CHAPTER TWELVE

HEAVY WATER III

THREE MONTHS HAD PASSED since the failed mission to sabotage the Norwegian heavy water plant. In that time the Germans had beefed up security, adding more troops, machine guns, searchlights and even a minefield around the plant. The British had improved their operation as well.

Two Norwegian engineers, who had built the Norsk Hydro plant, were now working with the Allies in England. Armed with the plant blueprints, they had constructed a mockup of the electrolysis area where the heavy water was distilled, so that six Norwegian saboteurs could practice laying dummy explosive charges in the dark. This time there would be no gliders. The advance team that had been in place, living off the land since the first ill-fated attempt, would mark the drop zone, and the saboteurs would parachute in.

On the first attempt, the plane carrying the saboteurs could not find the advance team’s beacon and had to return to Scotland. On a moonless night weeks later, their luck changed. The saboteurs parachuted onto a snow-packed mountain plateau, a barren landscape inhabited only by reindeer. Fighting gale-force winds, they managed to find the supplies they had parachuted in and meet up with the advance team. 99 After days of skiing, the whole group finally sighted their target.

The imposing, seven-story Norsk Hydro plant sat on a ledge at the bottom of a steep bluff. Alongside, several large pipes carried water from the lake above to the gorge below. Their intelligence briefs had been spot on. The guards, the machine guns, etc. were exactly where they expected.

Just after the 10 p.m. shift change, the eight saboteurs began their assault. In a heroic feat of mountaineering, they eluded the German guards by descending into the gorge, crossing a frozen river and climbing the 500-foot rock face on the other side. From there, they cut through a wire fence and crawled through a cable-intake opening into the plant. There the demolition team went to work, laying explosive charges, setting the fuses and retracing their steps. They had less than a minute to get away before the explosives went off. 100

Miraculously, all the saboteurs escaped uninjured. British intelligence estimated it would take twelve months for the Germans to get the plant up and running again.