RIP, Joachim Ronneberg

Ronneberg was the last survivor — and was the leader — of the sabotage raid in southern Norway, which was the subject of the 1965 Kirk Douglas action film, The Heroes of Telemark.

General consensus long after the fact is that the Germans were unlikely to have ever developed a nuclear weapon during WWII, despite their scattered programs to try and do so. But if there had been any chance, the destruction of the hydro facility at Rjukan, Telemark, the only place creating sufficient heavy water (deuterium oxide) to support such a project, ended it.

My favorite line from the obit:

After the explosion, the men escaped into neighbouring Sweden by skiing 320km (200 miles) across Telemark – despite being chased by some 3,000 German soldiers.

With a wry smile, Ronneberg described it as "the best skiing weekend I ever had".

Man who halted Nazi nuclear plan dies at 99
Norway’s wartime hero Joachim Ronneberg led a daring raid to stop Hitler’s plan for an atomic bomb.

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