Pimpernel Gold - Hardcover

Basen-powell, Dorothy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0709167482 ISBN 13: 9780709167488

Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd, 1978

Synopsis

The author was friendly with King Haakon of Norway, and also with Crown Prince Olav. She uses some of their memories to fill in places in the book, "Pimpernel Gold". In April, 1940, Nazi Germany invaded Norway, and met with some early successes and some naval set-backs. What we would call "special forces", nowadays, were sent into the snowy country of Norway to (a) capture the king and the crown prince and (b) grab Norway's gold reserves. The author recounts how groups of Norwegian volunteers were gathered to collect the tons of gold bullion, load it on a train and move everything away from the rapidly approaching front lines. Almost casually, she tells how the Norwegian "reserve soldiers" gather their rifles, load the gold, convince the SWEDISH train engineer to get going and race away from the advancing Germans. The book was like a movie. The train just gets away from one group of Germans. The Norwegians hide the train, loaded with gold, in a gully/valley, but they still discovered by a German scout plane. Are they being betrayed by Norwegian Quisling spies?? A Nazi force, looking for the King, finds the gold train, but the Germans are easily defeated. One Norwegian volunteer is killed, and then, later in the book, his brother is also killed. (Amazon customer)

Edition details

• Publisher: Robert Hale Ltd
• Publication date: 1978
• ISBN 10: 0709167482
• ISBN 13: 9780709167488
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192