Episode Details

In February 1943, a small team of Norwegian commandos crossed the frozen mountains of occupied Norway to destroy a facility producing heavy water, a substance important to Nazi Germany’s nuclear research program. Operating under British Special Operations Executive direction, the saboteurs infiltrated the heavily guarded Vemork industrial complex, planted explosives, and escaped without suffering a single casualty. This episode examines Operation Gunnerside, one of World War II’s most remarkable sabotage missions, and how a handful of specially trained resistance fighters disrupted a strategically important component of Germany’s nuclear ambitions.