One of Norway’s most highly decorated female members of the resistance, Ida Nikoline “Tikken” Manus, died Tuesday after what her family said was a short illness. The widow of war hero Max Manus was 96.
Tikken Manus came from an affluent family in Bergen, where her father Gjert Lindebrække was county administrator. She first married a British diplomat who, after the German invasion, was stationed in Stockholm. Once there, she started working for the British legation and became the key contact person for Norwegian resistance fighters who would flee over the border after sabotage work and other dangerous missions in occupied Norway.
Her marriage failed and she married Max Manus after the war. But before that she played a critical war in debriefing resistance fighters, getting their reports to Norway’s exiled government in London and supplying the resistance so its members could continue their struggle against the Germans.
For her work as an important liaison between members of the resistance unit known as Kompani Linge and the British and Norwegian military leadership in England, Tikken Manus was decorated with Haakon VIIs Freedom Medal.
Her work during the war was featured during the recently released, highly popular movie “Max Manus” and her biography sold briskly in book stores last year. Max Manus died in 1996.
Views and News staff
