Was Norway just an inactive recipient of assistance from the Allied powers during WWII?
Apparently someone here are ignorant about the Norwegian participation and contribution to the war effort and to it’s own liberation from German occupation in 1944-45.
Here is the story about what may have been the most important and successful sabotage operation during WWII:
A statue of the leader of that operation is found centrally in hid hometown, Ålesund:
He died peacefully in 2018 at the age of 99-years.
Here is a message from the Royal House of Norway after his funeral:
He is buried in the Rønneberg family’s grave near Borgund Church in Ålesund:
They were very brave men and achieved the objective, namely settling back the Nazi progress.
The real story is that it was a masterpiece of deception. The work by the British Alloy Tubes who took their findings to the USA under the Quebec Agreement had determined that using Heavy Water was a dead end and the attention placed on destroying the facility convinced the German Scientists to continue down that path.
Also, heavy water reactors can use a form of natural uranium instead of the very difficult and expensive enriched form. It looks like the Germans were on the way to discovering what was a shorter and less troublesome path.
I still think those guys made a very decisive contribution to the outcome of WWII.
Even if it only happened to fool the Germans it still stopped them from delevoping the bomb in time to flatten London.
They were also well under way with developing ICBMs that MAY have delivered a bomb to NYC.
PS> Joachim Rønneberg was not interested in glory and refused to be involved in the making of the movie “Heros of Telemark”. He said that “the war is over, let us move on”
In his later years he changed his mind and went around schools in Norway to talk to the young generation about the futility of wars and the importance of NOT forgetting the lessons learnt from WWII, less someone repeated the same misstake again
I acknowledged their contribution to the war effort and the allies were well aware of the research in Germany. Of the Jewish scientists and others all had attended various scientific conventions and had written papers with those who had remained in Germany. Niels Bohr worked with Werner Heisenberg before the war who became the leader of the Nazi team working on an atomic weapon. Niels Bohr was smuggled out of Sweden, joining Alloy Tubes in the UK and moved with them to the Manhattan Project.
These people along with Fermi, an Italian Jew, gave an insight into German progress.
Papers obtained at the end of the war showed that the Nazi scientists were some distance away from producing a weapon.
Their progress towards a successor to the V2 rocket, a ICBM was well advanced.
The Japanese were also doing research into atomic weapons.
The Gunnerside operation was one of many by “Kompani Linge” in Norway during WWII:
Kapt. Linge and many of the members of “Kompani Linge” was from Ålesund and the district around, therefore a meeting of the “Lingeklubben” (1947-2007) was held here in May 1965 (VE +20):
Colonel John Skinner Wilson was Head of SOE Scandinavian Section and the immediate commander for both “Kompani Linge” and “Shetlandsgjengen” He sent this letter to “Lingeklubben” on it’s 10th Anniversary in 1957:
I mentioned their religion because it was important to the Nazis in respect to whether they lived or died and it was indeed fortuitous for us that they escaped to the West. We were able to craft some tailor made disinformation.
To my understanding neither of them were religious; Fermi had been baptized Catholic, and Bohr had at one point been Lutheran but I believe they were agnostic at best during this period. They simply had Jewish ancestry.
The real significance is actually on the German side, where their once-stellar scientific community began rejecting anything that came from so-called Jüdische Physik - instead creating a deliberately partisan echo chamber for themselves. Which is ultimately why we got the bomb and they did not. The fact that physics is agnostic and non-partisan apparently came as a surprise to them.
It is correct that more Russians (USSR) died in Norway during the war than Norwegians that died from fighting the German occupiers.
The majority of the Russians were prisoners that was brought to Norway as slave labourers (approx. 100,000) of which approx. 14,000 died from various reasons while in captivity at various war construction sites around Norway:
FYI:These graves are all being paid for and maintained by the Norwegian Government.
How many Soviet soldiers who died in combat on Norwegian soil is not known exactly, but during the October 1944 liberation of East Finnmark is estimated at over 600 Soviet soldiers who died in combat against overwhelming German forces:
Total Norwegian deaths due to the warfare, including military, merchant marine, and civilian casualties, are generally estimated around 10,300: Breakdown of Norwegian Fatalities (1940–1945):
Merchant Navy: The largest group of casualties, with 3,638 sailors killed, over 3,000 of whom died during convoy duty.
Military Forces: Approximately 2,000 to 3,000 military personnel died fighting the Axis powers, including 860 during the initial 1940 campaign. (April - May, 1940)
Resistance & Political Prisoners: Over 2,000 resistance fighters and political prisoners died in action, by execution, or in concentration camps.
Civilians: Roughly 1,779 to 1,800 other civilian casualties occurred due to bombings and other war-related causes.
Jewish Population: Of the 773 Jews deported from Norway to concentration camps, only 38 survived.
Prisoners of War: Around 1,400 Norwegian prisoners died while in captivity.
Post-War Trials: 25 Norwegian citizens were executed immediately following the war for collaboration.
Not much compared to some other countries, but Norway then had a population of about 3,000,000.
Just a side note about the large number of Russian (USSR) POWs that died in captivity. The Soviet Union was not a signatory of the Geneva Convention until 1949. As a result, Germany was not bound as they were with regards to the treatment and protections afforded other Allied POWs. That said. the Soviets paid back the treatment in kind.
Should also note Japan signed it, but the Imperial government didn’t ratify it.
I read a few of the more popular books about the effort at vermork and later, when in Iraq I went to Vermork (and Colditz) and encourage all who can to visit. The feat of climbing down into and out of that gorge to gain access to the power plant was in itself one hell of a effort, then, to carry through and complete the mission after getting across the river was epic, this after spending all that time on the high plateaus above! Allied efforts at bombing with B-17’s are visible on the upstream side of the old turbine house. When I visited (2007) there was a older guy who looked like he freqeuented the place and I regret never talking to him even though many understood english, he could of been instrumental in the aforementioned effort? As for the bomb, who really knows what the outcome could of been though it is probable they would not of gotten it right in the time ‘allotted’.
DIED OCTOBER 21: War hero Joachim Rønneberg lived until he was 99. He died at home in Ålesund. Rønneberg led the Heavy Water Operation in 1943, the most famous sabotage operation during World War II. Photo: Marte Christensen / NTB scanpix
in profile it could of been one of the participants, he looked sort of like a museum docent or certainly someone knowledgeable of the area. again, i sure wish i’d of talked with him or made the attempt. While I was there I live streamed images to my uncle in Alaska who throughly enjoyed it as I had done previously for him with streaming when I was in Panama. I am grateful I was able to make it to Rujikan.
Hardly likely to have been Jochim Rønneberg roaming around at Vemork in 2007. He was born into a prominent family in Ålesund and lived here all his live. (With the exception of a period during WWII)
By that time he was already getting frail. (88-years old)
(The distance from Ålesund to Rjukan is abt. 500 km. by road (abt. 9 hrs.driving))
From Norwegian Wikipedia:
The rest of that story has been told in book, documentaries and even a Hollywood movie. (Kirk Douglas played Joachim Rønneberg)
The man himself was not consulted about the manuscript for the film.
thx so much for taking the effort to paste all that info. I hope others besides me read this and understand the tremendous sacrifice made by our predecessors. “the sledge patrol” by david howarth and “the shetland bus” by same cover well some obscure ww2 operations which by themselves sort of facinate me for I was special forces during my 23 yrs. service. other mentionables are the fins vs russia, soe operations in N. Africa and somewhat in Cairo (with money and women of note) I believe “the shetland bus” covers the guy who in effort to escape the germans walked around a rock for apx. 2 days to stay alive. His trail around said rock are to this day imprinted into the ground. there is so much history slowly being forgotten, even more I suppose is similar stories of the greek and romans and more.
