POULSBO — Jacob Jordal never lost faith that Norway would be liberated. Not when his hometown of Odda was destroyed by Nazi bombs. Not when he was arrested as a suspicious character by the Nazis, stripped of all of his papers, set free and reported as an escaped prisoner.

Not when Nazi warships used Norway’s fjords and harbors as refuge. Not when the Nazis took over Norsk Hydro near Telemark, at the time the world’s largest power plant and hydrogen plant, with the intent of building an atomic bomb.

Jordal spent the first years of World War II trying to survive day to day, but later became part of the Norwegian resistance that helped drive the Nazis out of Norway and contributed to Allied victory in Europe.

Jordal said the resistance never lost confidence in its king and Parliament, which had wisely set up government in exile in London. It never lost confidence in the huge Norwegian merchant fleet, among the largest in the world and the foundation of a floating Norwegian economy that escaped Nazi control and bolstered the Allied effort.

Thousands celebrate Viking Fest this weekend, in commemoration of Norway’s

Constitution Day. Jordal, 86, of Poulsbo, knows too well the price that was paid for the freedoms in that constitution.

In his words:

“I awoke on the 9th of April 1940 to the sound of excited voices outside my opened window … the war had come to us …

“Within days news came how people had resisted the Germans in Granvin, Hardanger … the town was leveled with bombs and it served as a warning to us further into the fjord not to do that.

“All my family took to the mountain cottages … I stayed home (at nearly 15, I was my own man) and looked after home and things.

“While I was out on the fjord fishing, a plane appeared over the rise of the mountain (3,000 feet) and sailed low over Odda and dropped bombs. While they exploded, I rowed to shore, jumped on my bike and speeded toward Odda. Arriving there, a house was floating down river; a bomb had exploded in the basement and killed all there, I learned later.

“It was quiet, not a living soul in sight. I came to downtown and was met by a rolling glass jar which I knew belonged in a bakery up the street. Across, at the police station, a bomb had fallen, exploded, but no fire started. I do not recall any people there …

“Later, when the Germans had arrived, I found them emptying a store, Reiseter Sport, and I protested with the result that I was beaten up.

“It was the beginning of my 15th year and lasted until I was 20. It was a long dark time with hunger and cold …”

Jordal said those first days were spent trying to survive day to day. He went to Trondheim to find a job, and he was arrested by Nazi troops as a suspicious character and placed in a prisoner of war camp with Russian and Ukranian POWs. He and other prisoners were marched into Trondheim and put to work clearing debris; the Germans planned to convert the Norwegian naval base there into a U-boat base.

After a couple of weeks, he was picked to help a German submarine officer carry luggage to his residence in a former museum. They spent the night there, and then the officer let him go — with no papers and in a prisoner uniform, Jordal went into hiding. Ultimately, he got a job on a boat, delivering potatoes along the coast.

Shortly before Christmas Day 1943, he delivered a Norwegian shopkeeper to the German battleship Scharnhorst for treatment of injuries from a lamp explosion. There were no doctors in the city. Seeking help on the Scharnhorst was a risky venture; fearing he could be a saboteur, warning shots were fired around Jordal’s boat.

Time was indeed running out for the Scharnhorst.

On Dec. 25, the Scharnhorst got under way to attack a convoy of Allied warships off Norway’s North Cape; on Dec. 26, she was sunk by the HMS Duke of York and her escorts; only 36 of 1,968 crewmembers survived.

Meanwhile, Jordal was active in the underground, helping to rescue civil authorities and distributing smuggled weapons.  Germany’s hold on Norway was unraveling.

In winter 1944-45, Germany’s atomic bomb development program was successfully sabotaged and Norwegian forces took back and liberated Finnmark.

On Feb. 8, 1945, Karl Marthinsen, who helped implement the Holocaust in Norway, was assassinated. The next day, German and British aircraft clashed over Sunnfjord in the largest aerial battle over Norway during the war.

On May 7, Adolf Hitler’s death was announced, and on May 8 German forces surrendered and left Norway. Over the ensuing week, Germany’s puppet leaders in Norway committed suicide or were arrested. On May 31, the Norwegian government returned from exile in London, followed by King Haakon VII on June 6, Jordal’s birthday.

Norway was free, but the cost was high. By the war’s end, some 92,000 Norwegians were abroad. More than 10,000 Norwegians lost their lives in combat or as imprisoned civilians.

Norway was shaken by the war, but it not only survived, it thrived. Today, Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in Europe.

After the war, Jordal joined the Norwegian Merchant Marine. He and his wife, Ellen, who was born in Denmark, emigrated to Los Angeles so Jordal could study at the Art Center School in Los Angeles. He graduated in 1956 and worked as a photographer, then returned to sea, serving as chief mate for ARCO.

‘He and his wife moved to Edmonds in about 1968, and Poulsbo in about 1979. They have four children and five grandchildren.

“We were always confident Norway would prevail,” Jordal said. “We had our king, we had our people, and we had the world behind us.”