He had taken the examen artium and commerce school. Following the German invasion of Norway in 1940 he participated in the fighting during the Norwegian Campaign as member of a ski company. He later travelled to the United Kingdom and enrolled in the Air Force where he became a pilot. He died in an aircraft accident in Calverley in 1943. His urn was brought home and buried in Ullern after the war, in October 1945. A memorial cup for Haanes in ski jumping was later instituted.