Operation Freshman

Pic 1, Pic 2, Pic 3,

Operation Freshman
Author: Jostein Berglyd
Hardback - 201 pages
Publisher: Leandoer & Ekholm Forlag
Price: £15.99
ISBN: 978-91-975895-9-8

Introduction

This hardback book is published in English, having been translated from the original text (Norwegian) by Tim Dinan. It is a highly detailed study of a lesser known, but tragically disastrous 1942 British expedition to destroy Hitler's plans to create a nuclear arms program. The later, more successful and better known raid being fulfilled later in the war was the 'Telemark' raid against the same target; the Norsk Hydro industrial complex at Vermok. By 1942 it was clear to the British that whoever would develop the A-bomb first would win the war. It, therefore, became of paramount import to undermine Hitler's plans to make further progress into atomic research.

The book

In Norway: Vermok has a river, the Rjukanfoss. The Rjukanfoss has a vital geographical facet to it at Vermok, near Rjukan in Norway; it has a 100 metre water drop. This water drop enabled Norway to build the first hydro-electric plant of its kind in 1934. Initially Norsk Hydro's main product at Vermok was Hydrogen for use in the manufacture of artificial fertiliser. During the production of this product there was a by-product, this compound is known as Deuterium, or Heavy Water. Heavy Water (a special Hydrogen isotope) was exceptionally useful to the Germans as it was an alternative to enriched Uranium, used in the development of the atom bomb. After the capture of the plant at Vermok in 1940 the Germans increased production of Deuterium time and time again in order to facilitate their nuclear program. This fact became evident to the British High Command, who with the SOE developed a plan for sabotage in order to cripple Hitler's plans of pan-European domination.

Sadly, this plan was doomed to fail owing to circumstances including poor planning (for example unforeseen German AA installations and radar bases), insufficient training (further examples are that the glider pilots had not been given the same stringent physical training as the engineer commandos and the commandos could not even ski), the wrong season (the British planners brilliantly ignored their Norwegian meteorologist's sage advice), inappropriate transportation (the RAF had to date no experience of towing gliders behind Halifax bombers) and a plane crash. Things went badly for the commando team, 37 of whom (including three aircrew) died. Of this figure, 19 were cruelly executed by the German Security forces (four were tortured to death), despite wearing British Uniforms at the time of their capture. To add insult to injury the method of disposal of the bodies of the murdered British servicemen was without dignity, respect or compassion; four were thrown into the sea, seven crash victims were thoughtlessly put into shallow graves without ceremony, 17 were tossed into a mass grave in a sandy heath, where they remained for several years and others' disposal was by hiding the bodies amongst other, established, graves in a civilian burial site. All was not lost, however, as many vital lessons were learned from this disaster and the following year six Norwegian saboteurs parachuted into the area and succeeded in disabling the plant at Vermok. After this, Hitler's plans for a nuclear program were dogged by American air raids and further sabotage against transportation of the Deuterium back to the Fatherland. Ironically, it later transpires that Hitler had shelved his nuclear program by 1942 in any case.

Pic 4, Pic 5, Pic 6,

Berglyd was heavily influenced by the occurrences of 1942, when at the age of 6 he heard of the tragic fate of the British commandos who had been captured and 'shot to death', despite wearing full Allied uniform. This clearly set the stakes at a very high level for any 'daring' commando raids and upped the ante for any would-be heroes who might want to take on the German defences of the Norwegian-based Heavy Water Programme.

The text is a comprehensive essay on the Operation, known as Freshman. It is published by Leander & Ekholm and has 202 pages with many excellent diagrams, maps and black-and-white photographs. Printed in Latvia, this is a heavy, well bound book with exhaustive references to this atrocious episode during the occupation of Norway by the Germans. The printing is on high-quality semi-gloss paper and there are just enough photographs and maps to keep the usual general history buff intrigued, but I suspect that this book is aimed at those with a particular interest in this time. The prose, albeit translated from the original tongue is a great read, with one or two minor slip-ups in syntax, but this adds to the authenticity in my opinion.

Not knowing the geography or topography of Norway a great deal it was immediately obvious to me that finding orientation within the story was going to be difficult. My suggestion might be a one-page large scale map of Norway at the beginning of the book with a simplified scheme of events annotated upon it. There are such maps, but they do not have the easily understood features that an outsider/foreigner would need to understand their meaning.

Within the book there is a wealth of first-hand information collated from 43 reported interviews with individuals who witnessed the events, thereby creating an unimpeachable testament to the facts, which adds a huge element of gravitas to this history. Clearly the author has taken his own mission of reportage very seriously and has succeeded in laying the facts bare in order for the reader to make their own appraisal.

The latter part of the text includes the legal proceedings after the war and the judicial outcomes of the 'war-crimes' trials of the heartless perpetrators of the 'Fuhrer Order' of 1942, which decreed that all saboteurs in German occupied territory should be executed if taken captive, which is exactly the fate of all of the captured operatives who took part in Operation Freshman. It is debateable whether the British High Command fully knew about this order at the time, but the participants in the raid had not been brief of their fate, should they be captured, in fact they had been told that if that should happen, they would become prisoners of war, not shot or tortured to death. There is one chilling episode recounted during the text where 14 soldiers (the youngest being 18 years old) are executed by firing squad one by one; the proceedings taking one full hour to complete, yet each member of the commando team was made to lie on the ground, guarded by two soldiers each, whilst they were methodically shot in turn in an inhumane and utterly despicable fashion. This is a sad testament to the brutal occupation of mainland Europe by a twisted, solipsistic regime that, thankfully, lost the war.

Thanks to Casemate Publishing for the review samples

For full details on these titles, and all other Casemate Publishing titles, please visit the Casemate website.

For ordering outside the US please see here: Casemate UK

For within the US: Casemate Publishing