Operation Musketoon

To transport the raiders across the North Sea, a Minerve-class submarine, Junon, belonging to the Free French Navy was used, under the command of Commander Querville. Junon was selected because in silhouette it had the appearance of a German U-boat, which could be advantageous if sighted on the surface. The submarine left the Orkney Islands at 11:40 on 11 September 1942, under escort in British waters by HMS Sturgeon, Tigris and Thunderbolt.[13] Junon crossed the North Sea undetected and near Glomfjord, rose to periscope depth and discovered that a fishing boat was trailing them. The boat crash-dived but this sighting does not appear to have compromised the operation.[10] The commander of the raid, Captain Black, had decided against a frontal assault since he suspected any German defences would expect one. The submarine entered the Bjaerangsfjord just south of Glomfjord on 15 September.[14]

The submarine settled on the bottom of the fjord until darkness and surfaced at 21:15 to put the commandos ashore by dinghy. Reaching the shore, they hid their dinghy under some stones and moss, then set out across the mountains to Glomfjord, reaching the Black Glacier undetected. Houghton and Granlund, a Norwegian, went ahead to reconnoitre the area before the party began to climb the mountain. At one stage they had to traverse a near vertical rock face before reaching the summit. The commandos did not know that their presence was suspected. A German topographical party was in the area and its commander, Leutnant Wilhelm Dehne, had spotted some unidentified figures above the Glomfjord. Later he discovered some Player's cigarette packs and the remains of a camp. Fortunately for the commandos, his route back to Glomfjord took him away from their new camp overlooking the power station.[10]

Resting in their hideout for the following day, the commandos went over their plan of attack and withdrawal from the area. They left their encampment at 20:00 (8:00 P.M.) on 17 September, to begin the attack. On their approach they detected a small craft on the fjord; fearing they would be spotted, they decided to postpone the action and return to camp. By dawn they had not been able to reach their hideout; while they were in an exposed location they still decided it would be best to stay put until nightfall. Reaching their hideout again on the night of the 18th. At this point however, the commandos were running short on supplies and Black ordered the attack to proceed the following night, 19/20 September, no matter what.[10]

The commandos were divided into two groups for the attack. One group consisting of Lance Sergeant O'Brien, Lance Bombardier Chudley and Private Curtis were to attack two high-pressure water pipes 7 ft (2.1 m) in diameter, leading from the top of the mountain into the plant. Reaching their objective, they planted plastic explosives in a round pattern to blow a 3 ft (0.91 m) hole in the pipes. Attaching a 30-minute delayed fuse, they waited to hear the sound of explosives going off inside the plant, which was the signal to activate their fuse.[15]

The other nine commandos had set out for the rear of the power plant; seven entered the machinery hall, leaving two commandos on guard. The commandos in the power station discovered that the Germans had left the control room and only a Norwegian engineer was on duty. Sergeant Smith and Private Fairclough were detailed to plant their explosives amongst the machinery in the power house and the other commandos located the area where the Norwegian work force worked and slept.[16] The workers were gathered up and ordered to leave the station via an access tunnel over 1 mi (1.6 km) long, which was the only land route between the station and the villages in the fjord. On their approach to the tunnel, a German guard was killed by Granlund and another managed to run off down the tunnel to raise the alarm. As to delay German reinforcements, the commandos left smoke bombs inside the tunnel. By this time the commandos in the station had set their plastic explosives with 10-minute delay fuses on both turbines and generators.[10]

Upon hearing the explosions at the power plant, O'Brien's group detonated their explosives and both groups withdrew to the hills, just as German reinforcements were arriving at the plant. The Germans were unwilling to enter the tunnel, fearing it might be booby trapped and used boats belonging to the villagers to bypass the tunnel and reach the station. Granlund had pressed on ahead of the main group trying to find a foot bridge to aid their escape. He found a mountain hut occupied by three Norwegians whom he asked for directions; the best they could do was draw him a map. Granlund left to look again but returned to the hut soon after, being unable to find it in the dark at the same time as Houghton and the other Norwegian, Djupdraet. Unknowingly while Granlund had been away two Germans had arrived at the hut and were busy questioning the occupants. In the ensuing fight, one of the Germans was killed and the other wounded. Djupdraet was also wounded, stabbed in the stomach with a bayonet.[10]

The remaining commandos arrived at the scene and administered first aid to Djupdraet. His wound was so severe that they decided to leave him behind to get treatment. The remaining commandos now split into two groups to evade German search parties and made their way further up the mountain. One group, consisting of O'Brien, Granlund, Fairclough and Trigg, went north around the mountains. The second group of Black, Houghton, Smith, Chudley, Curtis, Abram and Makeham, took the southern route. The second group were discovered by the Germans who opened fire, wounding Houghton in the right arm; surrounded, they were forced to surrender. The O'Brien group split up, Granlund setting off by himself; they eventually reached Sweden without further incident and all four were repatriated by aircraft to RAF Leuchars. Djupdraet died of his wounds in hospital, three days after the raid. The other seven prisoners of war were sent to Germany.[10]

The unwounded prisoners were sent to Colditz Castle and put into the solitary confinement, where Black managed to make contact with Flight Lieutenant Dominic Bruce RAF (known as The Medium Sized Man) giving him and others their names which were passed on to MI5 in London.[18] Bruce was the last British person to speak to Black; on 13 October 1942 they were taken to the SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RHSA) headquarters in Berlin, where they were interrogated one by one by Gruppenführer Heinrich Müller.[19] They remained in Berlin until 22 October, when they were taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. On the next day, 23 October, they were shot in the back of the neck and their bodies cremated.[20] These commandos were the first to die under the Commando Order issued on 18 October 1942 by Adolf Hitler, which called for the execution of all captured commandos.[21] The official German story given to the Red Cross was that the seven men had escaped and not been recaptured.[22]