World War II · Film · 2017
The 12th Man
Den 12. mann
When a sabotage mission to Arctic Norway is betrayed, the only commando to escape the Germans, Jan Baalsrud, flees wounded and barefoot through snow and fjords with the help of local villagers.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 5 places.
Stop 1: Scalloway, Shetland
Twelve commandos load a fishing boat with eight tonnes of explosives and set out across the North Sea for Norway.
Stop 2: Toftefjord, Rebbenesøya
Key location
Betrayed, the team blows up its boat under German fire, and Jan swims through icy water as his comrades are captured.
Stop 3: Tromsø
The captured men are interrogated by the Gestapo while the SS search for the one who got away.
Stop 4: Manndalen valley
Unable to walk, Jan is hidden by villagers who drag him up the mountains on a sled and leave him in the snow to wait for help.
Stop 5: Mountains toward the Swedish border
Sami herders take up the last stage of the escape across the high plateau toward neutral Sweden.
What really happened
In March 1943, Operation Martin sent 12 Norwegian commandos from Shetland in the fishing boat Brattholm to attack German targets in northern Norway. Betrayed on arrival, they blew up their boat in Toftefjord on 30 March; one man was killed and ten were captured, tortured and executed. Only Jan Baalsrud escaped.
Over nearly two months, wounded and suffering from frostbite, Baalsrud was hidden and carried by local people, left for days in a snow cave and finally taken across the mountains into Sweden by Sami reindeer herders. The film follows his journey faithfully but adds a personal duel with SS officer Kurt Stage; the story was first filmed in 1957 as Nine Lives.
Where to watch
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Full details
- Original title
- Den 12. mann
- Directed by
- Harald Zwart
- Countries
- Norway
- Languages
- Norwegian, German, English
- Released
- 2017
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Resistance
- True story
