The Accurate Reloading Forums
Heroes of Telemark

This topic can be found at:
https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5421043/m/820101641

29 July 2004, 02:47
NitroX
Heroes of Telemark
Jut finished watching (or some of it) a series on the WW2 "Heroes of Telemark".



What I found interesting, among other things, was the re-creation of some of their survival techniques, including butchering a reindeer, gutting etc on TV. Normally this sort of stuff is sanitised but part of the programme was to demonstrate what the saboteurs did in the mountains to survive. Also catching and filleting fish etc, plus building rough shelters in the snow.



Refreshing to see, even if the "hunting" scenes were to demontrate survival, that the reality of it was portrayed and not just some throw away line, that they hunted and fished sometimes to survive. Some "reality" TV for urban viewers.
29 July 2004, 03:15
DUK
Those guys were real heroes. I still got some first hand reports about the conflict from an old fishing friend of mine who served there for the Wehrmacht, supporting the Finns in their fight against the Sovjets. Quite scary, those times...
29 July 2004, 03:47
ErikD
NitroX,



The father of a family friend was in the group you mentioned ( Kompani Linge) who eventually sabotaged the "Heavy water" project, which set back the Germans atomic bomb research.



The area where they were air dropped and lived is in a mountain range called Hardangervidda (which is quite tundra like). Many vacations when I was younger were spent up there, and quite a few times we used to sleep over in one of the little cabins that this resistance group used. It's very far into the mountians... One thing that suprised me was that he told me they drank the stomage liquids from the reindeer, since eating just the meat was too hard on their digestion! Apperantly, the already chewed up moss, lichen etc that was in the reindeer stomage was the solution for them, and perhaps gave them their needed dose of veggies...



The group of men who participated in this plan to sabotage the Heavy water plant at Rjukan, were undoubtably tougher than most people back then, not to mention people nowadays. I don't know if the film you saw was filmed at the genuine location, but we are talking about some heavy duty terrain that they had to get down to plant the bombs in the "Norsk Hydro" plant on 27 feb 1943 and then again one year later (19 feb. 1944) on the ship that they blew up.



Had they not succeeded with these assignments, the war might have had a differant ending, or at least lasted longer. Had the Nazis been able to complete their atomic bomb, who knows what might have happend...



Erik D.
29 July 2004, 06:04
Deerdogs
One of the best British TV shows for a long time.

The "actors" were two Royal Marines and two Norweigian SF. The RM have trained in Arctic Norway for many years as I am sure Ian F will confirm.

The original Heroes of Telemark must have been tough tough men.
29 July 2004, 12:12
mho
Quote:

One thing that suprised me was that he told me they drank the stomage liquids from the reindeer, since eating just the meat was too hard on their digestion! Apperantly, the already chewed up moss, lichen etc that was in the reindeer stomage was the solution for them, and perhaps gave them their needed dose of veggies...



They almost starved to death in the Hardangarvidda, and the reindeer hunting eventually saved their bacon, so to speak. Initially, apart from actually finding the migrating reindeer, they had trouble putting the animals down due to the FMJ bullets issued for their military rifles. As Erik said, they preferred parts of the deer we would normally have avoided, apparently a common occurrence for (indigenous) people who have to survive on a diet consisting largely of meat.

There used to be a book available about the Telemark operations - later turned into a motion picture starring Kirk Douglas. The book is very much worth reading. As usual in the 2nd World War, the airborne insertions were desasters causing who knows what kinds of casualties. When the Norvegian saboteurs finally blew up the ferry carrying the heavy water, I believe quite a few civilians were killed too.

- mike
29 July 2004, 14:33
mete
If I remember correctly three of the participants wrote books of their experiences and I've read at least two of them years ago.As I remember their escape was difficult because the various cabins had been stripped of food by the germans and game was unusually scarce.After following the reindeer for many miles they finally got some, and yes they ate the whole thing .This hunt was done when they were already suffering from severe malnutrition. ..There wa s a chase on skis and finally the one german who had not given up had been shot with pistol by the fleeing norwegian. That scene was put into one of the James Bond [Roger Moore] movies....Yes they were heores and the stories were very dramatic, they didn't need Hollywood embelishments !!
29 July 2004, 22:09
ErikD
Quote:

I believe quite a few civilians were killed too.



I think it was 18 civilians that were killed on the ferry. The problem was that the resistance didn't dare warn any locals of the upcoming operation since they were afraid that word might get to the Germans. Stopping the Heavywater from getting to Germany was deemed so important that civilian casualties were acceptable, if that's what it took to complete the mission.

Erik D.
30 July 2004, 02:10
mho
Horrible choice to have to make. War is hell - even though it has its heroes on both sides.
- mike