As "Masters Of The Air" has been released I think there is a related, unknown, story to be told of one of the unsung heroes of WW2.
During WW2 he was a Norwegian citizen. After WW2 he became an US businessman and citizen.
His story is incredible:
Sverre Bergh, a 20 year old Norwegian student at Dresden Technical High School, mapped out the hidden ball bearing plant at Schweinfurt on his spare time. The information was channelled through nazi occupied Oslo I Norway to London by the Norwegian underground forces and culminated with the infamous US Airforce bombing raid. Bergh was then recruited as a spy for the allies for operations inside Germany under the cover as a student.
Sverre Berg is the only allied spy who mapped the Peenemunde V1 and V2 site from the ground. He nearly got killed on the March 13th as he had a date with a young woman in a cafe in Dresden. All his deeds during WW2 were classified until quite recently because his intelligence organisation, XU, was destined to continue after WW2 if Norway was occupied by the Soviet Union. A James Bond story is boring compared to Sverre Bergh's bio.
Google translate from Norwegian wiki:
Bergh grew up outside Oslo with his parents and two brothers. He was a student and had too bad grades to get into the Norwegian Technical Highschool in Trondheim. He was offered to study at the Technical College in Dresden, Germany, and travelled there to study in 1940. There he lived as a student and spy for the Norwegian intelligence organization XU.
Bergh's main task was to disseminate reports from the German spy Paul Rosbaud. Bergh was Rosbaud's most important channel out of Germany. Together with Rosbaud, he was one of the first, probably the first, to report to the Allies on German technological progress, including the V2 rocket and the V2 plant in Peenemünde. He sent 40-50 reports to the Allies via neutral Sweden.
Bergh studied in Dresden until the city was completely destroyed by Allied bombing, something he barely survived. He continued his espionage activities in Germany until the German capitulation in 1945.
In early February 1945, Bergh was on his way to Berlin, but on February 7, he was stuck in Copenhagen because the railway line to Berlin was closed. To reach an important meeting with Rosbaud in Berlin on February 9, he bluffed the Luftwaffe that he was the courier for a package of important medical material from the Serum Institute in Copenhagen to Berlin. The package consisted of ordinary salt which was well wrapped and stamped. This is how he came with the daily courier plane to Tempelhof. Rosbaud announced that there was no progress in the German nuclear program.
On Tuesday 13 February 1945, he had invited his friend Gaby to a good restaurant in Dresden. Half past nine the aircraft alarm went off, but few people cared about the aircraft alarm because Dresden had no military strategic significance. During four years in the city, Bergh had not been able to report on current bomb targets. Bergh and Gaby went to the basement of a tenement, but Bergh did not dare to use the intended refuge, which he thought would not withstand the weight of a collapsed apartment building. Instead, they sought refuge in a corridor with vaulted walls. Hardly anyone else survived in the tenement. Dresden burned intensely after the bombing and the heat created such a strong draft that people and cars were drawn into the flames. Most died of lack of oxygen, but Bergh also saw people killed by the air pressure from airbusters (blockbusters) - they were often naked because the air pressure had torn off their clothes. Bergh saw people turned into coal and ashes by the intense heat. After the bombing, Bergh and Gaby walked for many hours to get away. The stream of fleeing residents Bergh was among was attacked on 14 February by Allied planes with machine guns. Bergh took cover in the road ditch and his shoes were soaked by all the blood that ran in the ditch. Bergh believed that the bombing of Dresden was a disgrace. [1] Quote "It has been diligently discussed whether the bombing of Dresden was a war crime. Of course it was a war crime, in a war full of crimes. A crime planned and carried out according to standard procedure.” Quotation - Sverre Bergh.
After Dresden, he travelled to Berlin and reported to Stockholm on the extensive destruction. Bergh remained in Germany. He was back in Dresden on April 17 to pick up a car and the city was bombed again just as he was driving towards Berlin. In March 1945, he obtained documents showing that he worked for the Red Cross, which was evacuating KZ inmates with the White Buses. Bergh also received other documents that showed that he worked for the Swedish authorities, and that he was allowed to own his own car and buy petrol. This way he could travel around Schleswig-Holstein and around Hamburg and report on German force movements.After the last visit to Rosbaud in Berlin on April 20, he went on the trip north barely aware of Soviet forces advancing from the east. Part of the drive from Berlin to Hamburg went through no-man's land where German and Soviet forces fired at each other over him.
In Hamburg he bought a small car and drove north until he encountered British forces which he joined. Together they drove to Flensburg and were there when the last remnants of the German central administration, led by Dönitz, moved there after Berlin fell on 2 May. At this time there were both German and British military in Flensburg. The German forces in Denmark capitulated on May 4 and Bergh was the first from the Allies to cross the border into a free Denmark. In Denmark he got Danish plates on the car and got British documents. From Copenhagen he was sent to London and debriefed by Eric Welsh from the British side and Alfred Roscher Lund from the Norwegian side.
According to Rosher Lund, Bergh was the first to report on the development of missile weapons in Peenemünde. In London, Bergh wrote a report of his four years as an XU agent in Germany, the report was on one(!) typewritten sheet.
After the war Sverre Bergh became a citizen of the USA. He died in 2006 in Connecticut.
During WW2 he was a Norwegian citizen. After WW2 he became an US businessman and citizen.
His story is incredible:
Sverre Bergh, a 20 year old Norwegian student at Dresden Technical High School, mapped out the hidden ball bearing plant at Schweinfurt on his spare time. The information was channelled through nazi occupied Oslo I Norway to London by the Norwegian underground forces and culminated with the infamous US Airforce bombing raid. Bergh was then recruited as a spy for the allies for operations inside Germany under the cover as a student.
Sverre Berg is the only allied spy who mapped the Peenemunde V1 and V2 site from the ground. He nearly got killed on the March 13th as he had a date with a young woman in a cafe in Dresden. All his deeds during WW2 were classified until quite recently because his intelligence organisation, XU, was destined to continue after WW2 if Norway was occupied by the Soviet Union. A James Bond story is boring compared to Sverre Bergh's bio.
Google translate from Norwegian wiki:
Bergh grew up outside Oslo with his parents and two brothers. He was a student and had too bad grades to get into the Norwegian Technical Highschool in Trondheim. He was offered to study at the Technical College in Dresden, Germany, and travelled there to study in 1940. There he lived as a student and spy for the Norwegian intelligence organization XU.
Bergh's main task was to disseminate reports from the German spy Paul Rosbaud. Bergh was Rosbaud's most important channel out of Germany. Together with Rosbaud, he was one of the first, probably the first, to report to the Allies on German technological progress, including the V2 rocket and the V2 plant in Peenemünde. He sent 40-50 reports to the Allies via neutral Sweden.
Bergh studied in Dresden until the city was completely destroyed by Allied bombing, something he barely survived. He continued his espionage activities in Germany until the German capitulation in 1945.
In early February 1945, Bergh was on his way to Berlin, but on February 7, he was stuck in Copenhagen because the railway line to Berlin was closed. To reach an important meeting with Rosbaud in Berlin on February 9, he bluffed the Luftwaffe that he was the courier for a package of important medical material from the Serum Institute in Copenhagen to Berlin. The package consisted of ordinary salt which was well wrapped and stamped. This is how he came with the daily courier plane to Tempelhof. Rosbaud announced that there was no progress in the German nuclear program.
On Tuesday 13 February 1945, he had invited his friend Gaby to a good restaurant in Dresden. Half past nine the aircraft alarm went off, but few people cared about the aircraft alarm because Dresden had no military strategic significance. During four years in the city, Bergh had not been able to report on current bomb targets. Bergh and Gaby went to the basement of a tenement, but Bergh did not dare to use the intended refuge, which he thought would not withstand the weight of a collapsed apartment building. Instead, they sought refuge in a corridor with vaulted walls. Hardly anyone else survived in the tenement. Dresden burned intensely after the bombing and the heat created such a strong draft that people and cars were drawn into the flames. Most died of lack of oxygen, but Bergh also saw people killed by the air pressure from airbusters (blockbusters) - they were often naked because the air pressure had torn off their clothes. Bergh saw people turned into coal and ashes by the intense heat. After the bombing, Bergh and Gaby walked for many hours to get away. The stream of fleeing residents Bergh was among was attacked on 14 February by Allied planes with machine guns. Bergh took cover in the road ditch and his shoes were soaked by all the blood that ran in the ditch. Bergh believed that the bombing of Dresden was a disgrace. [1] Quote "It has been diligently discussed whether the bombing of Dresden was a war crime. Of course it was a war crime, in a war full of crimes. A crime planned and carried out according to standard procedure.” Quotation - Sverre Bergh.
After Dresden, he travelled to Berlin and reported to Stockholm on the extensive destruction. Bergh remained in Germany. He was back in Dresden on April 17 to pick up a car and the city was bombed again just as he was driving towards Berlin. In March 1945, he obtained documents showing that he worked for the Red Cross, which was evacuating KZ inmates with the White Buses. Bergh also received other documents that showed that he worked for the Swedish authorities, and that he was allowed to own his own car and buy petrol. This way he could travel around Schleswig-Holstein and around Hamburg and report on German force movements.After the last visit to Rosbaud in Berlin on April 20, he went on the trip north barely aware of Soviet forces advancing from the east. Part of the drive from Berlin to Hamburg went through no-man's land where German and Soviet forces fired at each other over him.
In Hamburg he bought a small car and drove north until he encountered British forces which he joined. Together they drove to Flensburg and were there when the last remnants of the German central administration, led by Dönitz, moved there after Berlin fell on 2 May. At this time there were both German and British military in Flensburg. The German forces in Denmark capitulated on May 4 and Bergh was the first from the Allies to cross the border into a free Denmark. In Denmark he got Danish plates on the car and got British documents. From Copenhagen he was sent to London and debriefed by Eric Welsh from the British side and Alfred Roscher Lund from the Norwegian side.
According to Rosher Lund, Bergh was the first to report on the development of missile weapons in Peenemünde. In London, Bergh wrote a report of his four years as an XU agent in Germany, the report was on one(!) typewritten sheet.
After the war Sverre Bergh became a citizen of the USA. He died in 2006 in Connecticut.
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