Operation Lark (ii)

'Lark' (ii) was a British operation by the Special Operations Executive in tandem with 'Lark' (i) to establish radio contact, receive weapons, train and build up resistance groups in the area around Trondheim, and reconnoitre possible targets, such as U-boat depot ships, for sabotage in German-occupied Norway (8 February/16 December 1942).

A six-man Norwegian party, comprising Odd Sørli, A. Pevik, followed by O. K. Sættem and A. Christiansen as instructors on 8 April, and E. Hansen as radio operator and H. Nygaard as organiser on 18 April, was delivered by sea. Sørli and Pevik made contact with groups in the Trondheim area. They were followed by the instructors and then the radio operator and organiser in April 1942. Nygaard took over from Sørli. Radio communication began in late May, but contact was problematical during the summer. Hansen, who had gone to Stockholm in neutral Sweden, was forced to return to Trondheim in autumn 1942 to help improve matters, but the Germans used radio direction-finding equipment to locate his position, and on 16 December 1942 Nygaard and Hansen were arrested, although Nygaard escaped. This temporarily ended radio contact with the Trondheim area.