Hello everyone, welcome to Dansnow's History. You've heard about great Commando raids

at the Second World War. Well, whatever you've heard about the most daring and brilliant

raids, you can set that aside. Because this folks is the story of the destruction of the

hydroelectric power plant in Telermark, Norway, 80 years ago in February 1943. The Telermark

heroes, a group of Norwegian special forces soldiers who went through unimaginable hardships,

showed extraordinary bravery, physical fitness and skill on skis, on survival and with weapons,

to blow up a facility that was essential in the creation of so-called heavy water, which

itself is a key component in the development and testing of atomic weapons. The Allies

believed that Germany might be winning the race to building a nuclear bomb, and this

was one way to stop that progress in its tracks. On the podcast day, we're very lucky we

got a very special guest, it's the 80th anniversary of this raid, so I've got the

man who won the 60th anniversary reconstructed that raid, because he is a very tough knowledgeable,

brilliant survival expert. He is the world famous TV presenter and author Ray Mears, a legend

here in Britain on our screens, a man who not only met the veterans of the Telermark

raid, but jumped out of a plane and survived some of the conditions those original heroes

would have faced as well. It's great honor to have Ray Mears on the podcast on the anniversary

of so-called Operation Gummerside, the attack on Telermark. Here is the story of the raid

with Ray Mears. Enjoy. Ray, thanks so much for coming on the podcast.

Very nice to be here. First of all, let's talk about your experience. You've done a lot,

but reconstructing this journey in the research you did in meeting the original guy, this must

have been a career highlight, wasn't it? It's something that took me a bit by surprise. I went

to Norway for a holiday because I was interested in the story of the attack on the heavy water factory,

...