Knut Anders Haukelid; WWII ‘Hero of Telemark’

Knut Anders Haukelid, 82, one of the “Heroes of Telemark” who helped cripple Nazi Germany’s atomic weapons program in Norway. During the height of World War II, Haukelid and eight other Norwegian commandos parachuted into the mountains, on what seemed a suicide mission, to destroy a heavy water plant near Rjukan in Telemark County. The group stole into the heavily guarded plant on Feb. 27, 1943, and blew it up just after midnight. All escaped, and Haukelid remained in the mountains for the rest of the war as a Resistance fighter. The raid inspired several books and movies, including the 1965 film “The Heroes of Telemark” with Kirk Douglas and Richard Harris. Haukelid retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1973. In Oslo on Tuesday of heart failure.