Torstein Strand

Torstein Strand tjenestegjorde som flyger i 332 Skvadron under krigen. Han ble skutt ned 8. april 1943 over det okkuperte Frankrike, og havnet i tysk fangenskap.

Torstein ble hardt skadet under luftkampen som førte til at han ble skutt ned. Han fikk splinter i begge øynene, mistet syv tenner og fikk skader i ryggen. Da tyske soldater fant han bevisstløs, ble han fraktet til et feltsykehus, hvor det ene øyet måtte fjernes. Etter at han ble bedre, ble han overført til krigsfangeleiren Stalag Luft. I løpet av 1944 ble han repatriert tilbake til England som del av en fangeutveksling.

Torstein Strand was born on 3 September 1919 and trained as a pilot in the pre-war Army Air Force. He escaped across the border to Sweden from occupied Norway in January 1941 and after travelling 'half around the world' arrived in Toronto, Canada in June the same year. After some refresher training at the Free Norwegian training centre 'Little Norway', he arrived in the UK in October. After a period with No. 52 OTU (Operational Training Unit), he was posted to No. 129 Squadron on 27 November. Joining No. 332 Sqn on 1 February 1942, he was slightly injured in the crash mentioned above, but after hospitalisation returned to the squadron and was with them at North Weald during the fierce fighting over Dieppe. Promoted to Lieutenant and flying Spitfire IX BS407/AH-Y, he was shot down outside Dieppe on 8 April 1943. Wounded in the face and blinded in one eye he managed to bail out at 25 000 feet, the The HURRICANE 6 NWAMA wind blowing his parachute in over France. German soldiers found him lying unconscious on the ground and took him to a field hospital. Due to the seriousness of his injuries, he was transferred to a proper hospital where his damaged eye was removed. After he had recovered sufficiently, he was sent to POW camp, ending up in Stalag Luft III at Sagan. He was not directly involved in the famous Great Escape from Sagan. Due to his injuries he was repatriated to England in 1944. With the end of the war he returned to Norway, staying with the air force until 1953. Having studied aeronautical engineering at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] in 1947, he returned to the US in 1953 working for several aircraft companies until he formed his own consulting agency. Despite having only one eye, he flew lightplanes until he was 70. Torstein Strand died in San Diego on 25 December 2006, aged 87.

https://www.fanger.no/persons/45028

https://www.nwamuseum.co.uk/index_htm_files/2021Hurricaneone21.pdf