Operasjon Grouse

[Swiss John]

On this day 80 years ago, 18. October 1942, a draughty Halifax bomber plane slipped over the Norwegian coast and headed further inland towards the southern Hardangervidda. Just after 23:30, by the light of a half-moon, four young Norwegian men jumped out and floated down towards their homeland. All landed safely, but they had to spend several hours searching for their equipment and vital supplies which had also been dropped by parachute.

The next day brought clear weather, but also the realisation that they had landed at Fjarefit - almost 50km north west of the intended drop location at Skolandsmyrene. It took them two more days to find the rest of their equipment before starting on a long and arduous ski-trek through storms and deep new snow, carrying punishingly heavy loads, till they reached Grasfjellhytta on the northern shore of Sandvatn on 5. November.

Their mission, together with Einar Skinnerland who had already parachuted onto the Hardangervidda the previous March, was to prepare the way for a team of British soldiers who were to attack and destroy the heavy water production facilities at the Vemork hydrogen factory. This mission, named Operation Freshman, went disastrously wrong – although through no fault of the Norwegian Grouse team. One of the towing aircraft and the two gliders carrying the soldiers crashed and those who survived, even the injured ones, were all executed by the Germans.

The four-man  Grouse team were then ordered to go into the mountains and wait for further instructions. The winter of 1942/43 was a very severe one and the men, now under the new code-name “Swallow”, found refuge at first in a cabin in Grasdalen, then at Svensbu on the shore of Store Saure, but were reduced to eating reindeer moss till they managed to shoot a reindeer just before Christmas.

Their Norwegian comrades-in-arms from Operation Gunnerside joined them in February 1943 and the subsequent successful sabotage of the heavy water plant is well known throughout the world, although the toughness and determination of the Grouse/Swallow team, and the severe hardships which they had to endure, is somewhat less well known.

Today, exactly 80 years since those brave men jumped from the aircraft down onto the Hardangervidda, we should spare a thought for them:  Jens-Anton Poulsson, Knut Haugland, Claus Helberg and Arne Kjelstrup, as well as Einar Skinnerland, who jumped before them and the Gunnerside team who came later, are heroes of whom Norwegians are justifiably very proud.

However, it would be a mistake to regard the heavy water episode as a “bloodless” event where “not a shot was fired”:  41 lives were lost in the Freshman fiasco. In the aftermath of Operations Freshman and Gunnerside several resistance people were pulled in by the occupiers and tortured/executed by the Gestapo or chose to end their own lives to avoid giving away information under torture. Some were sent to concentration camps in Germany, where they died from sickness or hardship. As well as those, 22 innocent lives were lost in the massive American bombing attack on Vemork/Rjukan in November 1943 and 14 more innocents, as well as 4 German soldiers, in the sabotage of the DF Hydro ferry in February 1944.

In the words of Joachim Rønneberg, leader of the Gunnerside team:  “Det er viktig å få folk til å forstå at fred og fridom ikkje er ein sjølvsagt ting. Vi ser på fjernsynet og høyrer i radioen i dag korleis det er, til og med i enkelte delar av Europa. Folk må forstå at fred og fridom må kjempast for kvar dag”. Shortly before the Gunnerside commandos departed from England on their mission to Norway they were addressed by professor Leif Tronstad who told them:  “…….trust that your actions will live in history for a hundred years to come…..”. The men who listened to his words probably thought that it was just a “pep talk” to motivate them for their mission, but I have no doubt that twenty years from now, when the centenary of these events is celebrated, professor Tronstad’s prophesy will prove to have been very accurate.

(I have posted this short essay in the “ski og vinteraktiviteter” section, as cross-country mountain skiing was of vital importance before, during and after the Vemork sabotage).

[Swiss John]

I’m looking forward to going to the Hardangervidda this coming winter/spring, although I have not yet been to the Rjukan area.

On account of the 80th anniversary of the Vemork Sabotage, and In honour of Operation Grouse, I’m told that they are putting on a special “Reindeer Moss Festival” next February/March in Rjukan. The local restaurants are all offering special dishes made from…….reindeer moss! You can get reindeer moss soup, grouse stuffed with reindeer moss, even special desserts such as reindeer moss pudding and reindeer moss ice cream with genuine reindeer eyeballs. For vegetarians there’s reindeer moss lasagne topped with cheese made from reindeer milk, but to crown it all they will be a introducing a special beer called “Rjukan Heavy” brewed from……you guessed it………..heavy water!!! They have decided that the beer should have 1% alcohol for every saboteur who entered the Vemork plant – so it’s going to be a 9% beer.  For those who get too drunk, there’s a special ferry afterwards on Tinnsjøen which, the organisers say, is guaranteed to be a blast.

Should be a fun time next February in Rjukan.