Musketoon operation

The Opération Musketoon is the name given, during the Second world war, to a raid anglo-Norwegian carried out by the Norwegian section of the Special Operations Executive from September 15th to 21st 1942 against the Norwegian powerplant of Glomfjord. This factory constituted an objective because, feeding in electricity the close aluminum factory, it was controlled by the Germans who regarded it as vital for their effort of guerre.
The operation was carried out by a team including/understanding twelve men of the SOE, ten commandos and two corporals Norwegian. The team was brought by submarines in a fjord located in zone controlled by the Germans, from where they were to go to the power station and to put it except service.

The team

Captain Graeme D. Black (*), MC , born the May 9th 1911, with Dresden, Ontario.
Captain Joseph B.J. Houghton (*), MC , born the June 13rd 1911 in Bromborough (England).
L. /Sgt. William Chudley (*) (explosive), born the May 10th 1922 with Exeter.
Rflm. Eric Curtis (*) (explosive).
Sgt. Richard O' Brien (explosive).
Pte. Reginald Makeham (*), born the January 28th 1914 with Ipswich.
Cpl. Miller Smith (*), born the November 2nd 1915 with Middlesbrough.
Rflm. Cyril Abram (*), born the August 20th 1922 with London.
Cpl. John Fairclough , born the October 24th 1921 with London.
Pte. Fred Trigg .
Cpl. Erling Mr. Djupdraet , born the December 16th 1920 in Våler I Solør, Norway, killed during the raid.
Cpl. Sverre Granlund , born the November 9th 1918 with Sauherad, Norway.

(*) = carried out the 23 or the October 30th 1942 .

The operation

The team went to Glomfjord in the French submarine Junon escorted by three British submarines. They began their walk towards the power station, by avoiding a patrol of German monitoring ordered by Lt Wilhelm Dehne. The mission succeeds: pipelines, turbines and tunnels exploded, destroying the power station and causing of this fact the outage of the aluminum factory until the end of the war. A commando was killed on the blow. Seven others were captured whereas they sought to escape, imprisoned in Colditz then with the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen, where they were carried out there. They were the first victims of the Ordre of Execution of the Commandos of Hitler of October 18th, 1942.

After the operation

Djupdraet was wounded and died in the hospital three days after the raid.
Seven team-members were carried out in Sachsenhausen pursuant to the Directive Commando of Hitler.
O' Brien and Fairclough survived the war.
Trigg was killed in Italy.
Granlund disappeared in February 1943 when the Norwegian submarine HNoMS P-41 Uredd ran off the Norwegian coasts. In 1995, the Norwegian artist Laila Lorentzen paid homage to its role during the war by a statue carried out for the museum (Saltdal?) in Rognan.

Of return in Great Britain, the survivors gave an account of their raid, and a commando team specialized ( North Force ) was made up for the actions in difficult ground.

Sources

Article wikipédia of English language. This article quoted the two following sources.
Account detailed in British English
Public records: A/G1/WCI 682

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