That being that, the Pig Battalion approached the matter somewhat dubiously, for they no longer shared the enthusiasm of their commanders. They had moved in the day before, completely encircling the mountains and searching the farms and villages and examining the terrain and tracks leading to and from the mountains for clues as to what they might be up against when the ascent began next day. They found nothing. Less than nothing. No tracks, no marks, not the slightest trace of anyone moving in or out of those mountains. Did the intensity of the US attacks truly keep them pinned up there? But that was utterly unbelievable—if they never left, why bother to be up there in the first place? Unacceptable as it might have seemed, the truth was beginning to dawn.

In mid-1942, the Germans scared the willies out of Allied physicists by taking over the heavy water factory at Vemork and boosting production. Persuading British Intelligence of the significance of this in regard to the still theoretical atom bomb, 30 commandoes were dispatched by gliders to knock the plant out, but both gliders crashed and all were killed. Next they decided on stealth, training six Norwegians and parachuting them in to join the local resistance in a ground attack, which successfully blew up the factory. But two years later, the Germans were back in business and foolishly decided to send their complete supply of heavy water from the factory to Berlin. Knut Haukelid, who had participated in the earlier raid, now led a team that sank the ferry as it crossed bottomless Lake Tinnsjo.
    The Heroes of Telemarck is a reasonably factual account of the adventures of Knut Haukelid (Richard Harris) although Kirk Douglas is added to the cast as an additional fictional hero. It’s pretty good, although somehow it comes off as a jolly wartime romp, rather lacking the importance of the occasion. Maybe that was because Haukelid had no idea why the heavy water was so important, except for observing that it must have been if the Germans guarded it so excessively and the British tried so desperately to destroy it. Unfortunately, the film was unjustly compared to the totally fictional Guns of Navarone and came off seriously second best. Still, it’s better than most.
    It wasn’t until long after the war, when atomic bombs were commonplace, that Haukelid’s efforts were recognised and rewarded. In fact he is the good candidate for WW2’s greatest hero, even if even he had no idea how important his work was at the time.
    This, by the way, is the Norwegian version of the story—the British claim they ran the show, the Norsemen that all British attempts failed and they had to do the job themselves.