News of Norway, issue 3, 1998
Their common denominator was that they all indirectly were affected by what he did during World War II. His story was that of a young Norwegian who went to Sweden to join the resistance movement. In 1943, he was one of nine men who successfully sabotaged the Vemork heavy water manufacturing facility in Norway, delivering a serious blow to the German nuclear program.
On the initiative of Michael and Mrs. Absher, Claus Helberg had been invited to the U.S. During his visit, he spoke at the CIA, the Norwegian Embassy, Norwegian-American organizations and the Holocaust Museum.
Helberg works actively within the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association. Like most Norwegians, he was born with skis on his feet. His skiing skills were crucial in his resistance work. Helberg is still an active recreational skier, and he is one of H.M. Queen Sonja's regular skiing partners.
As a local of Rjukan, where Hydro's heavy water manufacturing facility was located, Helberg was returning to his childhood's kingdom when picked for what seemed a mission impossible.
The Germans were using the electrochemical facility located at the top of the valley leading up from Rjukan to produce heavy water, crucial in production of nuclear bombs. In the nuclear race between the allies and the Germans, Vemork played a crucial role. To hinder German success, the allies had to stall or destroy the German production of heavy water.
The first sabotage attempt was made in November of 1942. Two glider planes from Great Britain were to be dropped over Hardangervidda (The Hardanger Plateau) where a group of Norwegian resistance fighters, code name "Grouse," were waiting for them. The British soldiers never found "Grouse." After searching for hours, the planes went down far from their intended target. Soldiers and crew were either killed during the landing or by Germans, according to Hitler's orders to shoot all saboteurs. After a crash course in parachuting in England, Helberg had been smuggled back into Norway. Together with Jens Anton Poulsson, Arne Kjelstrup and Knut Haugland, he spent a harsh winter on Hardangervidda, waiting for the next move from London. According to Helberg, they survived on moss for a while. We figured that if the reindeer could survive on moss, so could we, he said. When Helberg shot a reindeer, it was a welcomed supplementary to their diet.
In England, careful plans were made for a second attempt. Professor Leif Tronstad had been the technical advisor when the facility at Vemork was built. All through the war, he energetically worked against the Germans. His thorough knowledge of the facility would prove crucial in completing the mission.
In the spring of 1943, it was determined to send in another group, this time comprised of Norwegian resistance men. Vemork had always been guarded well, and the failed attempt had alerted the Germans of the allies' plans to halt production. But combining the knowledge of Tronstad and "Grouse," a plan emerged. They would cross the river running down the valley from the facility, climb up the other side to the railroad tracks running down to Rjukan and follow them up to Vemork.
According to Helberg, his prior knowledge of the area both served as a deterrent and played a crucial role in completing the mission. Helberg said that when thinking of climbing down one side of the valley and up the other, he couldn't imagine how it could be possible. From his childhood, he remembered these walls as impossible to traverse. Sent out to reconnoiter, Helberg did return to "Grouse" with good news. He had found a place where they should be able to cross.
The expedition named "Gunnerside," led by Joachim Rønneberg, in addition to "Grouse" was comprised of Knut Haukelid, Kasper Idland, Hans Storhaug, Birger Strømsheim and Fredrik Kayser. On Feb. 29, the group moved towards Vemork. After a successful hike, four of the men moved towards the building where the heavy water was being manufactured. The rest stayed back to keep watch over the German guards, who at this point didn't expect anything was wrong.
Moving in, the four men found that their original way of entry, the doors Tronstad had said were kept open, had been locked. Looking for another way in, the group of four lost each other. Rønneberg and one other man managed to make their way into the building through a cable tunnel in the basement, and well inside, they started placing explosives like they had practiced on the model built by Tronstad in England. As they were working, a window broke and the two other "Gunnerside" men arrived. The job was finished and detonation time set to 30 seconds.
After lighting the fuse, they told a Norwegian guard they had taken by surprise when entering the building-he had not resisted-to run for his life. The four men caught up with the rest of "Gunnerside" outside. They all managed to get off factory grounds before the alarm went off, returning the same way they came.
It took a while for the guards to realize what had happened. Though the sabotage had been successful, the noise from the explosion could have been mistaken for one of the many landmines buried in the area.
But when they realized what had happened, and Nikolaus von Falkenhorst himself had been to inspect and determined that it was some of the best sabotage he had ever seen, the Germans put out large forces in an attempt to catch the perpetrators. "Gunnerside" was never caught. Some successfully reached Sweden. Others headed west where they found safety.
Helberg had been given the task to go back and retrieve the supplies the group had left behind in a cabin on Hardangervidda. When he reached the cabin, he found tracks and determined that the Germans had reached it before him. As he got ready to leave, Germans appeared and followed him. Skiing what bindings and breath could hold, Helberg soon outran all of the Germans but one. "I soon discovered that I ran faster uphill than he did," Helberg said. "Downhill, he was faster than me, perhaps he had better skis."
Helberg figured that if he just kept going uphill, he would be able to shake off the German. "I went upward, upward, upward, but then I ran out off hill," Helberg said. The only way out was down. With no other choice left, Helberg started going down, and the German got closer. The German started shooting, but the distance between the two was still too far. Figuring that the man left standing would be the man with the most bullets, Helberg let the German catch up and fired a few shots back. The German ran out of ammunition first and turned around to flee. Helberg followed;0 now he was chasing the German.
Helberg chased the German for a while, but figuring this was kind of stupid, he turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. The German never noticed, and Helberg was home free, almost... Coming up on perhaps the only cliff for miles, he went over it and broke his arm.
Finally reaching Rauland, Helberg ran into a house full of Germans. But with an audacity that would save his life, he managed not only to trick them but also to get a German doctor to look at his arm.
On his way back to Oslo, he ended up getting caught by the Germans for having the gun. But during the transportation back to Oslo, Helberg managed to escape after the prison guard switched places with him on the bus. Instead of sitting on the floor in the back of a bus-next to a blond Norwegian beauty-he got to sit in front next to the driver. Going up a steep hill, the bus slowed down. Helberg opened the door and jumped off the bus.
Though Vemork had been successfully sabotaged and the saboteurs were home free, the Germans were still in business. After the set back, production was resumed. The allies found it necessary to bomb, and 150 American bombers were sent to do the job. Because of the terrain, Vemork is a difficult target to hit. Though most of the bombs missed, enough damage was done to halt production again.
The Germans decided to end the operation at Vemork and move the remaining already manufactured heavy water, first by train to Oslo and then by boat to Germany. En route to the railroad station on the other side of Tinnsjøen (The Tin Lake), another successful sabotage operation sank the last of the German heavy water in the middle of the lake. Rolf Sørlie and Knut Lier-Hanson from Rjukan had placed between 8 to 9 kilos of explosives in the boat, timing the fuse so the boat would explode where the water was deepest. Regretfully, civilian lives were also lost when the boat exploded and sank. Plans to sink the ship that was to transport the heavy water from Oslo to Germany never had to be put into action.