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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.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @10:04PM
Repent.
First Post.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Tuesday October 23 2018, @10:36PM
I recall thinking that the Kirk Douglas movie (Heroes from Telemark) was pretty great, it still is. But the NRK tv-movie-series made a few years ago was really good and well done. Well worth the watch. The article is a bit "old" tho since it says that you can see it on Netflix until 2017. But I'm sure streamable or downloadable somewhere.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 23 2018, @11:11PM (2 children)
"Hans Suess was a German adviser to the production of heavy water; he had assessed the Vemork plant as being incapable of producing militarily useful quantities of heavy water in less than five years at its then capacity." (source [wikipedia.org])
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:02AM
Probably not entirely pointless. For all the allies knew, the Nazis were set to commit vast resources to upgrading and expanding the site. Of course, we all know that hindsight is 20/20, so it's relatively easy to sift through history today, and find that the Germans were doing no such thing. The fact is, there was potential, so the Brits sent a mission to deprive the Nazis of that potential use.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by LaminatorX on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:29PM
We know now that the German nuclear program was barking up the wrong tree by trying to leapfrog straight to deuterium weapons without having a fission device to ignite them.
However, that was not at all obvious at the time.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:14AM (2 children)
My understanding is the Germans either forced all the Jews (read: people who could make the bomb) out of the country in the 30's, or killed them in the 40s. I've never before heard from a reputable source that Hitler was anywhere near making a nuke.
IMHO, it's a sad footnote to our nations history that we turned back the ships full of jews from Europe in '39 and thereabouts.
/ caravan of poors from south of Mexico heading north?
// no comment.
Relationship status: Available for curbside pickup.
(Score: 2) by qzm on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:38AM (1 child)
The German scientists involved (those who had stayed) were very very certain that a chain reaction would not stay contained long enough to create any form of explosion.
To the point that they engaged in public arguments (via scientific journals) claiming it was not possible.
Their research was all aimed at slow reactors for energy production.
But hey, why let actual facts get in the way of a good story .
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Rich on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:09AM
Heisenberg apparently not only knew a bomb would work, but he also knew that reactor-produced plutonium ("Eka-Osmium") might be a viable explosive. From a 1967 print of "Der Spiegel": "Dann, so Heisenberg am 26. Februar 1942 in Berlin-Steglitz, erhalte man einen Sprengstoff "von ganz unvorstellbarer Wirkung": Im Bruchteil einer Sekunde würde Energie von 15 Billionen Kalorien pro Tonne frei." ; "am 4. Juni 1942 ... ... kam Heisenberg sogleich auf die militärischen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten der Kernspaltung zu sprechen -- auf Uran 235 und auf Plutonium. Heisenberg: 'Etwa so groß wie eine Ananas.' Er bezog sich auf die Explosivladung und demonstrierte ihren Umfang mit den Händen." (cf. http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46251967.html [spiegel.de])
Weirdly, the main reason the Germans didn't get the atomic bomb first probably is a mis-measurement of the neutron diffusion length in graphite done by Walther Bothe in Göttingen. It would probably also have helped not to force their anti-semitic lunacy on the Italians, in turn causing Enrico Fermi to emigrate, because he had a jewish wife - the guy was a member of the Italian Fascist Party in the first place!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 24 2018, @01:15AM (5 children)
23 doesn't seem that young for a Lieutenant.
What was the typical age for young officers of that time during the war?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:34AM (4 children)
The services have their own ideas regarding the ages of their ranks and ratings. Career officers take offense when they meet younger officers and ratings. I was a near victim of this prejudice while I was in the Navy. A directive came out from the CNO, telling the fleet that they wanted to "age" the enlisted ranks. I was E4 at the time, and had PNA'd (passed but not advanced) the tests for E5 once already. So, at the next testing cycle, I got my test results again, with PNA. (The test isn't everthing, of course - time in service, time in rate, evaluations, awards are all factored in.) For reasons, my captain basically said "Fuck this, we'll give you a meritorious advancement." But, bottom line, if it took a senior officer a couple of decades to get where he is at, he'll want to block any youngsters coming up from taking his job. Can't have conscripts taking over, can we?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:44AM (3 children)
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.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:53AM (2 children)
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.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Wednesday October 24 2018, @05:41AM (1 child)
and Doctors were conscripted as Captains (or O-5 in the Navy)
MASH,/a> [wikipedia.org]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 24 2018, @06:40AM
I always wondered how he got promoted so fast.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday October 24 2018, @02:42AM
A humorous look at a grim topic.
After they blew up the Norsk Hydro plant, British Intelligence told the commandos that the NAZIs were going to take what was left of their heavy water inventory to Germany aboard some train tanker cars, and so requested they be destroyed.
The commandos protested that their would be... I can't recall the right word, but their concern was that many civilians would be murdered if they destroyed those tank cars. British Intelligence insisted they do so anyway.
And how did the commandoes destroy all those tanks of heavy water?
They bombed a fully-loaded passenger ferry. I Am Absolutely Serious. But they realized that the children would all drown, so at the very last minute the commandos staged a Life Jacket Drill.
Shortly after the war ended, Hitler's nuclear reactor was found deep underground. It was one-third full of heavy water.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by garrulus on Wednesday October 24 2018, @07:37AM
nt