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Bombing Nazi Targets In Norway

The Rjukan plants were heavily bombed in the autumn of 1943. The damage was extensive.

Water was dripping in a hydrogen plant at Rjukan in Telemark, Southern Norway, as it had done since 1934. But this was no ordinary water, and no ordinary plant - it was the only facility in Europe that produced heavy water in large-scale volumes.

Late in 1938, Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman discovered the phenomenon of atomic fission. Physicists everywhere realized that if chain reactions could be tamed, fission could lead to a promising new source of power. What was needed was a substance that could "moderate" the energy of neutrons emitted in radioactive decay, so that they could be captured by other fissionable nuclei. Heavy water was a prime candidate for the job.

Allied forces were determined to stop Nazi Germany from developing the atomic bomb. Of two materials to control a nuclear reaction - pure graphite and heavy water - the Germans chose heavy water because of a mathematical error in calculating the use of graphite. The German nuclear research community relied on a supply of deuterium oxide [heavy water] from the Norwegian Norsk Hydro plant, the only commercial production facility. This plant in Vemork, Norway was the world's major source of heavy water in the early 1940s. In the United States, Heavy water was used as a coolant and moderator in nuclear materials production reactors at the Savannah River Site.

Concentrating heavy water requires enormous amounts of electricity. In the 1930s, one of the few places in the world with power to spare was the Vemork plant of Norway's Norsk Hydro-Elektrisk, which had harnessed a 144-meter-high waterfall to produce fertilizers. The heavy water was generated as a by-product of producing fertilizer. Norsk Hydro supplied the world's scientific community with heavy water only as a sideline. In late 1939, the Germans began ordering heavy water in very large quantities, Norsk Hydro management suspected "some kind of deviltry." With the cooperation of Norsk Hydro, the French managed to spirit the company's entire stock of heavy water, some 185 kilograms, out of the country under the noses of watchful German agents.

The Germans kept the plant under heavy guard during World War II - for good reason. The barrels of heavy water that were rolled out were sent to Germany, where they were used to control nuclear fission. Following the occupation of Norway in the spring of 1940, it soon became clear that the Germans were interested in heavy water. By the start of 1942, production at new installations in Rjukan, based on a German method, increased to 100 kilos per month. Not long after, the Germans announced they wanted to increase output further.

The situation escalated to the point that Hydro's top management protested and the company's managing director Bjarne Eriksen was arrested in early 1943 and sent to a concentration camp in Germany. It was known in London and Washington that two German atomic physicists were working on nuclear fission, and it was assumed that heavy water had something to do with Hitler's threat of a secret weapon.

Norwegians in London assisted in the plans to sabotage the heavy water unit at the Vemork power plant at Rjukan, and photographs and sketches of the plant were sent to London by Norwegian contacts at the facility, in particular Jomar Brun, manager of the heavy water unit.

A huge political thriller began to unfold in 1943 and 1944. Was this a question of preventing the development of a nuclear weapon? Was this an arms race? In any case, the outcome could determine who won the war. In November 1942 the military campaign began with a disastrous British commando raid into Norway. Operation Freshman, mounted by Special Operations Executive (SOE), failed when thirty four Royal Engineers of the 1st British Airborne Division, together with the crews of two gliders and one bomber, died when their craft crashed crashed in fog in Southern Norway into mountains. Survivors were interrogated, tortured, and executed by the Germans.

The first attempt to attack the Vemork plant ended in tragedy, all aboard were either killed in the crash or shot by the Germans. A sabotage operation was then planned. This was to be carried out by specially trained Norwegians. On 28 February 1943 a second all-Norwegian commando raid - Operation Gunnerside - destroyed the Rjukan electrolysis plant, with the loss of 500kg of heavy water. The plant was, however, quickly repaired.

The heavy water plant was rebuilt and production restarted during the next six months. On the night of 16 November 1943 the American attempt to destroy the plant employed a total of 388 B-17 and B-24 bombers from Eighth Air Force. US bombers swooped in over Rjukan and totally destroyed the Vemork power station. The raid resulted in considerable loss of civilian life but minimal damage to the electrolysis building. While this attack did little damage it convinced the Germans to abandon the plant, give up producing heavy water at Vemork, and move remaining stocks and critical components to Germany in 1944.

Haakon VII (1872-1957) was a former Prince of Denmark who became the ruler of Norway after the country's independence in 1905. When the Germans invaded Norway, Haakon only just escaped capture in Oslo in April 1940 and along with his cabinet ministers fled for the north. He remained in Norway until the British withdrew and left in June 1940. With the Norwegian Government at his side he led the Norwegian Resistance from London and was recognized by the Allies as the legitimate government. Haakon made radio broadcasts to Norway to encourage his people to resist and up to 50,000 left to join his forces abroad. Morale in Norway was maintained by the production of illegal pamphlets and journals which tried to give the people an alternative version of events. In late 1944 Norwegians helped the Russians by invading German positions in northern Norway from Finland. In June 1945 Haakon returned to a liberated country which had remained staunchly anti-Nazi throughout the war.

ETO Strategic Operations

The Eighth Air Force's mission number 75 was Norway. On the 24th three targets in Norway are attacked. This is Eighth's first mission to Norway and its longest (1,900 miles or 3,040 km round trip) to date. On Saturday, 24 July 1943, 179 B-17's and 1 YB-40 are dispatched against the nitrate works at Heroya, Norway; 167 aircraft hit the target at 1317-1414 hours; they claim 9-2-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-17 is lost and 53 are damaged; casualties are 3 WIA and 10 MIA. The USAAF delivered a crippling blow to the German plant producing synthetic cryolite, used in the manufacture of aluminum. Work at the plant is disrupted for 3.5 months, and unfinished aluminum and magnesium plants are damaged and subsequently abandoned by the Germans.

U-boat bases or bunkers at Trondheim and Bergen 45 B-17's are dispatched against the port area at Trondheim; 41 hit the target; they claim 4-2-3 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-17 is damaged beyond repair and 9 are damaged; casualties are 3 WIA. 84 B-17's are dispatched against the port area at Bergen; they find 10/10 cloud cover and return to base with their bombs.

Crews successfully experiment with a new assembly procedure for occasions when bad weather conditions prevent ascent in formation. Aircraft take off individually on instruments, proceed to a designated splasher beacon for group formation, and then along line of 3 splasher beacons for force assembly. The method works well and makes possible many future missions which might otherwise have been abandoned.

The Eighth Air Force's mission number 131 was Norway. On the 16th, two targets in Norway are hit with the loss of 2 bombers. On Tuesday, 16 November 1943, 130 of 189 B-17's hit the industrial area at Knaben at 1133-1238 hours; they claim 2-0-4 Luftwaffe aircraft; 1 B-17 is lost and 7 damaged; casualties are 1 WIA and 10 MIA. Knaben was described by ETOUSA headquarters as "the most important industrial target in German-held Norway." Practically Germany's only source of molybdenum - a vital element used in hardening steel and making machine tools - was damaged severely.

At Rjukan 147 of 160 B-17's hit the industrial area at 1143-1145 hours; 1 B-17 is lost and 1 damaged beyond repair; casualties are 2 KIA and 10 MIA. 29 of 39 B-24's hit Rjukan at 1204-1212 hours; no losses or casualties. Rjuken power plant is one of the world's largest electrolysis works and an important producer of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and essential components of high explosives. Heavy damage was done and thoroughly plastered.

The aiming point of the target was the pen-stocks down the mountain from the dam for the hydro-electric building in the valley below. This building also contained the Norwegian heavy water plant which was being used by the Germans to provide heavy water for their experimentation in the development of the Atomic/Hydrogen bomb.

This was the only mission made by the 390th Bombardment Group to a Norwegian target. Twenty of our group of B-17Fs took the long route over the North Sea from England to hit this target. One aircraft tied in with the 1st Division formation and bombed Knaben, Norway.

Rjukan was located in a peaceful valley seventy-five miles west of Oslo. The terrain was rugged and the hillside where the penstocks came down was steep. This heavy water factory was instrumental to the German scientists in their plans for building an atomic bomb. The tremendous amount of hydro-electric power generated from Norwegian streams was to be harnessed for production of this heavy oxygen or as we called it, heavy water. It was the critical element the Germans believed could be made into an atomic force which would defeat the allies, England and America, if they could just get it perfected before the allies did.

On the long over-water trip north over the North Sea our navigator, Gus Mencow, used his sextant to shoot the sun for a sun line exactly at noontime. This gave him a good location of our north latitude and the north-south distance covered since we left England. From this, he adjusted his ground speed value to compute a better-estimated time of arrival (ETA) at the Norwegian coast. This was the initial point (IP) for the start of our bomb run. I believe this was the only time that celestial navigation was ever used in the European Theater during World War II. Gus was a highly competent navigator, a member of the lead crew of Captain Jim Geary in the 570th Squadron.

Their lead aircraft was affectionately known by its crew as, “Pistol Packin' Mamma”. Flying with this crew was Major Joseph Gemmill as Command Pilot and the Squadron Navigator, Captain Marshall Shore acting in the capacity of Command Navigator. The Bombardier was Captain Donald Ventress, the 570th Squadron Bombardier. The bomb load on all 390th aircraft was four (4) each, 1000 pound general purpose bombs.

Three runs were made on the target. On the first run, prop wash from the 95th Bomb Group interfered, and on the second run clouds and smoke interfered. On the third attempt the bombs were released prematurely, and struck the hillside west of the target. Other Groups, fortunately, damaged the plant severely. This plant was later-on struck by a Norwegian sabotage team that penetrated it on the ground, and Rjukan was never fully developed. The first and only large shipment of heavy water to head for Germany was sabotaged and the ship was blown up in a Norwegian fjord before it left Norway. The Norwegians were smarter in this respect than the Germans. The German quest for heavy water was completely thwarted.

One aircraft # 230455R, Schifliss Skonk, from the 569th Bomb Squadron on its twelfth mission flown by Raymond Becker, Pilot, caught fire and crashed in the North Sea. Three small boats were seen to head for the scene. There were no survivors. Gunners of the 390th group were given credit for shooting down two enemy fighters that attacked the group over Norway.

On the third run at the target, an unfortunate thing happened to cause the bombs to fall a distance from the aiming point. The Command Pilot, Joe Gemmill, thinking that the bombs had been released, even though the red release light in the cockpit had not get come on, took control of the aircraft from the automatic pilot and started a turn off the target run. This caused a bombing error which was not the fault of the Bombardier. It was regrettable. We had flown so far to this important target and wanted very much to make a good hit on the aiming point. But such things happened occasionally in combat, especially when under attack from fighters or flak. This was not the case on this mission as flak was not very accurate and there were no fighters around bothering us at the time. Our return flight back to England was long and boring. We landed with the loss of one crew that ditched off the Norwegian coast.

Marshall B. Shore, Lt. Colonel, USAF (retired). Mission To Rjukan, Norway. November 16, 1943.

Germany's Secret Weapons in World War II Ford. Begins with the development of a range of innovative and sometimes bizarre aircraft types: jets, forward-swept wings, rocket power, gliders, rotary-wing aircraft and more. Then, covers developments in the field of rocket and missile production, including surface-to-surface and air-to-air weapons. The book observes how Hitler's fascination with the gargantuan led to the design and construction of guns and tanks of overwhelming size. Finally, read of some of the most insidious agents of death - nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, including Germany's quest for the atomic bomb.

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