Latest / Ridiculous History / CLASSIC: Operation Gunnerside: How a Crew of Military Skiers Ruined the Nazi Bomb

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CLASSIC: Operation Gunnerside: How a Crew of Military Skiers Ruined the Nazi Bomb · Ridiculous History

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Fellow ridiculous historians, we have a classic episode that we
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: can't wait to share with you.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Max.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It reminds me a little bit of how we learned
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: about the phenomenal sport of curling, thanks to you, because
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: this is this is the literal weaponization of a wintertime sport.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Well, Ben, I don't know if you know this, but
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: to date almost five years on the show, my favorite
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: episode still is the Sausage War episode when we talk
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: about skiing in combat. Alit on that one, and also
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: the ow This expedition.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Ah yes, yeah, all right, here's the skinny folks. There's
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: a thing called Operation gunter Side. It's a story the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Jedi won't tell you. On February twenty seventh, nineteen forty two,
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  Speaker 1: there were these guys who were super into sabotage, real
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: specop stuff. They wanted to attack a Nazi controlled plant
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: in away and they had to figure out how to
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: pull this off. They were outnumbered, they were out gunned.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: They didn't know how they could get to the place,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: much less get away without being instantly discovered and murdered.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: But as we'll see in today's classic episode, Bye Gosh,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: by Golly, they pulled it. Off they ruined the Nazi
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: bomb project on literal snow Skkes. Ridiculous History is a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. So Close, So close, It is as
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: if we are in gliders, which will make sense in
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: a few minutes. We are so close to an anniversary
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: episode today. This episode is publishing on February twenty sixth,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, but two days from now, and if you're
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: listening to this, the day it comes out, we will
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: hit the anniversary of something called Operation gunner Side.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: I know you love a good operation, Ben.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, who doesn't, right, This will be the seventy
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: sixth anniversary of Operation Gunner Side. And if you're wondering, hey, guys,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: what the heck is Operation gunner Side, we're glad to
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: tell you, of course, with the help of our constant
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: super producer, Casey.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Pegrim and truest friend and confidante. The Golden Girls song
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: is playing in my head. I love that song. It's
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: really good. It's so good.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: It's only the This has nothing to do with today's episode,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: and I'll keep the banter short. But did you ever
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: listen to the full version? Did either of you guys
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: ever listen to the full version? Of the Golden Girls song.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: Is it just called thank you for being a friend?
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I can't, I can't remember, but it's it's not as good. Really.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: The best part is the TV theme and if you
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: had a party an invited everyone, you know, it's my
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: favorite part. I like the and the card atached would
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: say and everybody comes in, thank you for being afraid?
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  Speaker 2: You know, I say to you, thank you for being
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: a ben.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: H thank you think you you know what you're not.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: You're no slouch of being a knowl. And Casey Pegrim
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: you were my favorite.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Casey, well, thank you ben Oh. Okay, I didn't know
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  Speaker 2: if you were going to respond to that way. That's
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Casey on the case. There, that's Casey on the case.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: That's very nice, Casey on the case. You know who
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: else was being good at what they were? Who else? Nazis? Nazis? Yeah, yeah, Nazis. Okay,
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: let me let me caveat that a little. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: But they were being successful at what they were doing,
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  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So our story today takes place in the nineteen forties
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: in World War Two and the rush to build the
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: first nuclear weapon.
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  Speaker 2: And this is something that I didn't know that I
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: didn't learn until I was looking into the story with you, Ben,
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  Speaker 2: is that the Germans were kind of had a head
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: start on the Manhattan Project, and it was actually because
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  Speaker 2: of progress the Germans were making towards developing a nuclear
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  Speaker 2: bomb that we got involved. We started doing our own
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  Speaker 2: version right.
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  Speaker 1: Right, So, as early nuclear research, just nuclear research is
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  Speaker 1: beginning in the United States, Germany is already moving forward
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  Speaker 1: with its own energy research and atomic bomb program, which was.
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  Speaker 2: Called Uhlinvine, which translates to the Uranium Club, and that
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  Speaker 2: was founded as a secret program in April of nineteen
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  Speaker 2: thirty nine, which was just shortly after Otto Hahn and
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  Speaker 2: Fritz Strassmann, who are two German scientists, accidentally discovered nuclear fission,
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  Speaker 2: giving the Germans quite an advantage over the United States. Right.
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  Speaker 1: This was December nineteen thirty eight, over Christmas vacation when
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  Speaker 1: these physicists made this discovery, and it's one of those
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  Speaker 1: world changing events where people in the know, people who
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  Speaker 1: monitor this sort of stuff, can naturally begin going down
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: similar directions in terms of innovation. The Uranium Club was
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  Speaker 1: led by a physicist named Kurt Diipner, and he built
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  Speaker 1: a think tank of the top eggheads in Germany, including
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  Speaker 1: Verner Heisenberg. The Americans were working on this too. The
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  Speaker 1: Germans had a different program, so they're trying to accomplish
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  Speaker 1: the same thing. They want to build, ultimately an atomic weapon.
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  Speaker 1: But one of the differences that they had was their
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  Speaker 1: use of what they called a moderator. And a moderator
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  Speaker 1: is a component of a nuclear reactor. So nuclear actors
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  Speaker 1: usually have a couple of things in common. They have
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  Speaker 1: a fuel source, control rods, a moderator, coolant, and an encasement.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and a nuclear bomb. Similar to nuclear actors, creating
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  Speaker 2: is thriving on the same explosive energy, only it's just
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  Speaker 2: released out into the world, as opposed to harnessed into
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  Speaker 2: like electric electricity or.
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  Speaker 1: Power exactly exactly. So, a moderator is a substance that's
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  Speaker 1: essentially used to slow down the fission process, making it
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  Speaker 1: more controllable or at least more efficient, right spot on.
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  Speaker 1: So here's one of the big differences. In the US,
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  Speaker 1: scientists are using graphite as a moderator. They're using these
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  Speaker 1: graphite blocks, and they don't have coolant, they don't have radiation,
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  Speaker 1: they don't have heat shielding. They're still figuring this out. Germany,
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  Speaker 1: on the other hand, is using something called heavy water.
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  Speaker 1: What's heavy water? Aside from an awesome name for something, it's.
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  Speaker 2: Incredible and I did not know what it was. And
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  Speaker 2: heavy water is water that has an atomic or molecular
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  Speaker 2: rather weight of twenty rather than eighteen, and that's in
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  Speaker 2: AMU or atomic mass units. To the layman or anyone,
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  Speaker 2: really heavy water would taste the same as regular water.
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  Speaker 2: It would feel the same on your body. You could
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  Speaker 2: swim in it, just the same as you could any
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  Speaker 2: other kind of regular water. But it occurs incredibly rarely
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  Speaker 2: in nature, right, I think it's something along the lines
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  Speaker 2: according to the Smithsonian magazine, it is incredibly rare in nature,
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  Speaker 2: happening something along the lines of one in a billion.
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  Speaker 2: Roleicules of water that occur naturally would be considered heavy.
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  Speaker 2: One giveaway that you're dealing with heavy water would be
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  Speaker 2: that ice cubes made out of it would sink rather
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  Speaker 2: than float because they're a little heavier.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Right, it's not a clever title, right, they're trying
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  Speaker 1: to be euphemistic.
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  Speaker 2: The water is heavy, you know, it's super descriptive. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: it's true, But this is the substance that the Nazis
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  Speaker 2: decided to use as that what was the word moderator,
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  Speaker 2: as that moderator for splitting of the atom and slowing
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  Speaker 2: down that reaction in a way that would allow them
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  Speaker 2: to harness it more effectively. Graphite, as we know, super common,
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  Speaker 2: easy to come by, and all kinds of stuff. Heavy water,
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  Speaker 2: on the other hand, you got to make it, and
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  Speaker 2: in order to make it for this research that they
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  Speaker 2: were doing, the Germans had a pretty massive facility where
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  Speaker 2: they did just that. Right.
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  Speaker 1: Oh and quick note on heavy water, it has a
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  Speaker 1: larger than normal amount of a hydrogen isotope called deterior,
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  Speaker 1: which is also known as heavy hydrogen. So it all
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  Speaker 1: works out. They've got a theme, and they also have
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  Speaker 1: a plant where they create this stuff, a place called
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  Speaker 1: Verir Mork, and their work was created in like Mordor.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like a very sounds like a very evil
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  Speaker 1: you know, sour Man hitlerresque name.
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  Speaker 2: It really does.
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  Speaker 1: Did you ever see that Mitchell and Webb sketch where
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  Speaker 1: they say are we the baddies? Oh?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, because the skull hats like Bond villains, right,
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  Speaker 2: But they're confused about where they fit into the story.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like you were going to say something that
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  Speaker 1: pertained to our episode, though, so I don't.
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  Speaker 2: I don't want to roll over, Oh All, I was
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  Speaker 2: going to know, you're not at all, Ben. All I
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  Speaker 2: was going to say is they got this place by
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  Speaker 2: invading another place. But they actually acquired this this very
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  Speaker 2: sinister sounding plant. It's called the Vemmork Chemical Plant, and
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  Speaker 2: it was in Telemark County in Norway, which was occupied
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  Speaker 2: by the Nazis at this point in World War two,
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  Speaker 2: and it became a very important strategic stronghold for them.
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  Speaker 2: It was built like a fortress and they were able
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  Speaker 2: to use the fact that it was a chemical plant
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  Speaker 2: to help aid their research and to produce this heavy water.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely, this plant was already producing heavy water through the thirties.
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  Speaker 1: By January nineteen thirty five, it produced more than one
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  Speaker 1: hundred grams of this substance. But after the Germans seized
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  Speaker 1: the plant, they forced the workers to increase the production
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  Speaker 1: of heavy water because they needed this moderate See.
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  Speaker 2: I did not know that, Ben, I know that they
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  Speaker 2: were already making it there because it's sort of a
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  Speaker 2: weird thing to make. It's what other purpose does it
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  Speaker 2: serve chemically or in some kind of industrial manufacturing process.
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  Speaker 1: Do you know, man, maybe the Norwegians just had a
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  Speaker 1: pet peeve about ice cubes that float. Maybe they thought
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  Speaker 1: they were insolent. That seems very expensive. That's true. That's
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  Speaker 1: a good point. Maybe that's what SmartWater is.
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  Speaker 2: And maybe maybe they also added like extra electrolytes and
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  Speaker 2: all that. Yeah, yeah, well, plant's grave. It's true. So
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  Speaker 2: here's the thing. This is the lynch pen in the
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  Speaker 2: Nazis plan to develop this weapon, and they're pretty far
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  Speaker 2: along in their research and this stuff that they have
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  Speaker 2: to have a pretty sizable manufacturing chemical plant to produce.
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  Speaker 2: They need it to make the weapon that they will
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  Speaker 2: it won't do without it.
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  Speaker 1: Right right, And British intelligence learns about this through some
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  Speaker 1: connections to the plant and some connections to Norwegian domestic
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  Speaker 1: resistance parties. So they hear that the Germans want to
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  Speaker 1: increase the production during the summer of nineteen forty one,
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  Speaker 1: and they get this via message from the Norwegian underground.
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  Speaker 1: There's a guy who obtains this for the British named
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  Speaker 1: leaf Tronstud and he a non famously corresponds with the
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  Speaker 1: British forces, you know, to preserve his identity, and they
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  Speaker 1: begin to hatch a plan. The British say, well, let's
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  Speaker 1: engage in some good old sabotage. Sabotage itself has a
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  Speaker 1: very interesting etymology.
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  Speaker 2: What is it?
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  Speaker 1: So sabotage comes from French? I believe Casey, is that correct?
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  Speaker 4: Like saboteur?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's okay. So this is interesting. I don't
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  Speaker 1: know if you had heard the etymology of sabotage before, Casey,
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  Speaker 1: I feel like you probably have.
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  Speaker 4: Nah, nothing's coming to mind right now.
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  Speaker 1: So it meant it's always meant deliberately and maliciously destroying property.
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  Speaker 1: Right The apparent story I can't verify here is that
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  Speaker 1: the modern meaning derives from strikers who allegedly had this
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  Speaker 1: tactic of throwing shoes into machinery. But this is apparently
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: not the you know, again, this is just a fun
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  Speaker 1: story about it. We don't know exactly where it comes from,
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  Speaker 1: but it is related to the word shoe allegedly.
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  Speaker 2: So like throwing your shoe into like the gears of
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  Speaker 2: a machine or something like that. That's very you know,
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  Speaker 2: it makes me think of like the whole like throwing
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  Speaker 2: a monkey wrench into the works. Yeah, yeah, exactly, as
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  Speaker 2: it causes the gears to grind to a halt.
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  Speaker 1: So they wanted to They wanted to engage in some
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  Speaker 1: good old fashioned sabotage, and they had a secret unit
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  Speaker 1: that was accomplished at this called the Special Operations Executive
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  Speaker 1: or sometimes called the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
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  Speaker 2: Is that like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, they train people to conduct covert sabotage missions.
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  Speaker 2: I love the idea of that as being ungentlemanly. Yes,
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  Speaker 2: it's not like coming right to your face and doing
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  Speaker 2: us doing it like under cover of night around dirty Pool,
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  Speaker 2: old Man, dirty Pool, dirty Pool.
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  Speaker 1: They had a Norwegian branch of the Special Operations Executive
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  Speaker 1: and they recruited various Norwegians who have fled to England
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  Speaker 1: after Germany invaded their country in nineteen forty and they
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  Speaker 1: had this crazy training regimen in Scotland. They had to
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  Speaker 1: train under cover of night to climb mountains, ford rivers,
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  Speaker 1: camp outdoors for weeks. These guys are being made into
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  Speaker 1: rangers almost, you know. Yeah, but they're rangers with a
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: very particular skill set. They're ski rangers.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, tell us a little more about that. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I will let me you know what in fact, I'm
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  Speaker 2: gonna I'm gonna do it better than tell you. I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to do a reading for you from a book
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  Speaker 2: titled The Winter Fortress, The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's
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  Speaker 2: Atomic Bomb by Neil Bascom, mis will paint the pictures
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  Speaker 2: will tell you exactly what these guys did. Nazi occupied
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  Speaker 2: Norway in a staggered line, saboteurs cut across the mountain slope.
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  Speaker 2: Instinct more than the dim light of the moon guided
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  Speaker 2: the young men. They threaded through the stands of pine
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  Speaker 2: and traversed down the sharp, uneven terrain, much of it
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  Speaker 2: parked with empty hollows and thick drifts of snow. Dressed
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: in white camouflage suits over their British Army uniforms, the
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  Speaker 2: men looked like phantoms haunting the woods. They moved as
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  Speaker 2: quietly as ghosts. The silence broke only by the swoosh
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: of their skis and the occasional slap of a pole
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: against an unseen branch. The warm, steady wind that blew
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: through the vest Fjord valley dampened even these sounds. It
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: was the same wind that would, eventually, they hoped, blow
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  Speaker 2: their tracks away. So Yeah, they did super badass downhill
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  Speaker 2: skiing in order to stealthily approach this facility. Because you see,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: there had actually been two previous attempts, failed attempts to
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  Speaker 2: do exactly what these guys were setting out to do
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: on their skis. One of them was called Operation Grouse,
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: and then one was called Operation Freshmen, in which forty
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: two British Allied soldiers died in a botched mission where
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: they were going to kind of gain entry to the
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  Speaker 2: facility using gliders that had been deployed from planes.
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  Speaker 1: Right, so they had a little bit of internal tension.
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  Speaker 1: Bombing the plant was the preferred tactic of the American military,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: but Tronsta was opposed to this because if the bombs
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: hit the liquid ammonia storage tanks, the civilian population nearby
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  Speaker 1: would be at risk. And secondly, bombing might not even
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: destroy the heavy water facilities because they were in the
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  Speaker 1: basement of the plant under layers and layers of concrete.
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  Speaker 1: So they had to actually send people in.
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  Speaker 2: First.
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  Speaker 1: They sent in Grouse, which was a small scout team.
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  Speaker 1: They parachuted from a plane, They landed in the area,
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  Speaker 1: and they started literally sneaking around. After they had been
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: there for a month. In November nineteen forty two, Operation
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  Speaker 1: Freshmen launched these thirty nine British air troops carried by
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  Speaker 1: two military gliders. The idea is that they would land
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  Speaker 1: near the plant using the information provided by the scouting
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: group Grouse, and then they would attack. But the weather
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: was terrible, they had communication issues. One of the gliders
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: crashed into a mountain, the other crash landed way off course.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: Everyone that was in the glider that hit the mountain
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: died in the crash. Some of the soldiers in the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: second glider died and their crash law was off target.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: The others were caught and executed by the Gestapo. Additionally,
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: German forces found a map that identified Vermork as a
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: British target, but there was still some hope. The Germans
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: were not able to find and capture the group known
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: as Grouse. They had remained in the wilderness, living off
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the land, hunting reindeer to survive and they were renamed Swallow.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: Three months pass and the Swallowed group gets word from
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: Britain that there are six more Norwegians who are going
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: to be sent to take out this plant in something
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: called Operation gunner Side. This was a small group of
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: Norwegian commandos from the Norwegian branch of the SOE. They
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: were going to parachute straight to the target zone instead
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: of using a glider. They were going to meet up
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: with the Swallows and then together they were going to
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: raid the Vermoch plant. So they jumped from a plane
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: while it's snowing February sixteenth, nineteen forty three. They dressed
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: in British uniforms under their snowsuits because they thought, you know,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: if we get caught, we're almost certainly going to be
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: tortured and then die. But we would like them to
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: blame the British instead of the Norwegian resistance, so that
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: the Germans won't kill Norwegian civilians. They survived by the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: way they landed my away from where they were.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: Supposed to be.
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  Speaker 1: They traveled for five days and then they connected with
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  Speaker 1: their friends Grouse now named Swallow, and then they began
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: their raid on February twenty seventh, nineteen forty three.
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: That's right, ben so Gunnerside. The Gunnerside group decided that
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: there were three ways to access the plan. They knew
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: they had to rely on stealth. One of them was
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: to come down from the mountains which overlooked the plant,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: but that was covered in minefields. And then they also
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: had to cross a incredibly fortified and heavily guarded suspension bridge.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: And then they had to get to the bottom where
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: there was a gorge that led to a railway line
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: that they could follow alongside of to get to an
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: area that was a lot less heavily policed.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and they broke through a fence. You can see
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: an interview about this with a guy named Newt Hyklid
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: in the New York Times. They broke through a fence
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: and then they divided their group into a five man
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: cover squad a four man explosives group. The explosives guys
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: wanted to enter the plant through a side door, but
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: the door was locked, and they tried to find a
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: side access tunnel, but they started getting divided.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Call it the fog of war.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: Once they got in, they started placing explosive charges next
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: to the heavy water production cells, and they had to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: they had to improvise a little bit. The explosives were
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: supposed to have two minute fuses, but they cut them
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: to make them thirty second fuses, so they had thirty
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: seconds to run away. And so after they have successfully
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: destroyed the heavy water facility. They flee and they say, hey, guys,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: bonus points, let's try to get out of here alive.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: So they hop back on the skis and they ski
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: toward town. They reach a mountain plateau and they split up.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: They travel more than two hundred miles. The four man
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: explosive team on skis too sweet.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, neutral, neutral, Neutral Sweden, Land of modern furniture and
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: meatballs and neutrality and the chocolate. Many many things are
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: good about Sweden. But those are the things that come
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: to mind for me. But here's the thing. They did
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: not fire a single shot. They were able to capitalize
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: on the chaos that those explosions created and high tail
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: it out of there on their skis, get to neutral Sweden,
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: and then ultimately get back to get back home alive.
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: And these were men who were going into the situation
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: fully aware that they might not make it out out alive.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: As you can tell, this is a pretty intrepid mission.
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: Doesn't really fall under a ridiculous for me as much
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: as it does totally badass. Maybe the idea of stealth
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: spy types on skis is a little funny, but man,
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: what a what bravery These guys exhibited, and to have
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: it go so well is so rare.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: How long does it take to ski two hundred miles?
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want the Proclaimers to do a version of
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: their song about this. So Operation Gunner's Side was initially
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: a success. It did cause German forces to lose five
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: hundred kilograms of heavy water and it knocked the plan
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: out of action for a few months. Unfortunately, by May
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of nineteen forty three, the facilities were rebuilt and they
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: were back in the heavy water game.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: I see a message board here on J two ski
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: dot com where someone talks about completing a ski marathon
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: at one hundred and thirty kilometers in two days. Okay,
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: so that's faster than walking. Yeah, well that's about That's
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: about it. One hundred and thirty kilometers more than a mile,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: So this would probably take like maybe four days.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's about on base, because one hundred and forty
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: kilometers is about eighty seven miles.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: There's also a lot depends on the terrain, and I
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: gotta wonder if they had to maybe hoof it occasionally.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: If it is if that yeah, or if it was
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: literally a two hundred mile completely downhill route to sweet It's.
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: Just a bunny slope, nothing to it, so pretty cool.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: Huh m hm.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: And we hope that you enjoyed the story of Operation
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: Gunner's Side. If you don't know how to ski yet,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, hey, it's never too late to pick up
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: a new skill set. But before we go, I have
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: some breaking news. I've been told that we have an
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: update on our etymology conversation. Is that correct, Casey?
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: That is correct?
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: So I did look into the etymology of sabatur or sabotage,
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: and it does seem to derive from the word the
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: French word sabo for a wooden shoe or a clog.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: So see that that would cause some damage.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, yeah, that would that would grind the gears or.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: What have you. Literally, hey, so it looks like Casey
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: on the Case the segment. We never closed it out
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: last time, so let's close it now, Casey on the Case.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: And I do want to point out too, when we
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: talk about how intrepid these these guys were. They all
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: were equipped with you know, weapons and survival gear, but
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: they had to travel lightly because they did not have
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: any vehicle support outside of themselves and their their legs
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: and their skis. They also had cyanide pills on them
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: and so they couldn't be taken alive.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, you know, we've all been in that kind
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: of situation at some point. It's just like the boy
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Scouts say, you have to be prepared or excuse me.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: I think it's just the Scouts now, isn't it.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, that's right, that's right.
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: We hope that you have enjoyed this episode, and we would,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: of course, as always, like to thank our super producer, Casey.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: You know, I always want to give you a nickname,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and I always stop myself. Do you want to be
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: the saboteur?
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Oh? I like that idea? Yeah, I to it. I
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: support that wholeheartedly. Yeah.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: So we'd like to thank our super producer, Casey, the
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: sabato of Pegrum.
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: I would like to thank Alex Williams, who composed our theme.
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: We'd like to thank Gabe, our research associate. Ben. I'd
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: like to thank you for being a friend traveling down
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: that road, whether on skis or on foot, and possibly
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: back again. Unless it's uphill and you're expected to do
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: it on skis, that's not going to work. I love
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: playing that song. My cats are so sick of me
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: playing that. It's a good show too. It really holds
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: up very forward thinking.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It does surprisingly watching it when I was very young
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: with my grandmother, I enjoyed it, but I think I
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: didn't get most of the jokes. So now it's Blanche
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is a dirty, dirty, dirty personality, but lovable and hey,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: maybe that's the way you think of us.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: If so, let us know, or if not, you could
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: just write to us. We are on.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Instagram, we are on Facebook, we are on Twitter. You
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: can meet our favorite part of the show, your fellow
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: listeners on our Facebook page Ridiculous Historians.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: You hit me personally on Instagram at embryon Insider, where
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: I post you know, cat pictures and the like, and
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: then Ben, I believe you're on there as well.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: The rumors are true. You can see my various misadventures
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: that involve, frankly, all kinds of weird stuff, from travel
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to mysterious investigations to god, I don't know, there was
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: a time when I was going.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Through a lot of puppet pictures.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Either way, that's at Ben Bowling, And of course, if
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you want to check out our weird t shirts based
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: on puns and catchphrases that we are cartoonishly enamored of.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: Visit us at our store on Ridiculous Historyshow dot.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Com the Tea Public Store, and join us. Next time.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about some other stuff. We haven't quite gotten
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: that far ahead yet, but we'll get there. We will
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: see that. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.