[CW] Slightly OT: 60 Years Ago Today

[Michael Josefsson]

Still off-topic, but perhaps (slightly) interesting anyway.

One of the participants on the raft was Bengt Danielsson who was born  
about half a mile from where I live now (SM5-country for us hams). He  
is buried in the Östra Tollstad cemetary 25 km SW of Linköping,  
Sweden. My wife and I often takes an evening walk in the surroundings  
and the cemetary. He wrote several books and took part in the  
resistance against France when De Gaulle wanted to use the Muroroa  
Atoll for atomic weapons testing.

Another participant, Knut Haugland, was a war-time friend of Knut  
Haukelid which I have actually met! Both were involved in sabotaging  
the heavy water plant in Rjukan, Norway. It was in the late 1970's or  
possibly early 1980's when Mr Haukelid led a group of experts  
informing on how important and useful "stay-behind"-troops can be.  
This was at a Swedish regiment, I was in my teens and I cannot  
recollect how I got there. My dad SM6HRI pulled some strings I  
believe. Mr Haukelid talked about his wartime experience, parachute  
drop, living in the wilderness, sabotaging the heavy water plant in  
Rjukan in Norway and also finally sinking the produced water when it  
should be transported on a ferry to Germany. He also showed some of  
the equipment used, for example the radio set used, ready to go with  
vibrating transformer and crystals! Of course he used morse code  
exclusively (Ah, finally an on topic word:). His story has been  
filmed in The Heroes of Telemark from 1965, starring Kirk Douglas and  
Richard Harris. A film Mr Haugland thought bent the truth a bit too  
much, but Hollywood is Hollywood:) In 1948 a more realistic, and  
consequently less known, film "Kampen of Tungvannet" was produced  
starring some of the norwegians playing themselves.

More on the films can be found at www.imdb.com and some wartime  
clandestine sets at http://www.snyderstreasures.com/pages/ 
spy.htm#radio (I THINK Haukelid used a Mk 3 suitcase radio. IIRC the  
unit he presented had more of an amber colour on the front.)
Don't miss the paraset at http://www.qsl.net/ik0moz/paraset_eng.htm  
(This has spread like a disease, "new" parasets  are homebrewn all  
the time:)

73's
/Micke (SM5JAB)
PS. Getting onboard the ferry to place the explosives was much more  
easily done than described in the film, Mr Haukelid told me. The  
german guard was so drunk he could hardly stand so they could easily  
bypass him. This was of course not in either of the films:)

On 7 aug 2007, at 22.39, n2ey at aol.com wrote:

> Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki 4300 mile balsa raft expedition across  
> the Pacific ended 60 years ago today.
>
> They had QRP glowbug radios and used only CW.
>
> 73 de Jim, N2EY
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