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Sat 15 Mar, 2003 02:40 pm
Claus Helberg, a Norwegian resistance fighter and member of a commando team that destroyed Germany's atomic weapons program in a daring WWII raid died 3/6/03 at age 84.
The 1943 raid, known as Operation Gunnerside, destroyed the Nazi's heavy water plant near Rjukan, 90 miles east of the the capital, Oslo. Germany occupied Norway from 1940-1945.
The plant could have provided Nazi scientists with the chemical reaction necessary to build an atomic bomb. After the raid, the nine commandos fled to Sweden and Britain
The raid was depicted in a 1965 movie, "The Heroes of Telemark" starring Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris.
Helberg and the other eight commandos probably saved the world from Nazi domination.
There was an article in the NYT on March, 13:
NYT-article: Claus Helberg, 84, War Hero in the Norwegian Resistance, Is Dead
Helberg, a former prisoner of war, was best known for helping end German plans for using heavy water in Telemark during the Nazi occupation of Norway. The sabotage attack bought the United States valuable time to complete their own atomic bomb before Hitler could do the same. Helberg and fellow Telemark native Gunnar Soensteby inspired the 1965 film on the sabotage action, The Heroes of Telemark, starring Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris.
Some facts about the sabotage act:
Rjukan and the War
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