Max Manus - Norwegian Resistance fighter

Handmade Toy Soldier of the famous Norwegian resistance fighter Max Manus in 54 mm scale.

Maximo Guillermo “Max” Manus was a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II, specializing in sabotage in occupied Norway. Manus was born in Bergen in 1914, to a Norwegian father and a Danish mother. His father changed his name from Magnussen to Manus after living several years in foreign countries - thus the unusual norwegian name. Max returned to Scandinavia before the outbreak of World War II, upon which he soon joined up with the Norwegian Army and went to fight in a volunteer detachment with the Finns against the Russians. After the war in Finland, Max Manus returned to Norway as the Germans invaded on 9 April 1940. He fought during the Norwegian campaign, after which he decided to return to Oslo and work underground against the occupiers, both organising a resistance movement, illegal
public propaganda and the manufacture of weaponry. He and his comrades also tried to assassinate Himmler and Goebbels when they visited Oslo. His work was effective, and he soon became a wanted man by the Gestapo. He was eventually captured and was injured trying to escape. He had to be treated in the main Oslo hospital, and with the aid of a nurse, he managed to escape. In a dramatic flight, he crossed the border into Sweden. By then, the Soviet Union had entered the war against Nazi Germany, so Manus travelled through the Soviet Union, Turkey, Arabia, by ship via Cape Town to the US, to eventually return to the fight in Europe and continued his sabotage
activites in Norway until the end of the war.