Teamwork

[Typhon]

The lead story in my weekly Smithsonian email subscription reminded me that February 28th marked the 75th anniversary of the Gunnerside Operation in which a small group of Norwegian skiing soldiers made a surprise attack on a secret Nazi chemical plant that was working on developing the A-bomb.  The success of this mission delayed the German nuclear program long enough to allow the U.S. to develop the bomb first, thus changing the course of the war.  The movie "The Heroes Of Telemark" celebrates this event.  Bravo Norway!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-sneak-attack-by-norways-skiing-soldiers-deprived-nazis-atomic-bomb-180968278/?utm_source=smithsoniantopic&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180304-Weekender&spMailingID=33317300&spUserID=MjM1ODUwOTM0NzY2S0&spJobID=1240277267&spReportId=MTI0MDI3NzI2NwS2

[Zzzptm]

Norway's involvement in WW2 was largely a matter of doing sneaky stuff to the Germans, while the Swedes sold them iron. Made for an interesting dynamic which I saw in a film about a Swedish time and motion study expert who went to study a Norwegian farmer, right after WW2. Can't remember the name of the film, but I remember pretty much cheering for the Norwegian guy to knock the veneer off the kind of snobby Swede.

[Billy Underdog]

There's just been a great TV series abot this, Kampen om Tungtvannet (Battle for the heavy water).  Very good one. There's also the first film, the French Norwegian Operation Swallow: The Battle for Heavy Water (1948).

Now, if ze German actually had a bomb in the workings is refuted, but with this hazardous and somewhat lucky mission, let's hope they did, so they got stopped... :-)

About the "neutral Swedes": yeah, in the beginning they let armed German forces just march through their country, but on the other hand they did a great job of accepting and helping Norwegian refugees, even setting up camps for military police troops to train for the liberatin of Europe. Go Swedes, you cowards...