For over 70 years, the naval gunner from Gildeskål in Nordland has rested in an unknown grave in Iceland. The grave was marked with a white wooden cross with the inscription “Unknown sailor” in Icelandic, reports Ministry of Culture and Equality (KUD).
– Now we finally know who he is. A Norwegian war gravestone will be erected on the grave to honor him, the ministry said on Wednesday.
The War Graves Service is under KUD and manages Norwegian war graves abroad and foreign war graves in Norway.
It was not until 2022 that the service learned that an unknown Norwegian soldier had been buried in Flateyri at Önundarfjörður on the northwest coast of Iceland.
When the body was found on 10 April 1942, it was wearing a Norwegian naval uniform and a life belt marked “FANEFJ…”, which refers to the ship DS Fanefjeld. The ship sailed from Bíldudalur on 8 April and was torpedoed on 9 April 1942 by the German submarine U-252.
Using a physical description of the fallen and information in historical lists for foreign sailors, the soldier was identified as deckhand Sigurd Arvid Nilsen, gunner no. 425 in the Navy’s Gunnery Division for the Merchant Navy, born 12 October 1918 in Gildeskål. Nilsen’s family has been informed about the case.