daftandbarmy
Army.ca Dinosaur
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So many fascinating possibilities in the "What If..." category of history.
What if the Norwegan resistance hadn't been as clever and dedicated as they were? Or had failed in their efforts to eliminate heavy water production?
So many What If's...
I did a ski instructor course at Rjukan, in Telemark, in the 80s. We could see the Vermork plant from the Hardanger plateau region that was our training area.
One of the Norwegian Officers on OP GUNNERSIDE gave a talk one night, during the course, about the raid on the heavy water plant (yes, I'm that old). The guy was about as old as I am now, coincidentally
Norwegian heavy water sabotage - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
He was pretty clear that it was a very risky operation for something that (despite Hollywood) might not have been worth it and would kill everyone, many others had died in the attempt, but they did it anyways because they were so pissed off at the high levels of Norwegian collaboration with the German occupation force. And they believed that the heavy water was a real threat, which it wasn't as it turned out.
Norwegian resistance was pretty weak compared with other occupied countries, like France. As a result, they lived in a small hut in a remote area, eating reindeer moss to survive, because the RAF couldn't resupply them from the air, and they couldn't risk connecting with the heavily compromised civilian population who had squealed on many other commando type raid attempts. Their achievements were astonishing, and much under rated in the history of commando operations IMHO. We regarded this guy as a a frickin' God, Royal Marines Falklands War vets amongst us included.
And then there's Quisling. 'Quisling' is a a great insult if you ever need to enrage a Norwegian, but I suggest you don't try it.
Quisling - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org