Norway day 7 - memorial

A strong and cold wind today but some of us had already decided to take the free bus down to the valley and visit the industrial museum.
The museum is in an old hydroelectric power station (when built the biggest in the world) which powered a fertiliser plant. One of the by-products of the various processes was heavy water and when Norway was occupied during WWII they found this and increased it's production because they wanted to use it in developing atomic bombs (it would be used to control the fission reaction, graphite was used in the American bomb for the same reason).
When the Allies found out they trained some Norwegians (in Scotland) who were then parachuted on to the Hardangervidde plateau (see yesterday's blip) and were able to get down and blow up the production unit on 27/28 Feb 1943.
Repairs were done and production re-started but an air-raid caused further damage and they decided to transport what stocks they had to Germany. A 2nd raid from the plateau on 20 Feb 1944 targetted the railway ferry which was carrying the heavy water and sank it in the lake, thus foiling any possibility of a German atomic bomb.
The memorial is to the men who took part in the raids - mostly the 1st, only 3 remained in the area for the 2nd.
Fertiliser produstion did continue for about 30 years but the factory was demolished in 1977.