Operasjon "Cheese II" - Sira, Norway
Posted by: 
pstidsen
N 58° 29.086 E 006° 39.553
32V E 363530 N 6485060
Historic marker telling the story of the first agents entering Norway from the sky during World War II
Waymark Code: WMJ4YQ
Location: Agder, Norway
Date Posted: 09/24/2013
Views: 18
At 20:25 on 2 January 1942, an older Whitley bomber took off from Tempsford in England, bound for Norway. On board were two southerners Odd Kjeld Starheim from Farsund and Andreas Grill Fasting from Øyslebø. They had the code names "Cheese" and "Biscuit". This was the first time that Norwegian agents of British SOE (Special Operations Executive) was released into the sky over Norway.
The aim of the operation "Cheese II" was to organize 20 guerrilla groups of ten men in Vest-Agder, restore the radio communication between Norway and the UK and examining ten places for weapons drop. It was Fasting should carry out weapons instruction in the region and Starheim should perform sabotage at airports in Lista, Mandal and Kjevik and the Knaben molybdenum mines. Starheim would later return to the UK at "Shetlandsdrosjen" with other Norwegians who were to undergo guerrilla and sabotage training in special schools.
The airdrop took place on the night of January 3. when the two agents jumped over Auskundheia on the west side of Sirdalsvannet. They went down the Flekkefjord with some of the equipment that they brought with them from England. Weapons containers and two radio transmitters where left behind. One radio transmitter should be installed with Debra Tomstad at Helle outside Flekkefjord, the other would go to Milorg-guys Asbjørn Fjeld and Carole Veraasi Kvinesdal.
Next day Fasting, the driver Rolf Smith Sunde and resistance fighters Tor Njaa, Toralf Johansen and Kåre Austad from Flekkefjord returned to look for the rest of the cargo in Auskundheia.
On January 2. 2011, 69 years after the event, this memorial plate was inaugurated. This historic marker is created by Flekkefjord Historielag. The location af the plate is the exact same spot where the truck was parked, when they went searching for the equipment left behind on the night of the drop. When the plate was inagurated, it was done by the last still living man who was there when it all happened. 90 years old, Rolf Smith Sunde returned to the spot where he had parked his truck in 1942.
Source:
Egde - Agder Historielag, ISSN 0333-4082.
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