The Churchill Club (Danish: Churchill-klubben) was a group of eight teenage schoolboys from Aalborg Cathedral School in the north of Jutland who performed acts of sabotage against the Germans during the occupation of Denmark in the Second World War.
The boys were charged with a fine of 1.860 million kroner for the destroyed Nazi property; their sentences ranged from one-and-a-half to five years in prison.
Even during their imprisonment, some of the boys managed to escape at night to continue their sabotage activities for some time, then sneak back into their cells before sunrise.
Knud and his older brother Jens also saw how Norway was fighting the invasion and felt shame in their country for giving in within just a few hours.
The symbol stood for “Flames of Rebellion!”[3] In February 1942, the boys of the Churchill Club devised a plan to raid the Fuchs Construction offices at Aalborg airport, an important Luftwaffe base housing 150 bombers used to attack targets in Norway and to protect German ships.
The cars they blew up contained airplane wings, machinery, and Swedish iron ore likely destined for the German war effort.
[3] On May 8, 1942, a waitress (Elsa Ottesen) saw two members of the club enter a large cafe and go straight for the coat closet, where later a German soldier reported a stolen pistol.
They were sent to King Hans Gades Jail to await the judge's verdict, then later sent to State Prison in Nyborg with sentences ranging from 18 months to 3 years.
In October 1942, a few boys (Kaj and Alf Houlberg and Knud Hornbo) managed to escape King Hans Gades Jail for 19 consecutive nights, having sawed loose a window bar, and perform more acts of sabotage.
[6] The story of Pedersen and the Churchill Club is also told in a book by an American author, Phillip Hoose, titled The Boys who Challenged Hitler.