Timmy Tyler

February 27, 1943. Nine Norwegian commandos stand at the edge of a deep, icy gorge in the mountains of Norway. On the other side is the most important factory in Europe. The Germans think the gorge is impossible to cross. That's exactly why the commandos are going to cross it. The factory was the Vemork plant, near the town of Rjukan. It made something called heavy water. In 1943, almost nobody knew what it was. But the scientists who did were terrified. Heavy water could be used in nuclear research. And Vemork was the only plant in the world producing it on a large scale. The Germans controlled it. The Allies feared it could help Hitler get closer to an atomic bomb. So it had to be destroyed. The first attempt was a disaster. In November 1942, British commandos were sent in by glider. Both gliders crashed in terrible weather. The survivors were captured. On Hitler's orders, every one of them was executed. But four Norwegian commandos had already been dropped into the mountains ahead of time to prepare the way. When the mission failed, they were left alone on the frozen Hardanger plateau. They survived the entire winter up there. They ran out of food. They were starving. Just before Christmas, one of them shot a reindeer. They ate everything, including the half digested moss in its stomach, because it was the only vegetable they had. In February 1943, six more Norwegians parachuted in to join them. Their leader was 23 year old Joachim Rønneberg. Together they skied toward Vemork. The plant sat on a cliff above the gorge, with one heavily guarded bridge across it. Attacking the bridge would mean a firefight. So instead, on the night of February 27, they climbed down into the gorge, crossed the frozen river at the bottom, and climbed straight up the other side. They found a railway line running into the plant. Nobody was guarding it. The demolition team slipped in through a cable tunnel and found the room where the heavy water was made. Inside was a Norwegian night watchman. They held him at gunpoint and calmly started placing explosives. As they lit the fuse, the watchman suddenly begged them to wait. He'd left his glasses on the table. Glasses were almost impossible to replace in wartime Norway. Rønneberg's team let him grab them. Then they ran. Moments later the charges went off. The heavy water equipment was destroyed. Months of production gone. No shots were fired. Nobody was killed. The Germans were furious. Thousands of soldiers swept the mountains searching for the saboteurs. Five of the commandos skied hundreds of miles across the snow to neutral Sweden. Others stayed hidden in the mountains and kept working with the resistance. None of them were caught. The story didn't end cleanly. The Germans repaired the plant. In 1944 they tried to ship the remaining heavy water to Germany by ferry across Lake Tinn. Norwegian saboteurs sank the ferry. Norwegian civilians on board died with it, a decision the resistance had to live with forever. But Germany never built an atomic bomb. Joachim Rønneberg lived to 99. For most of his life he refused to call himself a hero. He said they were just doing a job.