On March 6th this year, Norwegian resistance hero Claus Helberg died, aged 84.
He played a major part in the second, successful operation against the Norsk-Hydro 'heavy water' facility at Vemork.
Helberg was a guide and ski-ing instructor with extensive knowledge of the area. General Leslie Groves, the American administrator of the Manhattan Project, requested the destruction of the Norsk-Hydro plant based on warnings from Albert Einstein. ( 'Heavy water' can be used to slow down and control a nuclear chain reaction ).
Although the Nazis were indifferent to nuclear research at this stage, and the German scientists doubted whether they could achieve nuclear fission, the Allies could not take the risk of Hitler 'getting there first'.
And so Operation Gunnerside was launched. Trained in Britain, Helberg and eight fellow resistance agents wore white snowsuits over their British uniforms as they parachuted onto a frozen lake at Telemark, equipped with weapons, skis, a radio, 18 packs of explosive - and poison capsules for use if they were captured.
Struggling through blizzards for 11 days, traversing a narrow gorge, they penetrated the Norsk-Hydro plant through a cable conduit on February 28th, 1943. The group detonated a series of explosions, spilling half-a-ton of the painstakingly-produced heavy water. All nine eluded capture.
Research was delayed for over a year - but two further operations were needed before the German nuclear programme was brought to a complete halt.
After the war, Helberg returned to his outdoor life - his exploits immortalised in the 1965 film,
'The Heroes Of Telemark'.
http://www.pafko.com/trips/norway/n10/
[ 29. March 2003, 12:05 PM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]
