10. A Hero Dropped Behind Enemy Lines, Then Cut Off From Reinforcement and Resupply
On March 24th, 1945, converted B-24 bombers, laden with NORSOG team members instead of bombs, took off from Scotland and flew to Norway. William Colby parachuted with three companions into Norway, and made contact with the local resistance. However, out of the expected 31 OSS operatives of the NORSOG who were supposed to rendezvous with him, only 12 showed up. Three B-24s had been unable to locate the drop point and returned to Scotland, while another made an even greater hash of things, and mistakenly dropped its load of 5 men into neighboring Sweden.
A few days later, four B-24s returned, but a heavy mist prevented them from locating the drop zone. Three made it back to base, but one crashed en route, killing 13 men. A final attempt to reinforce Colby was made in April, but poor weather conditions again prevented the B-24s from locating the drop zone, and yet another one crashed, this time a few miles from the drop zone, killing another 12 men. Colby’s superiors informed our hero that there would be no more attempts to reinforce him.