Author’s NoteOn February 27, 1943, nine incredibly brave Norwegians, four of whom had been starving on the Vidda since Operation Grouse dropped them there four months before, infiltrated the mountain fortress that was the Vermok Hydroelectric Plant and destroyed the heavy water production that was about to fuel the Nazi atomic bomb. They were stalwart in the face of enormous bodily deprivation and despite the likelihood of capture and torture; they executed a sabotage so neat the furious Gestapo commander was forced to admit it “a most splendid coup”; and they needed no one’s help. I didn’t have the arrogance to insert my time travelers into their story.
But it is true that the resistance they encountered was much softer than what they had been led to expect. They went in prepared to face
