Nils Christensen - En fantastisk historie

Jeg møtte Nils Christensen på Andøya i 2012. Jeg snakket med ham og vi fant fort ut at vi var fra nesten samme plassen; han fra Høvik og jeg fra Blommenholm i Bærum. I Christensenhuset, i Glassverkveien tror jeg at min klassekamerat Truls Jacobsen, bor nå. Hen er en slektning av Nils. Veritas holder til like ved, for de som er lokalkjente. I 2012 skrev jeg om Nils på bloggen bl.a. fordi Viking Air overtok agenturet for flere av DH Canadas fly. De bygget sågar en egen utgave av Twin Otter.

Nils Christensens historie er fantastisk. Såvidt jeg vet er han eneste nordmann i Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame. Det er også pussig at han bodde i Abbotsford, litt øst av Vancouver. Der var jeg på flyshow en gang da B-2 skulle vise seg utenlands for første gang. På samme flyplass var brannfly stasjonert, bl.a. en ex Braathens DC-6B.

Her et bilde jeg tok av Nils i 2012 - Still going strong! Sjekk video her: https://tinyurl.com/ydcbdz5j

Marit, hans yngste datter, skriver til meg: 

Hello Per,

I hope you don't mind that this email is in English.

I am the daughter of Nils Christensen, whom you have written about in your blog. I only found your blog when a friend of mine discovered it and sent me the link today. Thank you for the kind things you have written about my father. 

If you are interested in learning a bit more about Nils Christensen, I have attached to this email a copy of the speech I gave at his Celebration of Life last year. The speech contains an outline of what his life was like. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

God Jul,

Marit Christensen

Thank you all for coming. 

There is no one who would have enjoyed this gathering more than Nils himself. Sharing a drink with friends and family was undoubtedly his favourite thing to do. On behalf of the family, I would like to thank the John and Eleanor at the BC Aviation Museum for allowing us this space, Dave and Amber at Viking Air for contributing greatly to this Celebration, and to all of you who travelled to be here today. We feel truly honoured to have Brigadier General Tom Guttormsen, from Norway here, and Consul Steinar Engeset, from Halifax.

We miss Nils and we grieve for him, but today we are here to celebrate Nils’ life and I would like to begin with a brief outline of what his life was like. If there are any inaccuracies in the following, I apologize in advance. Most of this is based on recollections.

Nils came into this world on a summer’s day in August, 1921. He left this world on a summer’s day in August, 2017, just 9 days short of his 96^th birthday.

Nils was born at home in Høvik, Norway. The house he was born in, built in the 1890’s, has always been and still is, lived in by our family. He was the last surviving member of the six children in his family.

When Nils was 5, he remembers being in the yard when an enormous airship glided overhead. What he saw that day was the semi-rigid airship “Norge” manned by Roald Amundsen and General Umberto Nobile, on their way to the North Pole and eventually Alaska, in a quest to fill in an uncharted patch of the world map. Many years later he learned that one of his commanding officers in the Norwegian Air Force, Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen, was on board the Norge that day when it flew over him.

 Oh, the early days of aviation!

From an early age, Nils learned that there was work to be done, just to survive. As a boy, he worked at a market garden, and raised rabbits for food. There were 11 people living in the house at one time, from a newborn to an 85-year-old, and it wasn’t a large house. His mother had a makeshift store in the house and sold candy, chocolates, soft drinks and beer. His father was an insurance collector.

Nils received the standard education in Norway at that time, which was 7 years of primary school. He was finished when he was 14 and from there he attended trade school for experience in blacksmithing, machining and welding. He also enrolled in evening classes at a technical school, where he learned mechanical theory and drafting.  He had a part time job at a Ford dealership, which is interesting, because he was a loyal GM man most of his life.

When Nils was 18, he started looking for steady work, using his new skills, but couldn’t find anything. He tried signing on for whaling, but no luck. Finally, he found a ship that would take him, but when he told his mother that it was carrying dynamite, she put an end to that. Using a connection she had with a former employer, his mother got him hired on with the Wilhelmsen Shipping Co. Nils was only paid about $10 a month, but he was promised four times that amount if they were in a war zone. World War II started in September, 1939, and he went to sea in November.

During his time on merchant ships in the war, Nils travelled extensively carrying goods and supplies across sometimes dangerous waters.  He went to Portugal; the Panama Canal; California; Yokohama, Japan; Shanghai, China; Hong Kong; the Philippines; New York, Borneo, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, Java, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Hawaii, and Rio, Brazil, just to name a few. He continued to sail even after Norway was occupied by the Germans, and Norwegian ships were no longer considered neutral.

The Merchant Navy generated the income needed to support Norway’s military effort and not only enabled Norway to cover all their own costs during the war, but also allowed the country to meet all foreign obligations. For a country under occupation with an exiled government, this feat must be considered as nothing less than astounding. Prime Minister Winston Churchill is quoted as saying “The Norwegian merchant navy was worth an army of one million men from 1940 to 1945”.

Little Norway

When Nils signed off his last ship in New York, he reported to the Norwegian Consulate, and was enlisted in the Norwegian Air Force in April, 1942. He was 20 years old.

Nils was sent to Toronto to Little Norway, where the Norwegians had set up a training camp, flying out of the Toronto Island Airport and later the Muskoka Airport. It was decided that Nils would be most useful as an aircraft mechanic, and the course of the rest of his life was set in motion.

In the spring of 1943, Nils boarded the turbine steam ship Louis Pasteur in Halifax, and sailed to Liverpool. He was posted to 333 Squadron, a Norwegian Squadron under the R.A.F., formed on May 10, 1943 with bases in Leuchars and Woodhaven in Scotland. Nils was stationed at Leuchars as a Flight Mechanic on the Mosquitos. In August, 1944, he attended gunnery school and was trained on Anson Mark I’s and Catalinas. He was then sent to Woodhaven and the Sumburgh Head, Shetland Islands, as Flight Mechanic/Air Gunner, flying anti-submarine patrols to the north of Scotland.

The Peace

One of the most memorable events in Nils’ life, was when he was part of a crew chosen to fly the Peace Commission to Norway to accept the German surrender and liberate his country. Nils had not seen his homeland for over 5 years.

On May 7, 1945, the Peace Commissionaires were onboard a Catalina and Sunderland, as they approached Oslo, firing off flares to identify themselves. The city was still under German control and the anti-aircraft guns had their sights set. As they flew over the city, on a beautiful sunny day, Nils could see masses of people in the streets, waving Norwegian flags and cheering on the planes. The crews were loaded onto a German bus, with a German driver and the air was electric with apprehension and anticipation. As they rode through the streets to German Headquarters, the excitement built, and soon people were swarming the bus, wanting to shake their hands or to talk to them. It was overwhelming. Nils and others climbed to the top of the bus, took off their hats and started singing the Norwegian national anthem. It was very emotional. We have a photo (over there) of Nils on top of that bus.

Once the surrender had been signed, Nils was finally allowed home to see his family. His mother hadn’t heard from him in so long, that she thought he must surely be dead, and she couldn’t believe it when he came home. He had changed a lot from the 18-year-old boy she had last known. He only had a short visit though, before heading back to Woodhaven.

When Nils was finally allowed home to Norway permanently, he was given guard duty of German prisoners organized into work parties. German planes and crews were used to transfer supplies from Oslo to Stavanger. Flying in a German-built Dornier 23 flying boat was quite an experience, he said.

Nils was then chosen to crew on an aircraft flying Crown Prince Olav around the country to survey the war damage. He said the Crown Prince was wonderfully unassuming and just like one of the guys.

Next he was flying mine patrols…..and keeping an eye out for herring runs for the local fishermen!

Post war

After the war, 333 Squadron became part of the Royal Norwegian Air Force and was moved to Stavanger, Norway, and Woodhaven, Scotland, went back to being a yacht club.

The Christmas of 1945 was Nils’ first Christmas with his family in 7 years. 

Nils stayed on with the RNoAF for another year after the war, to gain further experience, and trained at the School of Aeronautical Engineering at the RAF base in Bedfordshire, England. On completion, he was qualified to work on any aircraft operated by the RAF.

It was near here that Nils met Sheila for the first time at a church fair (or fete, as they would say) and they began seeing each other on weekends. He was 25, she was 19. This was the beginning of a 70-year love story.

Nils eventually returned to Norway, where he was a Technical Sergeant overseeing repairs on Fairchilds, Spitfires, Lockheeds and DC-3’s.

He asked Sheila to come visit Norway for Christmas in 1946, but the Air Ministry where she worked wouldn’t let her go, so she had to trick them, by saying she was getting married, which was the only way to force them to release her from her job. During that Christmas visit, they did decide to get married, so it wasn’t a total deception. Sheila waited until her 20^th birthday in February to tell her family. Until you were 21, you needed your parents’ permission to marry, but her father, Wing Commander William Wolfenden, O.B.E. liked Nils because he was in the air force, and his wife, Ethel, liked Nils for his manners, so they agreed to the marriage.

Back to Høvik

On May 3, 1947, Sheila left England for good, and started her new life with Nils. They were married on May 31, 1947 in Norway and moved into the Christensen family home. Although Sheila could understand a lot of Norwegian by then, she couldn’t yet speak it. It must have been interesting!

Nils left the forces in October, 1947, and obtained his Aircraft Mechanic’s License. He had to pass an oral examination. There was no written test. Men with his skills were very much in demand, and he took a job with Braathens S.A.F.E. (South America and Far East) Transport. Braathens ran scheduled flights on DC-4s to Hong Kong and other destinations, to service huge oil tankers owned by Ludwig Braathen. Nils flew on some of the charter flights as a mechanic to Egypt, Palestine, Iran, Italy and Switzerland.

Nils and Sheila were sent to Amsterdam for six months, then returned to Norway where Nils worked at the Braathen headquarters in Oslo. In 1948 Nils was sent back to Amsterdam as Base Engineer at Schiphol Airport, which was the hub for travel around Europe, especially due to the Berlin Airlift.

In 1950, Nils and Sheila had their first daughter, Randi, born in Amsterdam.

When Braathens moved its maintenance base back to Norway, where the couple couldn’t find housing, they started looking for somewhere else to go. At that time, Canada was advertising for workers for the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line, and because Nils had been to Canada before and liked it, he applied for immigration. In August, 1951, he was approved and the family moved to Toronto.

Canada

Four employers were suggested to Nils: Air Canada, Avro Air, Sanderson and de Havilland. He felt mocked by the interviewer at Sanderson, who held out an adjustable wrench and asked Dad sarcastically if he knew what it was. He didn’t like that you didn’t need a licence to work at Air Canada, and that they would only have him working on limited parts of the planes, like hydraulic systems. Avro had defence contracts, and it would take too long to get him approved, so he chose de Havilland, where he was working on Lancaster and Halifax bombers being converted to air/sea rescue planes. The hiring rate of pay was $1/hour, or $1.25/hour if you had your own tools (which he did!).

Just over a year later, Nils took at job at Sault Airways in Sault Ste. Marie working with Keith Messenger, as Chief of Maintenance on the Norseman, Fox Moth, Seebee, Stinson, Cessna and other bush planes. He studied and wrote his Canadian Aircraft Engineers written exam (in English) and was finally accredited in Canada. During this time, Nils developed rheumatic fever, and was unable to work for six months. Sheila was pregnant with a 3-year-old at home. During these frightful months, Keith Messenger continued to pay Nils a partial salary, allowing the family to survive. Nils never forgot Keith’s kindness and was determined to pass it on. He wanted to give other young men the opportunity to learn a good trade in aviation and succeed, and that’s what he did.

In October, 1953, Nils and Sheila welcomed their son, Erik, into their lives. Times were tough then and the family was barely getting by. Nils even went door to door selling eggs for extra money.

In 1956, Nils started looking for a new challenge, and sent out 7 applications. He was disappointed when he didn’t hear anything back for a few days, but then, within a space of 2 days, came 7 telegrams saying “come join us”. Job offers came from the government, Okanagan Helicopters, a Quebec air survey company, Victoria Flying Club, and even one from Ward Air, signed by Max Ward himself.

A friend had been stationed at Pat Bay during the war, and said it was lovely there, so Nils took the job as Director of Maintenance at the Victoria Flying Club, looking after Canucks, Cessnas and Pipers.

The family arrived in a Northstar to Vancouver on March 29, 1956. Sault Ste. Marie had been a landscape of black, bare tree limbs, and white ice and snow for months, but when they stepped off the plane in Vancouver, Sheila said it was like the Wizard of Oz movie where it suddenly turns from black and white to colour. Blue skies, sunshine, green grass and flowers. “It took our breath away” she said.

Flying Boats

After a year of correspondence courses on Canadian history, and a lengthy written exam, Nils became a Canadian citizen in 1957.

In 1957 they made a big investment, and bought the house on East Saanich, on 2/3 of an acre, for $4000. They couldn’t afford waterfront, which was going for around $10,000.

He then took a job with Fairey Aviation converting Martin Mars aircraft to water bombers and then with Forest Industries Flying Tankers, as Chief Engineer on the Mars water bombers.

Sheila and Nils’ second daughter, Marit, was born in 1960.

At this time Nils was spending much of the year at Sproat Lake, flying missions to combat fires all over BC. His life was spared, when he was ordered not to go on the fatal flight in 1961 when the Mars crashed, and four of his good friends and co-workers perished.

Nils eventually left Flying Tankers and became the Manager of McKinnon Enterprises at the Victoria Airport, doing repairs and conversions on the Grumman Goose and Widgeons.

Viking Air established

In 1970, when McKinnon had closed down, Nils and Sheila started their own company, Viking Air Ltd. “Wiking Air”

Viking Air did overhaul and maintenance on all types of aircraft, but specialized in the flying boats. Meanwhile, Nils had an eye on de Havilland, and petitioned his old company for years, trying to get the parts manufacturing rights and Type Certificates for several of their aircraft. He was successful in obtaining the parts manufacturing rights for the Beaver, Otter and Turbo Beaver.

The early years of Viking Air were adventuresome. Nils would get a call from a crashed or stranded airplane, somewhere in Canada, the US, or Alaska, and he’d pack up his tool box and off he’d go. He’d patch up planes, and then insist on riding in them on their way to Viking for repairs. He took his life in his own hands so many times on those crazy flights. Nils’ reputation with the flying boats spread quickly, and soon he was being contacted by countries around the world for parts and information.

Nils sold his company in 1987 and eventually Dave Curtis became the new face of Viking Air. Nils’ work with de Havilland and Bombardier paid off when Viking was finally awarded Type Certificates to seven aircraft, including the Twin Otter, Beaver and Dash 7. Dave and Viking Air haven’t looked back since, and under the guidance of the team at Viking, it has grown into a national aircraft manufacturer, employing 100’s of people, soaring far beyond Nils’ expectations.

Hall of Fame

After retiring, Nils stayed active in any aircraft project anyone approached him with. He was a founding member of the BC Aviation Museum, and has contributed greatly. He has received many awards, the most prestigious being his induction into the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.

Nils spent his retirement years in a lovely home on Salt Spring Island, where he became a beloved member of the community. He volunteered with the Legion, he fixed pot holes in our road, raised money for lights for the school busses, cheered on the local dragon boat team and was known as an island personality.

He travelled back to Norway twice in the past few years. Once to attend a reunion of 333 Squadron in Andoya, high up in the Arctic Circle, and once to attend a dedication of a merchant ship, D/S Hestmanden, where he dined with the King of Norway, and even had a chance to tell the King that they had met before, when the King was only a boy.

Nils, Sheila and I moved to Abbotsford in March this year, to get away from tedious ferry rides, and to be closer to family. Nils enjoyed his new home, and had plans for several projects to keep him occupied this winter. We never expected him to go so quickly, but we are grateful that it was quick.

Norway was always home to Nils, and his ashes will be buried there in a family plot near his childhood home.

Nils was an aircraft pioneer, a renaissance man, a family man, a loving father and a devoted husband to Sheila. He lived a life well lived, and will always be carried in our hearts. Thank you.

Thank you.

Speakers: Brig. Gen. Tom Guttormsen, Consul Steinar Engeset, Dave Curtis, John Latta, Kelly Wilk and Mike Ingram.