Erik Welle - Strand Erik A . L . Welle - Strand ( 2 June 1916 – 17 July 2001 ) was a Norwegian mining engineer and resistance member during World War II . He is best known as leader of the illegal radio post Skylark B . Early life . He was born in June 1915 in Bergen . He was a brother of Erling Welle - Strand . In his teenages he was active in the theatre Den Nationale Scene , before carrying through his compulsory military service from 1935 . He also worked briefly as a coal miner for Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani , before enrolling at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in 1936 . World War II . He returned to Bergen in January 1940 , stationed at an anti - air battery to guard the Norwegian neutrality in World War II . However , on 9 April Nazi Germany invaded Norway . Welle - Strand became involved in the subsequent fighting , first at the anti - air battery , later during a retreat to the mountains of Hardanger . The Norwegian troops went to Voss and Leikanger ; Welle - Strand then parted ways with them and fled via Finland and Finnmark to Tromsø . He fled from there to England with the abandoned naval ship " Heilhorn " . In September 1940 the Secret Intelligence Service established two stations for radio communication ; the so - called Skylark A was led by Sverre Midtskau in Oslo while Skylark B was to be led by Erik Welle - Strand in Trondheim . He travelled the Norwegian Sea with the cutter " Nordlys " , landed in Florø together with Sverre Midtskau , Sverre Haug and Finn Juell and continued to Trondheim with Juell . In this city he had attended the Institute of Technology . Skylark B was operated by students of the institute , and after technical difficulties in the initial phase , they established regular contact with the intelligence in London in January 1941 . Professor of chemistry at the Institute of Technology , Leif Tronstad , was also affiliated with the group . Among others , the group helped spread vital information about German activity at Vemork heavy water plant . Messages about German troop and naval movements were also sent via Skylark . Welle - Strand was ordered to leave Norway for London in May 1941 , and Egil Reksten took over as leader of Skylark B . In September the same year , however , Gestapo managed to track the Skylark B transmitting activity . Egil Reksten and others were arrested and shipped to Nacht und Nebel camps . Reksten survived — barely , while seven of his ten inmates associated with Skylark B died . Welle - Strand continued his resistance while based in the United Kingdom , and participated in raids towards the coast of Western Norway . He quit the military after the war ' s end in 1945 , having gone from Second Lieutenant to Captain in rank in those four years . He was decorated with the St . Olav ' s Medal With Oak Branch , the Haakon VII 70th Anniversary Medal and the Defence Medal 1940 – 1945 . Post - war life . After the war Welle - Strand started his own engineering company , Argo , together with Reksten and other friends . He founded his own company in Canada in 1951 , but later returned to Norway and Argo . Welle - Strand was married and had four children . He lived in Oslo in his later life , and died in July 2001 at Aker Hospital .