Footsteps of WWII · Norway
Vemork: Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum
Ruins · Nov 1942 – Feb 1943
The story
Vemork, outside Rjukan in Telemark, was a hydro-electric power station whose electrolysis plant produced heavy water, which German scientists wanted for nuclear research. On 19 November 1942 Operation Freshman sent two Halifax bombers towing gliders with British sappers; the gliders and one bomber crashed, and the survivors were captured and executed by the Germans. In February 1943 SOE-trained Norwegians of Operation Gunnerside parachuted in to join the Grouse team already waiting on the Hardangervidda. They entered the plant and set charges that destroyed the heavy-water section and about 500 kg of heavy water, and all escaped. Since 1988 the power station has been the Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum.
What to look for
The massive 1911 power station on a ledge above the Vestfjorddalen gorge, reached by a suspension bridge. Inside, exhibitions on the sabotage and heavy water, and on early industrial workers. The saboteurs' route up the gorge can be walked in summer.
Plan your visit
Opening hours and prices could not be verified on the official site; hours are reduced outside summer, so check the website before you go. Rjukan is about 2.5 hours by road from Oslo.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
All 160 sites in Footsteps of WWII →
Footsteps of WWII: Europe 1939–1945
A free field guide for your phone: the route, the maps and the stories built in, even with no signal. The whole Second World War in Europe, from the first shots at Westerplatte on 1 September 1939 to the German surrender in May 1945: Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, Normandy, Arnhem, Bastogne, Stalingrad, Berlin and the camps, in 15 areas from Britain to Russia.
Open the guide