany to produce heavy water in Norway. Heavy water was vital in the atomic energy programme Germany was attempting to exploit. The destruction of the heavy water factory at Rjukan in March 1943 and the sinking of a ferry boat transporting about 1,300 lbs of heavy water in February 1944 had serious implications for the Nazi’s atomic research programme. The actual attack on the heavy water factory at Rjukan was carried out by Norwegian commandoes, but a lot of the intelligence data they used came from Milorg.

Milorg was very well equipped by SOE. The environment in Norway meant that parachute drops by SOE could be carried out with relative ease as there were so many potential drop zones – and the Wehrmacht could only cover so many at any one time. In 1944 , the number of people in Milorg stood at 32,000. Nazi Germany was also fed false information that Norway was a target for an invasion of Europe via Norway. As a result, Germany increased the number of men it had there – men who could have served a better purpose for the Wehrmacht elsewhere in western Europe.
* Source: ​historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 

NNorwegian Independent Company 1 (NOR.I.C.1) was a British Special Operations Executive (SOE) group formed in March 1941 originally for the purpose of performing commando raids during the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany. Organized under the leadership of Captain Martin Linge, it soon became a pool of talent for a variety of special operations in Norway.
  The original English-language administrative title did not have much resonance in Norwegian and they soon became better known as Kompani Linge (Linge's Company). Martin Linge's death early in the war came to enhance the title, which became formalised as Lingekompaniet in his honour.
  The members of the unit were trained at various locations in the United Kingdom, including at the SOE establishment at Drumintoul Lodge in the Cairngorms, Scotland.[2]
  Their initial raids in 1941 were to Lofoten (Operation Claymore) and Måløy (Operation Archery), where Martin Linge was killed. Their best known raids were probably the Norwegian heavy water sabotage. Other raids included the Thamshavnbanen sabotage. In the capital area, the Oslogjengen carried out several sabotage missions. In cooperation with Milorg, the main Norwegian resistance organisation, communication lines with London were gradually improved during the war, so that by 1945, 64 radio operators were spread throughout Norway.
   The Linge Company was for a time counted amongst the most decorated military forces in the United Kingdom during World War II.
​* Source Wikkipedia

The National Treasury of Norway consisted of 50 tons of gold worth 240 million kr, in 1940 approximately US$54.5 million in 1940, or US$1.8 Billion in 2015.

When the German invasion began, the gold was evacuated from Oslo first overland to Åndalsnes and then by ship to Tromsø. From Tromsø, evacuating Allied forces took the cargo of gold to Britain. The gold arrived safely in Britain despite German ground and air attacks. It was ultimately shipped to North America.

When news reached the government in the early hours of 9 April 1940 that the patrol boat Pol III had been attacked and that enemy ships were approaching Oslo, orders went out to evacuate the gold to the vault in Lillehammer. The gold was loaded onto 26 civilian lorries. The last lorries left Oslo hours before the Wehrmacht arrived.
The gold stayed at Lillehammer for a few days before having to move again due to the German advance. It was loaded onto a train and travelled across country away from the German advance to the port cities of Åndalsnes and Molde, where due to German bombing it was removed by the british navy along with members of the royalty and the government farther north to the city of Tromsø where the allies still had control.
In Tromsø, the gold was loaded onto the British cruiser HMS Enterprise shown above. The cruiser sailed south to Harstad, before departing on 25 May. Enterprise survived two German air attacks en route to Scapa Flow.. Finally, the gold was shipped in instalments across the Atlantic Ocean to America and to Canada. Of the 50 tons from Oslo, the only losses were 297 gold coins from a barrel damaged during transit aboard a British vessel.

The gold was gradually sold in America – partly to fund the government in exile. Ten tons of gold coins returned to Norway in 1987
*Source Wikipedia

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​With its ever-increasing demand for ferrying services, the Under Secretary of State for Air proposed that the ATA open its ranks to women. There was a snag, though. The ATA was now operating out of RAF ferry pools, its pilots working alongside RAF transport pilots, and the Air Ministry was opposed to the posting of women pilots to RAF units. Politically and culturally, there was opposition, as well, the arguments falling broadly along two lines:
1. Aviation was an unsuitable profession for a woman.
2. Women pilots would be taking flying jobs away from men.

Many people, men and women, voiced their protests to these attitudes, and worked vigorously to promote the idea utilizing women for ferrying duties, but none with so much energy and determination as Pauline Gower, a commercial pilot with over 2000 hours' experience, and a commissioner in the Civil Air Guard. In the latter role, she had been responsible for overseeing the training and licensing of pilots in civilian flying clubs. Her tireless efforts are too extensive to chronicle here. . 

Because of Pauline's zealous efforts, the decision was made in November 1939 to form a pool of eight women pilots to ferry Tiger Moths, which were small, slow single-engined open cockpit trainers. As it was in the case of Gerald d'Erlanger, the one who proposed the idea was the one who got the job, and Pauline was appointed commander of this first batch of women flyers. Like d'Erlanger, she would hold the post throughout the war.
The women would be based at Hatfield, just north of London, and would fly their lanes from the nearby deHavilland factory to training airfields and storage units. As it turned out, these destinations would be located for the most part in northern England and Scotland. As it also turned out, this task would be done in the middle of winter. There were two reasons why the women were given this task:
1. Nobody else wanted it.
2. Light trainers would be cheapest to replace if broken by a woman. As Pauline herself remarked on this attitude, "("It's assumed) that hand that rocked the cradle wrecked the crate."

On January 1, 1940, the ATA officially accepted the "First Eight" into service: Winifred Crossley, Margaret Cunnison, Margaret Fairweather, Mona Friedlander, Joan Hughes (the youngest, at 21), Gabrielle Patterson, Rosemary Rees, and Mirion Wilberforce. All these women were highly experienced, each having more than 600 hours of flying time, and all were rated flying instructors. Pauline, at 29, was younger than most of the women she commanded. Yet she was a natural leader, and capably shouldered the responsibilities of her office.
Pauline had an iron will and a fierce determination to see women accepted on an equal basis with men. She was a mover and a shaker, but never was pushy or overbearing. She was gracious, tactful, gently persuasive, friendly, warm, and kind. She got things accomplished because people respected and admired her. Among all the ATA pilots that I have talked with, men and women, not one has said a negative thing about her.
This was the first time in history (in England, or anywhere else in the world) that women would be officially employed in ferrying military aircraft, and, despite almost overwhelming hardships of that first winter, they would do a sterling job of it. They knew that the fate of hundreds of women pilots, who desperately longed to be also allowed into ATA's ranks, depended on them. Of their own feelings at being tendered such a heavy responsibility, Pauline joked that, in their case, ATA stood for "Always Terrified Airwomen." Their spotless and efficient record made an impression on those with the power to make things happen, and more women were accepted into the ATA.
 * Sorce: .airtransportaux.com

The Telavåg Atrocity
"The quick and brutal annihilation of the coastal fishing town of Telavåg, was personally overseen by (Reichskommissar Josef) Terboven. As the villagers were watching, all buildings were destroyed, all boats were sunk or confiscated, and all livestock taken away. All men in the village were either executed or sent to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen and Grini. Of the seventy-two who were deported from Telavåg, thirty-one were murdered in captivity. Women and children were imprisoned for two years. Eighteen Norwegian prisoners (unrelated to Telavåg) held at an internment camp were also executed as a reprisal. Though smaller in scale, this atrocity is often compared to similar events at Lidice in the Czech Republic and Oradour-sur-Glane in France. Telavåg was completely erased from the map."
* source: Stutthof Diaries Collection

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Quebec Fire Kills 2; Linked to Cult in Switzerland
​By CLYDE FARNSWORTH,

Oct. 6, 1994
MORIN HEIGHTS, Quebec, Oct. 5— A fire at a luxurious chalet complex took the lives today of a man and woman who are believed to be members of the Order of the Solar Temple, the sect associated with a mass killing and suicide at two sites in Switzerland, the police said.
Officials in this Laurentian mountain village, 50 miles northwest of Montreal, said the two chalets that burned here were connected by a walkway and that one was owned by the sect's founder, Luc Jouret.
Mr. Jouret left Quebec after pleading guilty in July 1993 to possession of illegal weapons and conspiracy. A judge decided that Mr. Jouret had acquired a gun in self-defense, put him on probation for a year and ordered him to donate $1,000 to the Red Cross.
The two victims in Canada wore red and gold medallions around their necks with the initials T. S., assumed to be the initials for Temple Solaire, or Solar Temple in English. The medals also bore a double-headed eagle and an inscription invoking the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The second chalet belonged to Joseph Di Mambro, 70, a member of the sect, a spokesman for the Quebec provincial police, Michel Brunet, said in Montreal.
Mr. Brunet said the two bodies were badly burned and had not been identified. But preliminary reports from the autopsy indicated that the male victim was about 40, the police said, and that the victims were alive when the fire started.
The police estimate that some 50 to 75 members of the sect live in Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke and other towns in Quebec Province. Mr. Brunet said that the authorities had "checked to make sure the people were alive."
The fire seemed to have been started in a manner similar to those that killed 48 in Switzerland, the police spokesman said.
Electrical wires in the two chalets were linked to tanks of gasoline, Mr. Brunet said. The fire may have been triggered by a connection to a telephone, which would have emitted an electric charge when it rang.
The two cone-shaped chalets were built about four years ago on a quiet hillside behind the town center on a street called Chemin du Paysan.
People in Morin Heights, which is a ski resort in the winter and a getaway for wealthy Montrealers in the summer, were startled by the fire and deaths.
"I couldn't believe it," said Luc Labelle, 28, who was cleaning out a pickup truck in a driveway of his mother's home, across the street from the chalets. He said he had not met either of the two chalet owners and knew nothing about them.
But the sect has long been known to the Quebec police and to the province's biggest public utility, the electric power company Hydro Quebec. At least 15 employees of Hydro Quebec had links with the Solar Temple or an offshoot, the Academy for Research and Knowledge of Advanced Science, the utility said.
The utility management asked its auditor general to open an internal investigation last year after one employee and sect member, Jean-Pierre Vinet, was arrested and charged with conspiring to buy firearms equipped with silencers.
The police said they believed the sect required weapons to protect its members "against a soon-to-come apocalypse."
The investigation found that Mr. Jouret had used Hydro Quebec's offices for meetings in which he addressed from 10 to 50 employees on such topics as "The Meaning of Life, Self-Realization and Management and the Manager's Health."

Get in your Christmas spirit!
Give that special person a Christmas gift of
ENEMIES,
my WW1 historical novel.

Here's an incentive!
Leave a comment, and I'll send you a PDF copy of my last mystery,
A SCENT OF ALMOND.
___________

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