In late January 1944, a Norwegian Resistance fighter who was hiding out near the Nazi-occupied Vemork heavy-water plant in southern Norway received a telegram from his spy chief in London:
IT IS REPORTED THAT THE HEAVY WATER APPARATUS AT VEMORK IS TO BE DISMANTLED AND TRANSPORTED TO GERMANY STOP CAN YOU GET THIS CONFIRMED? STOP CAN THIS TRANSPORT BE PREVENTED?
Thus began a flurry of wireless transmissions between the guerrilla fighter, Einar Skinnarland, and the London-based Special Operations Executive (SOE), for which Skinnarland worked. The telegrams concerned a mission to destroy the existing Vemork stocks of heavy water—which were to be transported with the equipment used to make the compound—before they reached Germany. The Allies feared that the Germans would use the heavy water to make an atomic bomb. Here, see the original messages as translated from the Norwegian by the SOE. To launch the slide show, click on the image at left.—Peter Tyson
Note: Several of the telegrams have been slightly altered to remove the original Norwegian and to tighten elements on the page.
