Egge, Bjørn

Bjørn Egge CBE (19 August 1918 – 25 July 2007) was a Major General of the Norwegian Army and President of the Norwegian Red Cross (1981–1987). He served as deputy head of the NATO Defence College (1976–1980). Egge was a soldier during the German attack on Norway in 1940. He participated in the break out by Norwegian merchant vessels from Gothenburg in March 1942, the vessel he was on board was sunk and he was captured by the Germans. He spent three years in concentration camps. He was arrested on 1 April 1942, and sat in Marlag und Milag Nord until being transferred to Rendsburg in early 1943. He went on to Sonnenburg in June 1943, then Sachsenhausen in November 1944. He returned to Norway in May 1945. After the war Egge entered officers training and served in the Norwegian army in various positions. Egge served with the Norwegian contingent in the Congo Crisis in 1960 as an intelligence officer, and was the first United Nations official to arrive at the scene of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld's airplane crash. Bjorn Egge died on 25 July 2007, believed to be of old age or illness.