Customer Reviews

We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Book was recommended as the most exciting story of survival...It was interesting, and I do recommend but not the MOST exciting. Fast paced, easy read which informs us on how much we can really endure with a positive attitude.

I rarely bother with adventure stories, but Howarth's fine prose swept me into this tale and kept me at it. The last half of the book I took in one sitting. We hardly care about the protagonist, Jan Baalsrud, as a personality. He has remarkable courage and incredible physical stamina but little spiritual depth. In the hands of a lesser writer, his story could easily have degenerated into a limp survival yarn of the sort regularly published in Reader's Digest. But Howarth gives meaning to the story both through his fine description of the harsh natural world and by his sympathetic treatment of the dozens of volunteers who came to Baalsrud's rescue. Their attempt to rescue one soldier at the risk of their lives became a political as well as a humanitarian cause, virtually the only blow these Norwegians could strike against German invaders in the wastelands of northern Scandinavia.

I'm not a compulsive reader of fantastic true survival stories, though I was raised in the Colorado Rockies and enjoy a bit of moutaineering. But this one was available on tape from the public library.

It started with a lot of bullets over the head and exploding boats and boots lost in the snow and frostbite -- many, many good people who risk their lives for something intangible. The book, I feel, is very good at expressing the states of mind of the people involved -- it's not a simple recounting of events.

But there's one major event that starts about 2/3 of the way through the book, which was so fantastic that I sort of didn't believe it... until I met two of the people involved in the organization that rescued him. And I think what the fact of that event conveys to me is the power of the human mind -- how much our thought and will do, after all, determine things like whether we live or die. The story has a way of sticking in your mind.

One other thing that sticks in my mind about the book concerns the Lapps. It's an odd story. The Norwegians are good skiers and strong people by modern civilized standards (I mean that little itsy country beat the whole world in the winter Olympics). The story relates how they tried several times to get him across the Swedish border, but just couldn't get the sledge that far given the weather and time constraints and geography -- had to keep turning back. They tried to involve the Lapps early on, but they have a fundamentally different approach to such things -- the Lapps among other things, like most nomads leave those who are too weak to travel behind to die in the snow. Then after a month of futility on the part of the Norwegians, a Lapp decide to show up and see if the story was true. Horwath describes how he just stands there for 3-4 hours staring at him in the Arctic snow, and then finally resolves to take him across into Sweden. He and his friend receive some brandy in gratitude, drink several bottles in one night and seem none the worse for it in the morning, and then kind of non-chalantly pull off what the Norwegians could not. That combination of ability to do something what their more sophisticated neighbors could not combined with the lack of sense of urgency interests me.

Jan Baalsrud was born and raised in Kapellveien 4, Kolbotn, Oslo, Norway.

12 men set out in a boat from the Shetland Islands. They are expatriate Norwegians, on a mission to organize, train and supply the Norwegian Resistance against the Nazis. But, they were betrayed, and everything goes horribly wrong. Only one man survives, and it is up to him to complete the mission. He is helped along the way by villagers, who will be shot if they are caught helping him.

It's a story of heroism and adventure, and very hard to put down once started. Highly recommended!

The excellent Common Reader catalogue has been recommending this book forever in their catalogue and I can see why -- once you start, you can't put it down. Much like the other great survival tale, The Long Walk (which was probably even a notch above this one for sheer duration of suffering over multiple terrains with even worse odds of survival), this book follows the inredible suffering of a Norwegian hero who set sail from England on a Nazi raid in the northernmost regions of Norway. As usual, the Norwegians come out looking like real heroes -- just as they resisted Nazi occupation and didn't lie down to the treat of Hitler, so too many ordinary Norwegians risked their own lives and those of their families to save the young protagonist from sure death. A terrific read from start to finish!

I first read this when I was teaching high school English. A fellow teacher of Norwegian heritage recommended it. It blew me away, and now twenty-five years later, I read it again. I had forgotten most of the details, but the effect remains--it is an incredible story of human survival. It is a testimony to the law that says in war nothing goes as planned and if something can go wrong, it will. It is also a testimony to the basic humanity and courage of ordinary people--the many who risked their lives to help Jan Balsrud when they could easily have left him for dead, as indeed he almost was. His suffering, determination to survive, and ultimate acceptance of what seemed to be certain death before his final rescue are inspiring to those of us who have not been so tested. The photographs that were included in the later edition were helpful and one can believe the entire story because of the documentation. This is a book that makes fiction pale beside it.

This amazing memoir will change the way you see, and appreciate life. An almost unbelievable story of human endurance, this has got to be the ultimate survival story. If a better one exists, I have yet to read it.

The book chronicles the story of an American citizen of Norwegian descent, who joins the WWII effort via the English, on a secret mission to sabotage the Nazis in Norway. Their plan fails and they are discovered by the Nazis, and one of them, "Jan", escapes into the frigid Norwegian hinterlands. What follows is an incredible journey as Jan seeks the assistance of Norwegian locals who risk everything, under pain of death, to help him escape to Sweden. Since all roads and waterways are patrolled by the Nazis the only recourse is overland through the frozen deserts of the Norwegian highlands. Incredibly, Jan survives many weeks alone without food or shelter in the blizzards of the Norwegian Arctic.

The author makes the case of how much we take for granted in our daily comforts. An inspirational story.

the book "WE DIE ALONE" was the best I had read during the late 50's. it was for a book report during my high school career. during that period in my life social events were mor fun than reading. but I had a difficut time putting this book down, so i could get some sleep. the book that I read was the first published edition, copyrighted 1955 by Ace books. my book has a map of the area, something the newer ones don't have. one of the reviewers down graded this story because his book did not supply him with a map. the story, four men survive the demolition of a boat they were on when it was destroyed by the Germans. one of them getting help from local citizens, travels up and over the mountains, gets caught in a sever snow storm. he places himself next to a huge rock and is buried alive but keeps pushing the snow away. then during the next many days he survives an incredible amount of pain and suffering. a true story.

"We Die Alone" is the stirring story of the escape and evasion of Jan Baalsrud, a commando inserted into Nazi-occupied Norway in World War 2. This reviewer finished WDA in one sitting this past Christmas night. The resolution, which is not revealed here, will be readily obvious yet this does not lessen reader interest one iota. WDA is not spellbinding but the undercurrent of suspense stays constantly with the reader. The stark facts tell their own story. The setting is bare bones and sparse-perhaps in keeping with the bitter Norway cold. "Cold" is a key word in describing WDA because Mr. Baalsrud spends lots of time outdoors in it! At one point he is all but buried alive in snow, as a desperate Norwegian Resistance has nowhere else to conceal him from pursuing Germans. No review of WDA would be complete without giving homage to the fierce Resistance, which tied down some 280,000
German troops. Military history fans seeking a fresh angle on WW2 and especially those who enjoy tales that deal with positive thinking, refusal to quit, and dedication to duty should enjoy WDA. Mr. Baalsrud had more of those qualities than any 10 of us will ever demonstrate. Unhappily, WDA possesses one huge weakness-no MAP! This is a common failing in all too many military stories but is inexcusable here. Geography is critical in Baalsrud's eastward flight to neutral Sweden. The inability to follow it without a map, or at least a World Atlas at hand, was frustrating. This is shameless insensitivity on the publisher's part and justifies subtracting a star from the above rating. By all means, read WDA but have a good map of Norway handy when you do.

"We Die Alone" is the stirring story of the escape and evasion of Jan Baalsrud, a commando inserted into Nazi-occupied Norway in World War 2. This reviewer finished WDA in one sitting this past Christmas night. The resolution, which is not revealed here, will be readily obvious yet this does not lessen reader interest one iota. WDA is not spellbinding but the undercurrent of suspense stays constantly with the reader. The stark facts tell their own story. The setting is bare bones and sparse-perhaps in keeping with the bitter Norway cold. "Cold" is a key word in describing WDA because Mr. Baalsrud spends lots of time outdoors in it! At one point he is all but buried alive in snow, as a desperate Norwegian Resistance has nowhere else to conceal him from pursuing Germans. No review of WDA would be complete without giving homage to the fierce Resistance, which tied down some 280,000
German troops. Military history fans seeking a fresh angle on WW2 and especially those who enjoy tales that deal with positive thinking, refusal to quit, and dedication to duty should enjoy WDA. Mr. Baalsrud had more of those qualities than any 10 of us will ever demonstrate. Unhappily, WDA possesses one huge weakness-no MAP! This is a common failing in all too many military stories but is inexcusable here. Geography is critical in Baalsrud's eastward flight to neutral Sweden. The inability to follow it without a map, or at least a World Atlas at hand, was frustrating. This is ... insensitivity on the publisher's part and justifies subtracting a star from the above rating. By all means, read WDA but have a good map of Norway handy when you do.