Heros of Telemark story
BruceFreeburger
Today I got in the mail a new copy of the 1965 movie "The Heros of
Telemark". It starred Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris and was filmed in Norway.
Seeing the movie for the first time, I now wonder how close was the real
story. I assume the true story is in some book.
During WWII, the Nazis had a lab in Telemark Norway to make heavy water.
This was needed for them to make the Nazi atomic bomb. The underground
resistance blew up the facility and escaped on skis. I know that much was true.
In the movie Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris hijack a Norwegian ship to
England. From England they are parachuted back to Telemark. The Brittish fly 50
more men to attack the lab, and the plane crashes with all 50 killed. The lab
was blown up with a dozen Norwegians, but the Nazis had it fixed in two weeks.
In escaping from the first explosion Kirk Douglas gets shot in the ankle. He
goes back into Telemark to get treated. The Nazis catch him. He jumps off the
bus and escapes. He now gets treated by the local doctor, and gets smuggled
back to join Richard Harris. They are hiding at the house of his ex-wife. The
Nazis finish loading all the heavy water on the train, which then gets loaded
on a railroad ferry. Douglas and Harris sneak on the ferry and plant a time
bomb. Douglas waits to time when the ferry leaves. To his shock, the wife of
one of the resistance members and her new born baby gets on the ferry. Kirk
Douglas gets on the ferry as a passenger to get her off, but he gets stuck on
the ferry as it leaves. He and the mother get all the children to go to the
back of the ferry to have a contest to see who can put life jackets on. The
ferry is full of Nazi solders, by the way.
In a surprise ending, Nazi Germany wins WWII.
OK, I made the ending up. I can believe the lab was blown up. I can believe
the 50 Brittish comandos were killed in a plane crash (they were actually in a
glider and went down with the tow plane in the movie). I don't know about the
railroad ferry part.
What was the real story?
To respond via email remove CLOTHES
Terje Mathisen
AFAIK, all of that really happened, except for the part about saving all
the kids on the ferry: Some civilians did die during that sinking.
One or two of the 'Kirk Douglas' tasks might have been handled by more
than one guy, but most of the film was factual. If you check the credits
carefully, you'll notice an amazing overlap between the names of some of
the actors and the real commandos:
Afaik, many of them played themselves in the movie.
The daughter of one of the saboteurs works in my department here in
Hydro, she tells me that they didn't really like the film (too
glorified).
My father was CEO of the Rjukan plant about 20 years ago, so I have
spent some time in the area. You can still visit the site of the D2O
plant, it is currently a museum, with a nice section about the WWII
happenings.
Churchill knew very well how significant a Nazi bomb could have been, he
caused these guys to end up among the most heavily decorated soldiers
from WWII.
Terje
--
- <Terje.M...@hda.hydro.com>
Using self-discipline, see http://www.eiffel.com/discipline
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
David Dermott
> Folks, Today I got in the mail a new copy of the 1965 movie
> "The Heros of Telemark". It starred Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris
> and was filmed in Norway.
I rented this movie a few years ago. The basic facts are true but I
think that it took big liberties with details. I have the book "Assault
in Norway" by Thomas Gallagher (1975). I have also some tourist
pamphlets that I picked up in Rjukan. I just found that the tourist
pamphlets are online:
"http://www.rjukan-turistkontor.no/no/rjukan/krigshistorie.asp"
or in English:
"http://www.rjukan-turistkontor.no/uk/rjukan/krigshistorie.asp"
The names in "Heros of Telemark" have all been changed:
Kirk Douglas .... Dr. Rolf Pedersen
Richard Harris .... Knut Straud
The real story (or what I have read) is more fantastic than the
movie. In the movie there are several shootouts between the Germans and
the sabateurs- what good would a war movie be without shooting? In real
life the Norwegians blew up the plant, and had escaped over the mountain
before the Germans knew what happened and no shots were fired.
"Three thousand Germans surrounded and fine-combed the vidda, but none
of the sabateurs were captured" (quote from pamphlet "Kampen om
Tungvannet i Norge"). The Norwegians were good skiers and knew
the vidda. Very few of the Germans could ski well, they had to steal
ski equipment from Norwegian local residents.
There was also an 1948 Norwegian movie called "Kampen Om Tungtvannet"
(Battle Over Heavy Water) which starred most of the real people:
"http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/film/tfk/v95/omtaler/0507-KampenOmTungtvannet.html"
Check also International Movie Data Base: "http://us.imdb.com/" for
comments about these movies
> .....
> The lab was blown up with a dozen Norwegians, but the Nazis had it
> fixed in two weeks.
I thought that was one of the biggest inaccuracies in the movie. It
gives way too much credit to the Nazi's scientific skills. It took them
nearly a year to rebuild the equipment. Otherwise why didn't they just
rebuild it in Germany?
However. it's worth watching the movie if you can find it.
I also liked "Snow Treasure", also filmed about 1967 in Norway
about skiing and the Norwegian resistance- but it's fiction.
It seems that there are many other similar war stories, untold
outside of Norway. While browsing through bookstores in Norway a few
years ago I saw several books on the subject. There was one book about
one of the Rjukan heros Fredrik Kayser (Sabatøren by Kjell Harald Lunde)
that told the story of his other war actions. And there was a book
called something like "Marka in War" that told the story of activities
in Oslo's Nordmarka during the war.
--
David Dermott , Wolfville Ridge, Nova Scotia, Canada
email: der...@ns.sympatico.ca
WWW pages: http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dermott/
BruceFreeburger
Thanks for all the details. Somebody here in Michigan just told me the book
he read about it was "We Die Alone". I'll send him your report.
Cheers,
Bruce
Jerry M. Wright
(BruceFreeburger) wrote:
The account I've read is Skis Against the Atom by Knut Haukelid ISBN
0-942323-07-6. It's more of a narrative, not much embellishment but
reading the bare details is interesting enough especially if you know
much about getting around in winter on skis and backcountry camping in
bad weather. The description of spending the winter in the Hardanger
Vidda was more interesting than the raid.
>Folks,
> Today I got in the mail a new copy of the 1965 movie "The Heros of
>Telemark". It starred Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris and was filmed in Norway.
> Seeing the movie for the first time, I now wonder how close was the real
>story. I assume the true story is in some book.
> During WWII, the Nazis had a lab in Telemark Norway to make heavy water.
>This was needed for them to make the Nazi atomic bomb. The underground
>resistance blew up the facility and escaped on skis. I know that much was true.
> In the movie Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris hijack a Norwegian ship to
>England.
Nope, Haukelid left Norway by an "export arrangement" with Sweden. A
boat was rowed across the Iddefjord at night by refugees and a Swedish
customs official would row it back to the Norwegian side. Haukelid
crossed back once by bicycle and returned to Oslo in an attempt to get
some associates out of prison. Nothing came of it and he returned to
Sweden by bicycle. He was a member of the Norwegian army and the
resistance so eh had contacts with the British. They arranged
transport for him to England and a year of special training.
>From England they are parachuted back to Telemark.
True.
>The Brittish fly 50
>more men to attack the lab, and the plane crashes with all 50 killed.
Operation Freshman. Nov19-20 1942. One bomber of 2 and 2 gliders
crashed. As best I count form the scattered listing there were 43
killed. 3 in one crashed glider and the surviving 14 were shot by the
Germans. In the other 10 were killed outright with 5 captured then
shot on Jan 18. The attack against the plant by the Norwegians was
operation Gunnerside about 4 months later.
[snip]
> To his shock, the wife of
>one of the resistance members and her new born baby gets on the ferry. Kirk
>Douglas gets on the ferry as a passenger to get her off, but he gets stuck on
>the ferry as it leaves. He and the mother get all the children to go to the
>back of the ferry to have a contest to see who can put life jackets on.
Nope. They didn't warn anyone, even the watchman they chatted with
when they left the ferry. The boat was pretty much doomed as there
was another team waiting if it made the trip plus a submarine was on
location in case it escaped the first 2 teams.
[snip]
Jay Tegeder
I saw "The Heroes of Telemark" late at night while watching TV with my brother.
It must have been in the 1970s (the movie was 10 to 15 years old at the time).
It instantly became my favorite movie ranking right up there with "The Great
Escape". Anyway, after all of the Norwegian war resistance talk on the
newsgroup a few years ago, I read both; "We Die Alone" and "Skis Against the
Atom". Both are excellent books recounted Norwegian efforts in the war. Then, I
decided I needed to buy a video copy of "The Heroes of Telemark". I got the
video online from either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I'm not sure which one had
it.
Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!"
p.s. Terje Mathisen skis in the Rjukan area quite often.
Jgissw
>> It seems that there are many other similar war stories, untold
>> outside of Norway.
IIRC, there is something on this in _Operation Jupiter_, by Dorothy
Baden-Powell. Book about the resistance, rather than skiing, though.
cheers
John GW
ENORD
I am an American Special Forces soldier that has trained in Norway five
different times, with their Special Forces. I have met and had conversations
with some of the original fighters of WWII. The movie is a little embelished
but the story is generally true. The character that jumped off the bus...well
his story (I forget his name at the moment), he had been chased by the Nazis on
Hardanger for days. He finally made it to a town, told the Nazis he was one of
the Norwegians co-opted to go out and find the resistance fighters (himself).
They gave him a room in the hotel in town and were arranging for a Nazi doctor
to check him out. He was feeling pretty good about things and went downstairs
to grab a drink. He sat down on a very nice leather sofa and began to finally
relax. Unfortunately the sofa was only for the local Nazi commander and
everyone in town knew that no one else was allowed to sit in it. Thus, the
Nazis realized he wasn't from town because of his mistake and immediately
realized he must of been one of the fighters. They cuffed him and through him
on the bus. A female resistance fighter then approached the bus driver and
explained that this guy was her husband, pleading for his life. This commotion
gave him enough time to jump from the bus. The Nazis began a large search of
the area but never found him...he checked himself into an asylum nearby,
pretending to be crazy.
The other story about the boat is true also, and yes, there was a female that
rode the ferry everyday that I believe was the cousin of one of the fighters.
I don't remember if the water was in a train on the ferry however, but it was
on the ferry. They made a pact that no message would be sent to warn family or
friends about the attack, thus risking the possibility of compromise. The
attack worked and that day, the cousin, by luck, did not use the ferry.
The glider story is true also. British commandos attempted to conduct the raid
at Vermork (that's the site you referred to as "the Lab") first. Their glider
crashed and although 50 guys was a lot in a glider, I'm not sure what the exact
numbers were. But, the Nazis executed all but a few right there on-site and
tortured then killed the rest. That's when the Special Operations Executive
(SOE), headquartered in London with operational HQs in Scotland, decided to
send in teams of Norwegians.
In Oslo there's a great resistance museum at the Asgaard Castle. Also, north
in Trandum are several memorials to the resistance fighters killed in the war
in Norway, even Brits and Americans. By the way, a little trivia, the first
American killed in WWII was killed in Norway, outside of Dombas. He was an Air
Force officer liaising with the Brits as the Nazis invaded.
Sorry I kind of went on, but my Norwegian brethren were and are, great winter
fighters--reason why I keep my troops going there for training every year.
Thanks for your time.
Erik Nordberg
Jay Tegeder
Jay Tegeder
"Keep training, lycra never lies!"
David Dermott
> On 19 Apr 2001 04:23:05 GMT, brucefr...@aol.comCLOTHES
> (BruceFreeburger) wrote:
>
>
> > In the movie Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris hijack a Norwegian ship to
> >England.
> Nope, Haukelid left Norway by an "export arrangement" with Sweden. A
> boat was rowed across the Iddefjord at night by refugees and a Swedish
> customs official would row it back to the Norwegian side.
In the movie Kirk Douglas plays a physics professor , Dr. Rolf Pedersen.
Richard Harris plays Knut Straud. Neither of these are names of the real
people on the raid.
I did a quick skim through "Assault in Norway" by Thomas Gallagher.
Einar Skinnarland and other Milorg people did commandeer an old
Norwegian steamer and took it to Scotland. Skinnerland was the first of
the raiders to parachute back into Norway. His brother Torstein was the
dam keeper at a dam near Rjukan and helped the raiders.
The physics professor in real life might have been Leif Tronstad, one
of the world's experts on heavy water. He did much of the planning for
the Rjukan raid but stayed in Britain at that time. Later he returned
to Norway for Milorg. Ironically he was killed by the nazis near the
very end of the war. Then his mission, "Sunshine", was to prevent the
Germans from vandalising Norway before the Norwegian authorities could
establish order after the German defeat.
See: "http://www.iu.hio.no/~ulfu/Tronstad.html"
I did a few WWW searches and found some interesting stuff:
"http://kimen.dep.no/ud/publ/nn/1999/12/culture2.html"
An article dated June 1999 says that Steven Spielberg's company
was planning to make a movie about the Rjukan raid! I haven't
heard if plans are proceeding.
"http://dagbladet.no/kultur/2000/02/24/195897.html" (in Norwegian)
One of main characters was Claus Helberg who played himself in the 1948
movie. In Feb 2000 BBC filmed a documentary about Helberg's great ski
escape and Helberg (age 81) again plays himself by skiing 20 km across the
vidda! Has anybody seen this BBC documentary?
It also seems that Claus Helberg is called "the grand old man" of
DNT (Den Norsk Turistforeningen- the Norwegian Hiking Association), and
has spent his whole life marking trails, writing hiking books etc. for
DNT.