ARTHUR A.

LEVINE BOOKS
AN IMPRINT OF SCHOLASTIC INC.

Copyright 2016 by Neal Bascomb

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Bascomb, Neal, author.
Title: Sabotage : the mission to destroy Hitlers atomic bomb / Neal Bascomb.
Description: First edition. | New York : Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint
of Scholastic Inc., 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015043455 | ISBN 9780545732437 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939-1945Commando operationsNorway
Juvenile literature. | World War, 1939-1945Underground
movementsNorwayJuvenile literature. | SabotageNorwayHistory20th
centuryJuvenile literature. | Atomic bombGermanyHistoryJuvenile
literature. | World War, 1939-1945GermanyTechnologyJuvenile
literature.
Classification: LCC D794.5 .B37 2016 | DDC 940.54/864109481--dc23 LC record
available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043455
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 16 17 18 19 20
Printed in the U.S.A. 23
First edition, June 2016

Chapter 01

INVASION

In the dark early hours of April 9, 1940, a fierce wind swept

across the decks of the German cruiser Hipper and the four
destroyers at its stern as they cut into the fjord toward
Trondheim, Norway. The ships approached the three forts
guarding the entrance to the city, all crews at the ready. A
Norwegian patrol signaled for the boats to identify themselves.
In English, the Hippers captain returned that they were
a British ship with orders to go towards Trondheim. No
unfriendly intentions. As the patrol shone a spotlight across
the water, it was blinded by searchlights from the Hipper, which
suddenly sped up and blew smoke to hide its whereabouts.
Signals and warning rockets lit up the night. Inside the
Norwegian forts, alarms rang and orders were given to fire on
the invading ships. But the inexperienced Norwegian soldiers
struggled to shoot their guns. By the time they were prepared,
the Hipper was already steaming past the first fort. At the
second fort, the bugler who should have sounded the alarm had
fallen asleep at his post. The moment the gunners there opened
fire, their searchlights malfunctioned, so they could not see
their targets.
At 4:25 a.m., the German force set anchor in Trondheims
harbor. Cutters began bringing hundreds of soldiers from the
warships to the shore. The soldiers spread out from the port into
the defenseless streets. The Nazi invasion of Norway had begun.
5

In a large hall at the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH),

twenty minutes away from Trondheims harbor, Leif Tronstad
gathered his fellow teachers, their students, and a handful of others. Word of the invasion had reached him before the break of day,
and while his wife and children slept, he had rushed to the Institute.
From the few reports he and others had received, all of Norway
looked to be under attack. Most major cities had fallen alongside
Trondheim, but the capital, Oslo, was rumored to be holding out.
The group debated what they should do. One among them, a
firebrand named Knut Haukelid, who was visiting friends in the
city, wanted to fight with whatever weapons they could find.
The Germans were invading their country, and they must resist.
Others preached caution. They did not know exactly what Hitler
intended for Norway, and their small country, with its limited
military, stood little chance against German might.
When Tronstad spoke, he held everyones attention. At
thirty-seven years of age, he was the universitys youngest full
professor, and a favorite in its classrooms. Of medium height, he
had blue eyes and ash-blond hair parted neatly on the side, with
a light dance of crows feet around his eyes.
He told those assembled that he would travel to Oslo, where,
as a reserve officer in the Army, he had standing orders to go
once war broke out. He suggested those with military experience should do the same. As for the others, he said, each man
needed to follow his own conscience on what action he should
take, but all must remember their country was in desperate need.
Whatever you do, he said, your actions will be history in a
hundred years. With that, he said his goodbyes.
6

Tronstad had feared this would happen

that Norway
would be attacked and its sleeping government would leave the
country unprepared to mount a defense. Since the day Adolf
Hitler had invaded Poland in September 1939, and Britains
soon-to-be prime minister Winston Churchill had announced,
We are fighting to save the whole world from the pestilence of
Nazi tyranny, it was clear to Tronstad that Norway would not
be allowed to maintain the neutral stand it had held in the First
World War. The fight between the Allies and the Nazis in mainland Europe had stalled, and the two sides had circled around
Norway for months. With its rich natural resources and strategic
position in the North Sea, Tronstads homeland was too good a
prize to leave unclaimed.
As Tronstad hurried home, German soldiers occupied the
city around him, marching in columns through the streets. They
established machine-gun nests and mortar positions at key spots
throughout the city, and called out warnings in German not to
resist. Tronstad ignored them. When he reached his two-story
house on the citys outskirts, he told his wife, Bassa, that they
were not safe in Trondheim. He would take her and the children
to a mountain tourist lodge 100 miles to the south, then he would
go to Oslo to join the Army.
Together, they woke up their young children, Sidsel and Leif,
and helped them dress and pack. Fifteen minutes later, they piled
into their car. As they headed south over a river bridge, two ashcolored bombers flew overhead.
What kind of plane is that? Sidsel asked.
It is a German plane, Tronstad said, his first explanation
of their hurried departure. Im afraid the wars come to our
country.
7

German8 police troops march into Oslo in May 1940.

Twenty-eight-year-old Knut Haukelid chose a different path out

of Trondheim. He and a few NTH students took control of a
freight train in the city and drove it almost halfway to Oslo,
until they found the tracks closed. They abandoned the train and
took a bus to the nearest Army headquarters. There, they learned
the heartbreaking news that the Nazis had taken Oslo, and King
Haakon VII and the Norwegian government had fled the capital.
In fighting to free his country, Haukelid found his purpose.
He tracked down a regiment battling the Germans and received
a Krag rifle and thirty rounds of ammunition. At first glance,
Haukelid probably looked similar to all the other soldiers the
commander was sending into war, with nothing particularly
notable about him. He had fair hair, blue eyes, and a medium
build that hunched slightly at the shoulders, and at five foot ten,
he was just above average height.
Yet over the next three weeks, despite having no military
experience, Haukelid fought ferociously for his country and
king, refusing to surrender as their invaders demanded. His battalion ambushed a line of German tanks at a mountain pass,
wiping them out with homemade bombs and a single cannon,
but apart from that one success, they were pushed back again
and again. The German Blitzkrieg, with its armored vehicles,
fast bombers, and well-trained troops, were simply too overwhelming a force to resist.
His regiment surrendered, but Haukelid did not. He tried to
reach the fighting in the two strategic valleys that ran between
Oslo and Trondheim, but his countrymen were already in retreat.
Finally, he traveled into the capital and went to his parents
9

home, a spacious apartment in

the city center. His father was
away, so only his mother was
there to welcome him. Haukelid
went into the room where he
still kept a few possessions and
closed the door. What are you
doing? his mother asked.
Getting

some

things,

Haukelid said, grabbing his

cross-country skis and boots
from the closet.
You need to get out and
fight, she told him.
That was exactly his plan.
Before the war came, Knut
Haukelid was a bit of a lost soul.
He was born in Brooklyn,
New York, to Norwegian immigrants, but his family returned
to Oslo when he and his twin
sister, Sigrid, were only toddlers.
Dyslexic and restless, he hated
school. Sitting still in those hard
chairs all day, listening to the
drone of teachers, was torture
for him. Talking in class only
turned the screws, thanks to a
slight stutter. He entertained
himself by pulling pranks. Once,
Knut Haukelid.

he released a snake in the middle of class, earning one of his

many suspensions.
The lone place Haukelid was able to run free was the familys
country lodge. On weekends and in summertime, he skied,
fished, camped, and hunted with his grandfather in the mountains and lakes of Telemark, west of Oslo. Haukelid was told the
old tales of trolls inhabiting and protecting the lands of Norway,
and he believed them. His faith in these creatures lent even more
magic to the woods he loved.
After high school, Haukelid left for the United States to attend
college. He traveled the country, working at farms for spare
cash. A few years later, he came back to Norway. His father found
him a well-paid job at Oslos biggest bank, but Haukelid turned
it down. He could earn more money, he told his father, fishing
for troutand off he went. After several months of fishing, he
moved again, this time to Berlin. (His sister, Sigrid, left the country as well; she went to Hollywood and became a movie star
known as the siren of the fjords.) Haukelid studied engineering, learned German, and questioned his future. In 1936, he saw
Hitlers propaganda parade at the Olympics. One night, when he
ran into a drunk Nazi Party member who was spouting one nasty
statement after another, he dropped him with a punch.
At last, he returned again to Oslo, and finally gave in to his
fathers wish for him to get serious with his career and his life.
He took a job with his fathers firm, importing engineering
equipment from the United States, and he fell in love with a
young woman named Bodil, a physical therapist who treated
him for some back pain from all his outdoor adventures. Still,
Haukelid was restless, not quite at peace with himself, until he
found his purpose in defending his country.
11

Despite the heroic efforts of many Norwegians like Haukelid,

by early June 1940, Hitler controlled the entire country. King
Haakon and the government fled to England by ship, and the
nations top general pleaded to his former soldiers, Remain true
and prepared for the future fight.
Haukelid got straight to it. In Oslo, he and a friend who had
received wireless training in Britain launched their own spy network for the Allies. For months, the two moved from hut to hut
in the woods outside Oslo, sending radio signals to Allied forces
but hearing nothing in return. Through a range of contacts in
the city, they collected intelligence on the German command
in the capitaleveryone from Reichskommissar Josef Terboven,
who served as Hitlers right hand in Norway, to General
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, who oversaw the German military
forces, to SS Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Fehlis, who ran the
security services. Unable to make contact with British or
Norwegian allies in London, they continued their efforts nevertheless, and even hatched a plot to kidnap Vidkun Quisling, the
Norwegian fascist whose political party served as a puppet government for Terboven. Haukelid and his friend were daring and
brave; they were also amateurish and terribly ineffective. But
they had joined a growing resistance movement that hoped to
drive the Nazis from their land. They all felt they had to do
something.
Reichskommissar Terboven moved quickly to consolidate
Nazi rule. He removed any Norwegians not loyal to the New
Order from positions of influence: judges, clergy, journalists,
business heads, policemen, mayors, and teachers alike. The
12

SS Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich Fehlis and Reichskommissar Josef Terboven.

Norwegian parliament was closed permanently, its members

sent home. The main government buildings in the heart of Oslo
flew Nazi flags.
The Nazis presence extended well beyond Oslo. Travel after
curfew or beyond a certain place without an identity card or pass
was made illegal. Radios were banned. Anyone breaking the
rules was subject to arrestor whatever punishment the Nazis
chose, since it was the Nazis, not the police, who enforced the
law. Nothing was published in Norway without the censors
stamp of approval. New schoolbooks were printed to teach students that Hitler was Norways savior. Strict rationing of coal,
gas, food, milk, and clothing left families scraping by. People
found themselves making shoes from fish skins and clothes from
old newspaper. All the while, the Germans took whatever they
13

Nazi flags hang in the central Oslo train station.

wanted for themselves, from the finest cuts of meat to the best
houses.
Some Norwegians supported the new German order. Many
others merely did what they were told. But there were others still
who pushed back against the Nazis. In September 1941, workers
throughout Oslo went on strike against the strict rationing of
milk. Terboven put martial law into effect. Hundreds were
arrested, and the security chief, Fehlis, ordered the execution of
the two strike leaders. Following this, the Nazi secret police, the
Gestapo, intensified their hunt for underground resistance cells.
Soon they came for Haukelid, storming his familys apartment. He was not home, but the Gestapo arrested his mother,
Sigrid, and his new wife, Bodil. When asked where her son
was, Sigrid slapped the Gestapo officer in the face and said, Hes
in the mountains.
14

No, the Nazi said. Hes in England. Our contact tells us

hes already been taken across the North Sea. And what do you
think he is doing there?
You will find out when he comes back! she promised.

Leif Tronstad would not stand for the Nazis living in his country and lording power over its people. Their presence was a
violation of everything he held dear, and their occupation robbed
him of the life hed built from nothing.
Three months before Tronstad was born, his father died of a
heart attack. His mother supported her four sons by serving as
a maid at private dinner parties hosted by the wealthier families
in their neighborhood outside Oslo. Growing up, Leif was either
studying, running, or working. He excelled at all three activities,
setting new track records and making the highest marks at
school. His favorite subject was always science. He simply liked
to understand how the world worked. He graduated college with
top honors, married his childhood sweetheart, Bassa, and won
scholarships to focus on chemistry at some of the best institutes
in the world, including Cambridge University in England and
the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry in Berlin.
Talented not just in the lab but also in theoretical work,
Tronstad found many opportunities open to him. Since his first
student days, he had wondered whether he should work in industry or teach. In the end, he told Bassa that, while he wanted to be
a professor, he would leave the decision to her. If you like, I can
make as much money as you want, he said. She gave him her
blessing to teach. He was soon a professor at NTH. He bought a
nice house a ten-minute walk from the university and a car to
15

drive out to his mountain cabin, where he, Bassa, and their two
children skied and hiked. During these prewar years, Tronstad
also worked as a consultant to several Norwegian companies,
advising them on the manufacture of steel, rubber, nitrogen, aluminum, and other industrial products.
After his government surrendered to the Germans, Tronstad
returned to Trondheim with his family. He kept his job, but
NTH was now under German control. Professors who pledged
their allegiance to the Nazis quickly gained power within the
university, not to mention board seats on many of the companies
where Tronstad consulted. The Nazis intended to use every sector of Norwegian industry to supply its war machine.
Tronstad wanted nothing to do with such efforts. Instead,
like Haukelid, he became deeply involved in the underground

Leif Tronstad.
16

the homegrown military resistance called Milorg. Through his

rich trove of contacts (and by maintaining some of his consulting jobs), he helped supply industrial intelligence to the British.
With most of Europe quickly falling under German rule, and the
United States not yet in the war, free Britain was the lone beacon
of hope for those who wanted to fight the Germans.
In early September 1941, as the Gestapo was breaking up
resistance networks across Norway, Tronstad decided to inform
the British of a very disturbing development at a place called
Vemork. What was happening there could well give the Nazis
the power to win the war.

17