By Joachim Ronneberg last surviving member of Operation Gunnerside After months of preparation, the team finally reached their objective. Put us on the ground on the night they blow up the plant. First, they’ve got to climb this bloody mountain, haven’t they? The technology is straightforward. Heavy water (D 2O) is separated from normal water by electrolysis, because the difference in mass between the two hydrogen isotopes translates into a slight difference in the speed at which the reaction proceeds. To produce pure heavy water by electrolysis requires a large cascade of electrolysis chambers, and consumes large amounts of power. Since excess power was available, heavy water could be purified from the existing electrolyte. Norsk Hydro became the heavy-water supplier for the world's scientific community, as a by-product of fertilizer production for which the ammonia was used. [9] Hans Suess, a German adviser on the production of heavy water, had assessed the Vemork plant as incapable of producing militarily-useful quantities of heavy water in less than five years at its capacity at the time. [1] Operations to limit German access to heavy water [ edit ] Pre-invasion efforts [ edit ] If you happened to have been out and about on the South Downs near Brighton in the past few months, you might have spotted any one of three middle-aged men struggling to break into a jog while dragging a line of car tyres behind them. This was not some bizarre masochistic fitness fad, but basic training for an unusual trip to Norway.

The film is quite good, but it might have been better still. For much of the running time, it seems curiously subdued, with lots of scenes which don't quite screw home the tension as far as they could. The sequence in which the resistance fighters infiltrate the factory and attempt to destroy the German's heavy water supply should have been unbearably tense, but it kind of comes and goes without generating the necessary atmosphere. The closing sequence aboard a boat full of children is very well done, though, and there's another taut bit where Douglas and Jacobsen are almost caught snooping around the factory but manage to convince a passing guard that they are merely young lovebirds trying to find a quiet spot for a bit of private love-making. The Heroes of Telemark is a 1965 British war film directed by Anthony Mann based on the true story of the Norwegian heavy water sabotage during the Second World War from Skis Against the Atom, the memoirs of Norwegian resistance soldier Knut Haukelid. The film stars Kirk Douglas as Dr. Rolf Pedersen and Richard Harris as Knut Straud, along with Ulla Jacobsson as Anna Pederson. It was filmed on location in Norway.

The uranium club

Based on real events, the film tells the story of Norwegian resistance efforts to blow up the German heavy water factory high in the Norwegian mountains. When the attempt fails to be completely effective, the resistance finds themselves debating whether or not to sink a ferry on which the precious heavy water is being transported to Germany on – a ferry which also carries several dozen innocent civilians.

The situation escalated to the point that Hydro's top management protested and the company's managing director Bjarne Eriksen was arrested in early 1943 and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. A secret weapon? Nazis and the Bomb". PBS. Archived from the original on 24 September 2017 . Retrieved 6 September 2017. In nuclear-weapon development, the main problem is securing sufficient weapons-grade material; it is particularly difficult to acquire fissile isotopes of uranium-235 ( 235U) or 239Pu. Weapons-grade uranium requires mining, extracting and enriching natural ore. Plutonium can be "bred" in reactors fueled by unenriched uranium, which requires chemical separation of the 239Pu produced. The film was originally announced in 1963. [5] It was made by Benton Film Productions, a company of director Anthony Mann and producer S. Benjamin Fisz. Financing came from America's Allied Artists and Britain's J Arthur Rank Productions.Even a half century after his violent end, the death of the 20th century's most sinister evil is still shrouded in mystery. How did Hitler spend his final hours? Did he actually die in his Chancellery bunker, or did Hitler's doppelganger make one final impersonation? Why was Joseph Stalin obsessed with finding Hitler's body? Return to the war-torn ruins of Berlin to discover the secrets of "Adolf Hitler's Last Days." As it turned out, in the early summer of 1942, Albert Speerdecided the Germans were notgoing to invest in a Manhattan-style nuclear program. But KurtDiebner, who once headed the program, was told very clearly by his boss, “You get a heavy water reactor going, you prove to us you can do it, and we will shower you with money.” The heavy water cargo was closely guarded at all times, but the boat that was to transport the shipment stood unwatched the night before. One of the three saboteurs had experimented with a timer and detonating mechanism, and he tried to set the explosion to go off when it would be easiest to rescue passengers. There have been larger land battles and more protracted air campaigns than Okinawa but this was a combined operation, unparalleled in size, scope and ferocity. In his 2005 book Hitler’s Bomb, the historian Rainer Karlsch claimed that German physicists conducted three atom-bomb tests shortly before the end of the war – one on the island of Ruegen in the autumn of 1944 and two in the eastern state of Thuringia in March 1945 – tests that claimed up to 700 lives. And last year, the German popular newspaper Bild published eye-witness accounts of similar tests in different locations.

Knowing that those who resisted in Norway did it from real anti-fascist conviction and the fact that they wanted to do something against their unwelcome occupiers. Ebb and Flow, Evacuations and Landings by Merchant Ships in World War Two, Roy Martin ISBN 0955744121 Directed by Anthony Mann (his last film) with a mostly British cast, and starring KIRK DOUGLAS and RICHARD HARRIS, it's based on a little known true-life episode. Their mission: to return to Telemark from England and see whether ground invasion is possible--rather than bombing, because the village nearby is heavily populated. As someone else observed, Kirk and Richard spend more time fighting each other than the Nazis. Whatever animosity lies beneath the surface of these two stars, it shows on the screen. You probably know the History, now discover the incredible SECRETS OF WORLD WAR II. Rarely has a war produced such clear cut reasons to fight as World War II. On the one hand were the totalitarian Dictators - Tojo, Hitler and Mussolini. On the other were the great democracies of the Western World which were gradually regaining their feet after the Great War of 1914-18 and the Wall Street Crash. By Neal Bascomb author of The Winter Fortress At the outset of WWII, a race began to create a nuclear weapon. Give us an overview of the participants.Brian, the course leader, is an absolute legend. His breadth of historical knowledge of the Telemark saboteurs is quite without equal and it was fascinating to listen to his views and anecdotes (especially when he presents them in such an engaging and accessible way). His passion for the subject is palpable and I'm certain a case could be made for him being the world's number one expert on the subject of the Telemark saboteurs. Rønneberg and Hans Storhaug made it in this way and took the guard by surprise. Birger Strømshaug, Fredrik Kayser and Kaspar Idland broke a window to get in, but the German guards heard nothing above the powerful drone of the generators. It was the only thing that truly frightened Winston Churchill. Silently patrolling the cold, gray waters of the Atlantic, the German U-boat almost sank Great Britain's chances for victory. How could the U-boat nearly sever England's lifeline? What were U-boats doing off the American coastline and in the Gulf of Mexico? And how did Allied submarines bring Japanese industry to a grinding halt? Learn the crucial role of the submarine in every theater of war in "Above Us the Enemy." Finally, after two abortive missions during the previous full moons, the promised raiding party of six new Norwegian recruits were dropped by the RAF – albeit 30km from where the four survivors had arranged to meet them. After waiting out a five-day blizzard, the two parties were finally united and they began to formalise their plan to break into the hydroelectric plant and then escape. The seemingly suicidal Operation Gunnerside was in play. A huge political thriller began to unfold in 1943 and 1944. Was this a question of preventing the development of a nuclear weapon? Was this an arms race? In any case, the outcome could determine who won the war.