A HEREFORDSHIRE woman who retraced the route taken by her father 60 years earlier as he fled from Nazi occupied Norway following his arrest for spying tells the story in a new book.
Another Man's Shoes, by Sven Somme, includes an introduction by his daughter Ellie Targett, in which she describes how members of her family set out last year to follow the route her father took to Sweden and freedom in 1944.
Sven Somme wrote a first-hand account of his epic escape shortly after the war but died a few years later.
"When I read my father's story I knew I just had to go back to Norway and try to follow in his footsteps," she said.
With her sister Yuli and brother Bert, she set out in 2004, guided by her father's notes and maps. Along the way, she met some of the families who sheltered him, one of whom handed her a pair of her father's shoes, which he had exchanged 60 years earlier for walking boots.
"My father was working for the Norwegian resistance movement," she said, "and he was lucky to escape with his life. His brother Iacob was not so fortunate and was shot as a spy by the Germans. We wanted to remember them both by retracing my father's route."
Another Man's Shoes is published by the Polperro Heritage Press (ISBN 0954423336), price £9.95.
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