Norwegian Soldier Who Inspired Battlefield 5 War Story Dies Aged 99
Norway is mourning the passing of Joachim Rønneberg, remembered as one of the most famous members of the Norwegian resistance during the Second World War. Rønneberg and his team’s sabotage of a Nazi heavy water plant in occupied Norway is in fact the inspiration behind one of the upcoming Battlefield 5 War Stories; Nordlys. The passing of the Norwegian war hero was reported by The Guardian.
Joachim Rønneberg and Operation Gunnerside: The Inspiration for Nordlys
“[Rønneberg was] one of our finest resistance fighters,” says Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg; “[whose] courage contributed to what has been referred to as the most successful sabotage campaign [in Norway].”
Rønneberg, who died on Sunday the 21st, was a 23-year old soldier when he led a daring raid against a Nazi heavy water plant in 1943. After the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany, Rønneberg became an asset of Britain’s Special Operations Executive; a unit specialising in sabotage and intelligence, who tasked him with destroying the heavy water plant. The Norwegian soldier’s team parachuted into the mountains near the plant, and together with local resistance commandos, skied to their target. The team successfully infiltrated the plant, set bombs, and destroyed its production line, all without firing a shot. In a documentary about the mission, released in 2014, Rønneberg said that the mission went; “like a dream.”
The original plan was to set their bombs with minutes-long fuses. However, Rønneberg was responsible for a last-minute decision to cut the fuses to seconds. After successfully escaping the blast area, the team once again used skis to travel across Norway to Sweden; a journey covering hundreds of miles, all while Rønneberg was wearing a British uniform in enemy territory. Nevertheless, the team made it into Sweden, a neutral territory, without losses.
Operation Gunnerside is one of the most famous sabotage missions of the Second World War, and is clearly a major inspiration behind one of the Battlefield 5 War Stories. The Nordlys mission tasks players with undertaking a similar mission as a civilian member of the Norwegian resistance; sabotaging a Nazi heavy water plant while using skis to traverse the Norwegian landscape.