Setting Fuse for Peace and Freedom      

Ronneberg

      Continued. Joachim Ronneberg and his team 
      broke into a power plant critical to German
      atomic-bomb development.

   Without knowing its significance to the Germans, using intelligence provided by a Norwegian escapee, Ronneberg crawled through a ventilation duct and found his target - a row of water pipes. He placed his charges and set the fuse for 30 seconds. 

   He and his team escaped both the explosion and Nazi guards, returning to the mountains and "a marvelous sunrise." Tired and happy, they rested without further conversation.

   Still, they had to ski 200 miles, escaping into neutral Sweden, then Britain.

Peace and freedom have to be fought for every day.

   Ronneberg went on to damage bridges and railroads elsewhere, while Allies monitored the power plant. After several months, repairs were finished, but by then, planes were available to bomb the plant. 

   A British military historian later told the New York Times that the February mission "changed the course of the war." This story has been told in books, on television and in a 1965 movie starring Kirk Douglas, The Heroes of Telemark.  

   "We didn't think about whether it was dangerous or not," Ronneberg said later. "You concentrated on the job and not on the risks."

   After years of silence - he didn't consider himself a hero - he warned, "People must realize that peace and freedom have to be fought for every day."

   He died at home, October 21, at age 99.