Einar Skinnarland, reisistance worker; Times of London obit
Hyfler/Rosner
Resistance worker who thwarted the production of heavy water for
a German atomic bomb
AS AN engineer at the Vemork hydro-electric plant some 50 miles
west of Oslo, Einar Skinnarland provided a vital link in the struggle to
frustrate Germany's production of plutonium to develop an atomic bomb during
the Second World War. The electrolytic process for the division of water to
obtain hydrogen for the manufacture of ammonia at Vemork produced, simply as
a by-product, small quantities of heavy water. This differed from ordinary
water only in that the hydrogen atom is heavier than normal, but the heavy
water was essential for Germany's production of plutonium.
In May 1940, shortly after the German occupation of Norway,
British Intelligence learnt that the Vemork plant had been ordered to
increase production of heavy water to 3,000lb per year, a figure advanced to
10,000lb in January 1942. Six weeks later, a group of young Norwegians
planning to join one of their units in Britain hijacked the coastal steamer
Galtesund and sailed her to Aberdeen. Among them was Einar Skinnarland on
one month's annual holiday from the Vemork plant.
The layout of the plant was already known in Britain, thanks to
information provided by Professor Lief Tronstadt, a Norwegian scientist who
had escaped before the occupation. But Skinnarland was able to provide
details of the German guarding system and, even more important, was prepared
to return to Vemork to act as guide for a future sabotage operation.
After a comprehensive debriefing on the current situation at
Vemork and very basic parachute training, he was dropped over the Hardanger
Vidda mountains by an RAF aircraft on March 28, 1942. This was 11 days after
he had reached Aberdeen and just in time for his return to work at the end
of his "holiday".
Because of the mountainous terrain and swiftly changing weather
conditions, Skinnarland's return was only the second operation the RAF had
been able to accomplish on behalf of special forces in Norway at that stage
of the war. Moreover, the summer nights were too short to give adequate
cover, so no attempt could be made to capitalise on the intelligence
Skinnarland had provided until the autumn of 1942. He, meanwhile, befriended
the chief engineer of the plant, gleaned from him additional information
necessary for a coup de main operation and relayed this by radio to the
Special Operations Executive (SOE) in London.
The first operation, in November 1942, ended in disaster. A
four-man team of the Norwegian SOE, led by Lieutenant Jens Anton Poulsson,
had been dropped successfully in October and established contact with
Skinnarland. Their task was to select and prepare landing sites for two
gliders carrying British commando-engineers and - based on latest
information from Skinnarland - guide them to the Vemork plant. Both gliders
crashed in bad weather and the survivors were captured and executed.
A second operation, carried out by a six-man team of the
Norwegian SOE parachuted on to the Hardanger Vidda in February 1943, was
completely successful. The second team met Poulsson and his companions, who
had existed on the mountain throughout the winter, and carried out a
copybook sabotage action that put the heavy water producing plant out of
action without the loss of a Norwegian life. When General Nikolaus von
Falkenhorst, commander of the German forces in Norway, inspected the site he
declared it a military operation - the best piece of sabotage he had seen -
and ordered the release of the Norwegian hostages rounded up by the local
Quisling leader.
When the SOE teams returned to Britain, one of them through
Sweden, two members remained behind to train and arm volunteers for the
Norwegian Home Army, as the resistance movement was known. One of those to
remain, Knut Haukelid, teamed up with Skinnarland in a mountain hut until
the spring thaw of 1943, when they moved to a farm on the lower slopes,
where they were better placed to gather information to relay back to SOE
headquarters in London.
In July they received an inquiry about reports that production
of heavy water at the Vemork plant had restarted. It was decided to attempt
to destroy the plant by a United States Army Air Force bombing raid. This
wrecked the factory but failed to destroy the heavy water plant, which was
protected by seven concrete floors above it.
Norwegian technicians were able to convince the German
authorities that the plant as a whole was no longer viable but, on January
29, 1944, London advised Skinnarland that it was to be dismantled and
shipped to Germany, together with the Vemork stocks of heavy water.
Haukelid and he took great risks in entering local towns, where
both were well known, to gather information about the planned shipment.
Eventually, they discovered that it was to be conveyed in a Norwegian
ferryboat which would have to traverse Lake Tinnsjö on its way to the open
sea. Assisted by others recruited locally, Haukelid placed charges on the
keel of the ferry, which blew up and sank in 1,000ft of water in Lake
Tinnsjö in February 1944, unfortunately with the loss of several Norwegian
lives.
The exploits of Skinnarland and Haukelid and their resistance
colleagues were immortalised in the film The Heroes of Telemark (1965), with
Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris.
Skinnarland continued to maintain radio contact between the
local elements of the Norwegian resistance and SOE headquarters in London
until the end of the war in Europe, when the Norwegian Home Army took over
the emergency administration of their country.
After the war, Skinnarland emigrated to Canada. He is survived
by his wife and five children.
Einar Skinnarland, wartime Norwegian Resistance operator, was
born on April 27, 1918. He died in Toronto on December 5, 2002, aged 84.
