The Boys Who Challenged Hitler: Knud Pedersen and the Churchill Club

The decisions of Denmark’s leaders following Hitler’s invasion disgust Knud and the other boys of the Churchill and RAF Clubs, who look abroad to England and Norway for leadership. The British Royal Air Force (RAF) fights the Germans in the aerial Battle of Britain in 1940. Knud and the other boys listen to reporting of the battle on BBC radio and are inspired by the valiant fighting of the pilots, who are greatly outnumbered by the German Luftwaffe but manage to defend Britain from Nazi invasion. Knud is deeply ashamed, in contrast, of Denmark’s immediate surrender to Hitler. Looking to the courage of Britain’s pilots, the boys name their first resistance unit the RAF Club and vow to use their bicycles as the pilots use their planes. The name of the club in Aalborg, the Churchill Club, is also inspired by Britain, named after its famous wartime prime minister Winston Churchill who, unlike the leaders of Denmark, fiercely opposes Hitler and inspires his citizens to brave resistance. Similarly, Norway serves as both an inspiration and a source of shame for the boys. Like Denmark, Norway is a small Scandinavian country, but it fights the Nazi invasion, losing many lives in the process.