SECRET OPERATIONS IN NORWAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 36, 18 January 1946, Page 3

SECRET OPERATIONS IN NORWAY

NO RIVAL IN ANNALS OF WAR a IMPORTANT OBJECTIVE! A story of secret operations in Norway has been revealed which surelv has no rival in the annals of the war because the objective was so important that failure might have lost us the war. It became known to the British War Cabinet that the Nazis had a stock of heavy water (deuterium oxide) used in the harnessing of atomic energy. This indicated that they were on the way to producing atomic bombs. This precious munition of war was closely guarded at a factory at Vermonk, surrounded by snow-covered mountains and seemingly inaccessible. In March 19-12, a Norwegian was parachuted to the scene. He succeeded in secreting himself and gathered sufficient information to justify an advance party of commandos: called Swallows, being sent from England to reconnoitre still further. They endured incredible hardships. Later in that year all was set for the main part}' of saboteurs to proceed in aircraft and gliders.

On February 27, 194.3 a handful of men operating under the codename of Gunnerside, made the perilous journey. Before they started each man read the Operational Order which said: “If any man i& about to be taken prisoner, he urn (lertakes to end his own life.'* The men of Gunnerside reached their advanced base after nightfall, and, trudging through slushy snow reached the outskirts of the secret factory at midnight. Two of the men, after many hazards, succeeded in reaching the cable tunnel, the only available way into the, factory. They overcame a guard placed charges, lit the fuses, and left. Twenty yards outside the cellar they heard the explosion; and with it went 3000 pounds of the precious heavy water. All the men engaged escaped after almost unendurable experiences.

, But that is not the end of this epic. After the Norwegian factory had been bombed in November '9 1943, the Nazis decided to dismantle it and remove the stocks to Germany. It happened'that one of the original Gunncrside party was still in Norway. He succeeded in boarding the ferry boat which was to take, the • stocks to Hamburg and placed charges underneath them. The boat blew up. How much the world owes to the men of Swallow and Gunnerside can hardly be assessed.