Operation Freshman
Objective: To destroy existing stalks of heavy water and the electrolysis plant where it was being made.
|
Norway, November 19-20, 1942
Operation Freshman was an operation mounted on the night of November 19, and 20, 1942, using gliders and the Royal Airborne Engineers to sabotage the production of the German Atomic Bomb at a heavy water plant in Norway. The Freshman operation team was to meet with the Grouse operation team, but Freshman met with catastrophe when a Royal Air Force bomber and two gliders carrying the troops crash landed in Norway when they failed to see the signal from the Grouse team and turned around only to meet bad weather. The survivors were captured by German soldiers and executed after Hitler signed and execution order which said:
"Because of the growing number of planes that are used for the landing of
saboteurs, and the great damage the saboteurs have done, I hereby order
that the crews of the sabotage planes are to be shot at once by the troops
isolating them."
The Germans guessed the purpose of the mission and beefed up the security at the plant. After the devastating loss of the Freshman Operation Members, the Grouse team stayed in the Hardangervidda in perilous conditions and waited for the next phase of the operation, Operation Gunnerside.
(Gallagher, Assault in Norway p. 33, 34.)
"Because of the growing number of planes that are used for the landing of
saboteurs, and the great damage the saboteurs have done, I hereby order
that the crews of the sabotage planes are to be shot at once by the troops
isolating them."
The Germans guessed the purpose of the mission and beefed up the security at the plant. After the devastating loss of the Freshman Operation Members, the Grouse team stayed in the Hardangervidda in perilous conditions and waited for the next phase of the operation, Operation Gunnerside.
(Gallagher, Assault in Norway p. 33, 34.)