When a group of Norwegian commandos descended to the bottom of a valley across a half-frozen river and then climbed a 500-foot-high snowy cliff in the middle of the dark winter night, no one really knew what to expect.
All the men knew about their mission was the objective: Destroy Vemork s heavy water production capabilities.
Each man carried a cyanide capsule to take if they were captured and wore a British Army uniform so if they were killed and their bodies found, the Germans might spare the local civilians from reprisal killings.
Their mission would be one of the most successful in special-operations history, and it contributed to one of the Allies most important goals in World War II: Preventing Nazi Germany from developing nuclear weapons.
The race for an atomic bomb The German experimental nuclear pile at Haigerloch, southwest of Stuttgart, being dismantled in April 1945.