SOE (Special Operations Executive) (Page 8 of 8)

The sabotage of the heavy water production on Vemork is known by many. But the factory was able to produce a smaller amount of heavy water after the exlosion. The Germans decided to move the heavy water produced after the sabotage to Germany in February 1944 - but why?
The  first leg of the journey would be by train, at first by ferry across Lake Tinn.
Two SOE agents and  two members of the local resistance with the  assistance of a few factory employes were given the task of stopping the shipment. A bomb was placed in the hull of D/F (Steam ferry) "Hydro" and the ferry sank mid lake on the 20th February.
18 people drowned, 14 of them were civilian Norwegians.

National Geographic has "drained" Lake Tinn using CGI. Here is a short video that might be of interest:

https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/tungtva … g/70066889

D/F Hydro and the sister ferry D/F "Ammonia". Ammonioa  still exists and is the only steam railway ferry still functioning in the world. The ferry is sometimes still used asa a target in sabotage training of special forces units.

Joachim Rønneberg, the leader of the 1943 Vemork sabotage mission died tonight. Rønneberg was 99 years old and the last surving member of the mission to make sure Hitler's Germany never got the heavy water to build an atom bomb.

Joachim Rønneberg was born into a family that was once the richest family in the coastal town of Ålesund. He fled to Britain in 1941 in a small motorized fishing boat. He joined Company Linge, the largest of the two Norwegian Special Operation Executive Executive units. Because of his fairly good English he was used as an interpreter in the demolitions training course. Soon he started instructing and became so proficient at demolition he feared he would never be sent to occupied Norway on a mission. I became an unofficial representative of the Norwegian agents because of his Language skills and Natural leadership. For the same reasons (and because he was an exelent skiier) he was chosen to pick and lead the Vemork mission two years later. He planned the mission together with a couple of others and also picked the weapons and equipment. Some kit he bought from civilian sources and some was specially made from his instructions.

I won't tell the whole story here, but the Vemork mission is considered one of the most sucessful and important sabotage mission in the entire war. Here is the wikipedia link if you wish to know more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian … r_sabotage

Joachim Rønneberg was sent back to occupied Norway once more, that was in 1944. He and two other SOE agents were parachuted into the Romsdal region to prepare railway sabotage to stop German troop movements to continental Europe after the D-day landings. This was Operation Fieldfare. He helped the pilots toward the right area because of his local knowledge and flew only a couple of miles from here. In spite of his best efforts they were not dropped on the mountain platou they were intended to land, but in a narrow valley. He landed on a steep mountain side and had to quick release his parachute to avoid getting pulled off. The three agents set up a camouflaged cabin in the Tafjord mountains. While they waited for the order to start blowing up railroad bridges they never got re-suppiles because of some blunder. They stole food from nearby cabins, but still lost weight. When they were finally ordered into action one mission failed because the weather was so cold the fuses snapped in two when they tried to use them. Another bridge was blown up successfully.

In the summer of 1990 he reconstructed the Fieldfare cabin. I saw him there on a mountain path, but I was too in awe to approach him, talk to him and thank him. I have regretted this ever since.

Can you spot the Fieldfare Cabin?

Joachim Rønneberg rebuilding the cabin:

After he war he worked in local radio and TV as a journailst. He also visited schools and other venues to talk about his experiences. His last public appearance was this fall at the opening of the Måløy Raid Museum.

At Vemork a few years ago together with a conscript special forces soldier.

Thank you, Joachim Rønneberg.

I found this give-part TV documentary very interesting. Some modern people with mixed bacground try to tackle the SOE selection and training. Especially the selection was calsified after the war, so none of the biographies I've read says much about this.

Episode one:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Se … ORM=VRDGAR