Joachim Rønneberg was probably the "last of the best-known resistance fighters," Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg told NTB news agency Sunday. The politician responded to the news of Rønneberg's death. He died at the age of 99 years.
During World War II - after the Nazis occupied Norway - Rønneberg fled to Britain and received a military education there. In February 1943 Rønneberg led a six-man team in the legendary "Gunnerside" sabotage campaign against a factory in the south of Norway that produced so-called heavy water needed for nuclear weapon development.
The successful attack on the Vemork plant near the town of Rjukan was a heavy blow to the nuclear weapons ambitions of the Nazi regime. The sabotage action was filmed in 1965 in the movie "Password 'Heavy Water'" with Kirk Douglas in the lead role. In 2015, the miniseries "Saboteurs in the ice" ran on Norwegian television.
Rønneberg became a journalist after the war. He was silent about his experiences as a resistance fighter for a long time. From the 1970s, he appeared in front of young people to promote peace and freedom.