Hero of the Telemark dies aged 101: WWII commando carried out raid on Norwegian Hydro plant to thwart Nazi's A-bomb plans

     

Hero of the Telemark dies aged 101: WWII  commando carried out raid on Norwegian Hydro plant to thwart Nazi's A-bomb plans

·         Norwegian Birger Stromsheim was one of the last two living survivors of operation Gunnerside

·         Key member of the six-man team that blew up hard water facility at the Norsk hydroelectric plant in Norway

·         The attack effectively ended Germany's chances of developing a nuclear weapon

By DANIEL MILLER

PUBLISHED: 17:48 GMT, 10 December 2012 | UPDATED: 17:53 GMT, 10 December 2012

 

Birger Stromsheim, one of the Norwegian commandos who carried out the legendary 'Heroes of the Telemark' raid, has died aged 101

One of the last two survivors of the legendary Second World War 'Heroes of the Telemark' raid, which helped thwart Hitler's plans to build a Nazi nuclear bomb, has died aged 101.

Just 31 at the time, Norwegian Birger Stromsheim was the oldest member of the team who successfully destroyed the hard water production facility at the Norsk Hydroelectric plant in Telemark, southern Norway.

The raid, which is regarded as one of the most successful acts of sabotage in World War II, was also remarkable for the fact all the team managed to escape by cross country skiing 250 miles into Sweden.

The heavy water, or deuterium oxide, which the Norsk plant produced was essential to the German scientists working on an atomic bomb project and the allies were desperate to destroy it.

But it was no soft target. Perched on an icy ravine, surrounded by machine gun-toting guards and floodlights the plant was virtually impregnable.

An earlier attempt to destroy it had ended in bloody failure when some of gliders carrying the team of 30 Royal Engineers crashed in bad weather.

Those who escaped were captured by the Gestapo, tortured and then executed.

For the second attempt the Special Operations Executive gambled on a small six-man squad, all Norwegian, who would parachute in.

 

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After intensive training using a mocked up model of the basement of the plant painstakingly recreated at the explosives base in Brickendonbury, Hertfordshire the team were ready for action.

They were issued thick Nordic-style woolen jumpers and brilliant white camouflage smocks to protect themselves from the elements.

Crack squad: Some of the saboteurs back in Britain after the raid. Aged 31 at the time Mr Stromsheim (circled) was the oldest member of the team

The plan was for them to meet up with four members of the previous mission's advance team who had managed to survive a harsh winter living in an abandoned cabin and eating lichens and moss scraped off rocks.

Mr Stromsheim would play a vital role. An explosives expert, he was known for having a cool head - something that would prove invaluable if things didn't go to plan.  

And of course they didn't.

Operation Gunnerside began in earnest on February 17 1943 and got off to a disastrous start when bad weather resulted in the team landing some 18 miles from the planned drop zone.

They were forced to spend five days struggling through fierce snow storms before finally linking up with their compatriots.

By February 27th the team had regrouped and was ready to launch their assault.

The Norsk plant was connected by a bridge stretching over the steep ravine so to avoid the German guards the commandos opted to climb down one side of the ravine, wade across the icy river Maan and scramble up the other side.

They would then follow a railway track that led all the way into the plant, get inside through a door which a plant worker was supposed to leave open, set their charges and escape.

Leaving their radio operator at the top of the ravine in case anything went wrong, the rest of the party struggled for hours through thick snow to make it to the river before beginning the arduous task of climbing up the other side.

Exhausted and soaking wet they eventually scrambled to the top and broke into the grounds of the facility using a pair of bolt cutters.

The raid was hailed as the most successful act of sabotage of WWII and was later made into the Hollywood film Heroes of the Telemark staring Kirk Douglas

When they arrived at the basement door which was supposed to have been left open they were devastated to find it still locked.

They split up into two parties Stromsheim and Kasper Idland found a window at the back of the basement and took the risk of smashing their way in.

Meanwhile the other party, led by the 23-year-old commander Joachim Ronneberg, managed to crawl through a cable duct before taking a Norwegian plant worker by surprise.

Ronneberg heard Stromsheim smashing the window as he began to lay charges and when Stromsheim and Idland entered the room they were nearly shot by their own colleagues who had mistaken them for guards.

Stromsheim then placed the remaining charges while Ronneberg set the fuses. Fearing the Germans could discover them at any moment they used 30 second fuses instead to the planned two minute ones.

The team dashed outside the plant as the charges went off with a dull thud. Mercifully the guards were not alert.

The mission had been a stunning success and around 1000lbs of heavy water - so vital to Hitler's dreams of world domination - was washed away.

Now there was just the small matter of escape.

The commandos managed to make it all the down the ravine and back up the other side before the Germans were alerted, but now a chase was on.

Stromsheim and his comrades ploughed on into a snowstorm, using their wooden cross country skis to make the epic 250 mile journey into neutral Sweden.

'They didn't reckon that they would get out alive,' Mr. Stromsheim's son, also named Birger, recalled. 'They weren't sure of that. They were scared in some ways, but there was no panic.'

Back in Britain the SOE chiefs were delighted at their success  - and heralded the mission as the most successful act of sabotage of the Second World War.

Hollywood treatment: Kirk Douglas, (left), and Richard Harris keep a watchful eye for Nazis in the 1964 film

The Nazis were forced to relocate their heavy water project and move their remaining supplies of the essential ingredient Potassium Oxide. But the ferry they used to move it was subsequently sunk by a Norwegian resistance.

In his report the mission's commander Joachim Ronneberg described Stromsheim as 'beyond doubt the best member of the party'.

For his part in the mission, Stromsheim was awarded the British Military Medal and the Norwegian St Olav medal, the US medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honor and Croix de Guerre.

His escapades were later given the Hollywood treatment in the 1965 film Heroes of the Telemark starring Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris.

Mr Stromsheim and his wife were among the many Norwegians who fled to England when the Nazis occupied their country in 1940.

Although he had never been a soldier he became part of Britain's Special Operations Executive, which had been set up to coordinate resistance in occupied Europe.

Following the assault on Norsk Hydro, Mr. Stromsheim would join Mr. Ronneberg on a series of other missions.

He is survived by a son, a daughter, four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife, Aase Liv, died in 1997.

Joachim Ronneberg is now the mission's only living survivor aged 93.

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Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence

 

linda tamura

Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence Nisei Soldiers Break Their Silence is a compelling story of courage, community, endurance, and reparation. It shares the experiences of Japanese Americans (Nisei) who served in the U.S. Army during World War II, fighting on the front lines in Italy and France, serving as linguists in the South Pacific, and working as cooks and medics. The soldiers were from Hood River, Oregon, where their families were landowners and fruit growers. Town leaders, including veterans' groups, attempted to prevent their return after the war and stripped their names from the local war memorial. All of the soldiers were American citizens, but their parents were Japanese immigrants and had been imprisoned in camps as a consequence of Executive Order 9066. The racist homecoming reception that the Hood River Japanese American soldiers received was decried across the nation. Linda Tamura, who grew up in Hood River and whose father was a veteran of the war, conducted extensive oral histories with the veterans, their families, and members of the community. She had access to hundreds of recently uncovered letters and documents from private files of a local veterans' group that led the campaign against the Japanese American soldiers. This book also includes the little known story of local Nisei veterans who spent 40 years appealing their convictions for insubordination. Linda Tamura is professor of education at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. She is the author of The Hood River Issei: An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon's Hood River Valley. PRAISE FOR NISEI SOLDIERS BREAK THEIR SILENCE "This important chronicle of the community's wartime contributions interweaves fact and anecdote . . . Tamura provides an engaging outlet for a hidden voice . . ." -Publishers Weekly "An important book about significant wartime events, a group of heroic World War II veterans, and the anguished experience of a community coming to grips with its own social sins. It is a superb oral history, a compelling community history, and a cautionary story about what happens when a democracy goes to war." - William L. Lang, Portland State University

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German rocket lands in Medway

     

German rocket lands in Medway

A History and Honour news article

14 Sep 12

At the height of the Second World War the German High Command would have been delighted to land a V2 rocket in the heart of Medway's military estate, but this week the delight was all Medway's as it welcomed this extremely rare and valuable piece of world history.

This V2 rocket captured in the Netherlands at the end of the Second World War is to be displayed at the Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD 2012]

The Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham, this week took receipt of one of only a handful of surviving V2 rockets in the country. The V2 was a Nazi weapon of fear which rained destruction on Britain and ultimately gave birth to the space age.

Measuring over 14 metres in length and three-and-a-half metres in width, the enormous rocket has just been restored after spending decades exposed to little more than the elements at the nearby Defence Explosive Munitions and Search School.

Deputy Curator Catherine Byrne said:

"It's really exciting to see this rocket restored and on display to the general public for the first time, this is an extremely significant exhibit."

The restoration of the V2 has been a delicate and expensive process costing in the region of £100,000, but the finished project is not just of almost inestimable commercial value but is also of extreme cultural significance.

Designed by Werner Von Braun, the V2 was the first long-range combat ballistic missile, the first known man-made object in space, and is the progenitor of all modern rockets, including those used in the Soviet and US space programmes.

The V2 was the first long-range combat ballistic missile and the first known man-made object in space (library image)
[Picture: Imperial War Museum]

 

This particular example was captured in the Netherlands following the chaos of the German retreat.

The Germans had intended to destroy all known V2 rockets to prevent the advanced technology from falling into enemy hands, but a rare few survived and were closely studied by the allies.

At this stage in the War, Von Braun was one of a number of scientists who surrendered to the Americans to avoid capture by the Russians or execution by the Nazis.

He went on to develop the Saturn V booster rocket that helped land the first men on the moon.

An estimated 2,754 civilians were killed in London alone by V2 attacks with a further 6,523 injured. Slave labour from concentration camps was used in the construction of the V2s and so harsh were conditions it is believed more people died in this process than were killed by the rockets themselves.

The V2 rockets were notorious not only for their extremely long range and accuracy but for the fact that they fell silently from the sky offering no warning.

 

  

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Chungshan Institute showcases defensive weapons