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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 23 2018, @08:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the RIP dept.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-roenneberg/man-who-foiled-nazi-nuclear-plan-dies-aged-99-idUSKCN1MV0R1

Joachim Roenneberg, serving behind enemy lines in his native Norway during the German occupation, in 1943 blew up a plant producing heavy water, or D2O, a hydrogen-rich substance that was key to the later development of atomic bombs.

Picked by Britain's war-time Special Operations Executive to lead the raid when he was only 23 years old, Roenneberg was the youngest member of Operation Gunnerside, which penetrated and destroyed key parts of the heavily guarded Norsk Hydro plant.

The subject of books and documentaries as well as movies and a TV drama series, the attack took place without a single shot fired.

https://www.atomicheritage.org/history/operation-gunnerside

At the very least, Operation Gunnerside should be recognized as one of the most successful SOE missions during World War II. For a mission that Rønneberg and his squad frequently imagined as a one-way trip, the operation experienced no casualties and succeeded in temporarily destroying the Germans' single source of heavy water at the time. During wartime, time is of the essence and any kind of setback has disadvantages. Rønneberg later commented that London could have suffered a different fate and ended up 'looking like Hiroshima' if his team had failed.


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  • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:44AM (3 children)

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:44AM (#752758) Homepage Journal

    In England, enlisted men who were observed to be particularly good with mechanical things were given Field Commissions to Lieutenant, then assigned to disarm unexploded bombs during the Blitz.

    There were a lot of such "UXBs" - they are _still_ finding them from time to time.

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:53AM (2 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:53AM (#752759) Journal

    In the early days of helicopters, they had something similar. You couldn't have enlisted men flying choppers, so anyone who could master that joystick was commissioned. Guy could be dumber than a rock, and have zero morals, ethics, education, or anything else. But he could fly, so he was officer material.