Knut Haugland
| Knut Haugland | |
|---|---|
Historical photo of Knut Haugland
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| Born |
23 September 1917 Rjukan, Norway |
| Died | 25 December 2009 (aged 92) |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Occupation | Museum director |
| Known for | Crew member on the Kon-Tiki Resistance fighter during World War II |
Knut Magne Haugland, DSO, MM, (23 September 1917 – 25 December 2009) was a resistance fighter and noted explorer from Norway, who accompanied Thor Heyerdahl on his famous 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition.
Haugland, born in 1917 in Rjukan, Telemark, Norway, took his examen artium in 1937, qualifying him for university study. In 1938 he enrolled in military radio studies and afterward joined the Norwegian Army. In February 1940 he was stationed in Setermoen, and soon fought in battles near Narvik as a part of the Norwegian Campaign against Germany. After Germany's defeat of the Norwegian forces and the Nazi occupation, Haugland went to work at the factory Høvding Radiofabrikk in Oslo while also secretly involved in the Norwegian resistance movement. After evading arrest several times, in August 1941 he was arrested by Statspolitiet, but escaped and fled to the United Kingdom via Sweden. There he enrolled in the Norwegian Independent Company 1 (Kompani Linge).
Haugland, with nine other Norwegian resisters organised and carried out the famous raid on the Norsk Hydro Rjukan plant at Vemork. The plant was known to be producing heavy water, and although the scientist and organiser of the sabotage, Leif Tronstad, had not been aware of the connection between heavy water and atomic weaponry early in the war, it eventually became clear that Germany could be using the heavy water for a nuclear energy project. Haugland was parachuted over Hardangervidda on 18 October 1942 together with Arne Kjelstrup, Jens-Anton Poulsson and Claus Helberg. Their codename was Operation Grouse, and their first mission was to await the British Operation Freshman. Freshman became a disastrous failure, but Grouse was ordered to wait for another team: Operation Gunnerside. The plant at Vemork was successfully sabotaged in February 1943. This was dramatised in the 1963 Anthony Mann-directed film The Heroes of Telemark, which he did not approve of. In 2003 he made a BBC documentary with Ray Mears, The Real Heroes of Telemark.
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