Heroes of Telemark accompany heavy water barrel to USA
 THE BARREL: Diver Jonny Skogstad (immediately behind the barrel) was one of the enthusiasts who had followed heavy water barrel number 26 from the sunken ferry "Hydro" all the way to its final destination at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. |
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(Nov. 23, 2006) In 1943 and 1944 the Allied forces did their utmost to elimate them from the face of the earth. Now one of the heavy water barrels from the sunken ferry "Hydro" has become a major attraction at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
It's an incredible story – full of bombs and sabotage, the nuclear arms race, deep water diving, technology development and heroics. In many circles it has made Telemark more famous than Norway itself, and a gang of Norwegian saboteurs the greatest heroes of the the Second World War.
The story would seem to have all the ingredients necessary for a Hollywood version with Kirk Douglas in the leading role. Not only that, but in recent years a new dramatization of the fight for the heavy water has been shown around the world, this time in a popular science take on the story that has been shown several dozen times on National Geographic Channel and become a hit on one of the most widely-viewed television channels in the US.
Last weekend a small group of Norwegian heroes was in the limelight again — this time at the world's largest museum of the Second World War, the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
 ATTRACTION: Director Gordon Mueller at the WWII museum in New Orleans unveils the rusty barrel that is to become a new attraction at the museum. |
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But they were only extras in comparison with the rusty and dented barrel that was ceremoniously unveiled and awarded a place of honour in the museum's forthcoming pavilion on Hitler and the fight for the atom bomb.
The story of the heavy water saboteurs was a legendary and essential part of childhood knowledge for most adult Norwegians. Most of them are content to leave it at that, but not engineer Thor Olav Sperre, diver Jonny Skogstad and the marine technologist Fredrik Søreide. They wanted to find answers to unanswered questions — and it took them 430 metres down to the bottom of lake Tinnsjø, to the ferry Hydro sunk by the heavy water saboteurs with the aid of an incendiary device and an alarm clock in 1944.
At that time, Hydro's facilities for producing heavy water had already been sabotaged, bombed — and put out of action. On board the ferry were the last 29 barrels of heavy water from Hydro's production in Rjukan, and the allies feared they would allow Hitler to become the godfather of the atom bomb.
But it was not to be. Admittedly, Hitler managed to obtain some heavy water, but not the barrels that remained on the bottom of Tinnsjø lake for 60 years. Most of them are destroyed and will remain in the mud at the bottom of the lake that is deeper than it is wide.
Barrel number 26 of the 29 first returned to the surface of Tinnsjø lake in 2004. On November 18 it was ceremoniously unveiled while the popular science film of the "rescue mission" was shown on a giant screen, the public cheered and Hydro was duly thanked for its magnificent donation.
 EXCITING STORY: The engineer Thor Olav Sperre, diver Jonny Skogstad and the marine technoligist Fredrik Søreide wanted to find answers to unanswered questions. It took them 430 metres below the surface of the Tinnsjø lake, to the wreck of the ferry "Hydro", and from there to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans. |
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Americans know how to do musuems. And the National World War II Museum in New Orleans — the D-Day Museum, as it is also known — is not only the world's largest of its kind. It is part of the Smithsonian system that includes several of the most attractive museums in the world.
Through an expansion already given its blessing and a grant of several hundred million dollars by the the American Congress, it is due to quadruple in size in the space of only a few years. And in one of the new pavilions, the "barrel from Hydro" will have pride of place.
The three Norwegian enthusiasts behind the heavy water barrel are as radiant as the flash bulbs themselves. What started as sporadic thoughts and questions as to whether it would be possible to locate the wreck of the old railway ferry at the beginning of the 1980s, has not only taken Thor Olav Sperre, Jonny Skogstad and Fredrik Søreide to the USA. Their experience from Lake Tinnsjø has led them on to projects in many parts of the world.
For Sperre has gone on to develop highly specialised underwater vessels — in one of the old buildings at Hydro's very first factory site in Notodden. The largest project they have carried out so far, actually the largest of its kind in the world, was the mapping of the seabed pathway for Hydro's Ormen Lange pipeline to Aukra.
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