At the age of 23, Joachim Roenneberg, serving behind enemy lines in his native Norway during the German occupation, became a team leader in one of the most daring operations of WWII.
In February 1943, 11 SOE trained Norwegian Commandos, including Joachim, were tasked with destroying a heavy water plant up in the Telemark region of Norway after the Allies, realized that the Nazis were in the stages of developing the first atom bomb. Dubbed Operation Gunnerside, the team had to complete a near suicide mission, by getting through the plant's defenses which were heavy, sprinkled with mines, floodlights, and guards all over the place. The only access point to the plant was a Nazi-held bridge over a 660-foot ice gorge.
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On the night of the 27th, the commandos were quietly inserted via parachute, climbed down the supposedly un-scalable ice gorge and snuck into the factory. They laid the explosives and were about to light the fuse and escape, but the base's Norwegian caretaker, whom they were holding at gunpoint, announced he'd lost his glasses and refused to leave until they were found (new glasses during the war were impossible to acquire). A frantic search for the caretaker's spectacles ensued, they were found — and the fuses lit.
The raid was considered successful and the entire inventory of heavy water was destroyed. Although 3,000 German soldiers were dispatched to search the area for the commandos, all of them escaped; five of them, including Joachim, skied 400 kilometres to Sweden.
After the 1945 liberation Joachim became a radio reporter but rarely spoke of his wartime achievements.
Yesterday, he passed at the age of 99 years old. The drag marks of his balls are still visible in the Norwegian country side. #stayzero #respect #ww2 #norway