War for Heavy Water, Operation Freshman. World War 2 documentary. Operation Grouse.

War for Heavy Water, Operation Freshman, World War 2 documentary,

Operation Freshman was the codename given to a British airborne operation conducted in November 1942 during World War II. It was the first British airborne operation conducted using Airspeed Horsa gliders, and its target was the Vemork Norsk Hydro chemical plant in Telemark, Norway which produced heavy water for Nazi Germany.

Operation Grouse
In March 1942 the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) had recruited Einar Skinnarland, a Norwegian engineer who worked at the Møsvatn dam. Skinnarland had successfully sailed to Britain and was parachuted back to Telemark after ten days of intensive training. Having several contacts within Vemork he was able to roughly identify the disposition of German troops and other defenses. Additionally, SOE decided to send an advance party of Norwegian agents into Telemark and began intensively training a four-man team over the summer. The party, the code-named Operation Grouse, was led by Jens-Anton Poulsson and also included Knut Haugland, Claus Helberg, and Arne Kjelstrup. The Norwegians, all people local to the area with exceptional outdoor skills, underwent extra outdoor training in Scotland as well as learning the skills necessary to operate in occupied territory; including sabotage, radio transmitting, and "irregular warfare".