WORLD’S FIRST FEMALE TEAM TO RETRACE STEPS OF SPECIAL FORCES MISSION

In March 2022, FWC will be the world’s first all-female team to retrace the steps of one of the most important missions in World War II history.

Our challenge pays tribute to the Heroes of Telemark, a small group of men who successfully carried out a daring WWII Special Forces Operation to sabotage Hitler’s plans to create an atomic bomb. We will follow their gruelling journey across Norway’s Hardangervidda Plateau - one of the wildest, most inhospitable environments on earth…

…covering over 100km on foot

…at 3,500ft above sea level

…with over 300kg of kit

…in below freezing conditions

…with winds of up to 60mph

This expedition is made particularly special by receiving permission to sleep in the very same mountain huts that the Heroes of Telemark slept in themselves 80 years ago.

The FWC HOT Team

The FWC Heroes of Telemark team is made up of women from the fields of healthcare, life sciences, aerospace, business coaching, defence, make-up artistry, clinical research and sports rehabilitation.  Like many Forces Wives, our HOT Ladies are located across the UK due to their partners’ postings - from the South of England to Scotland with one of our girls currently based in Saudi Arabia.

In preparation for this challenging event, our HOT Ladies are being trained both physically and mentally by a support team that includes a professional endurance coach, ex-military instructors and former guides for Ray Mears’s company Woodlore.

“The Forces Wives community is made up of an abundance of strength, resilience and skills from the widest range of professions. FWC sets out to translate this, often untapped resource, into high performing female teams though adventure and challenge.

What better way to demonstrate what a group of women can achieve than to retrace one of the most important and challenging special forces missions in history”

The FWC Heroes of Telemark Team are raising money for their chosen charity The War Widows Association. To show your support and to help the team, you can donate here:

THE HEROES OF TELEMARK

In February 1943, Hitler’s development of an atomic bomb was sabotaged by a small team of Special Operative Executive (SOE) soldiers in what was effectively a suicide mission that they all survived.

Now known as The Heroes of Telemark, these brave men were unexpectedly forced to survive unsupported on the Hardanger plateau for four gruelling winter months, sleeping in mountain huts and secretly radioing intelligence back to Britain before going on to achieve what looked like an impossible mission: to destroy Hitler’s supply of an ingredient critical to the creation of an atomic bomb - heavy water.

It was a mission that changed the course of history.

FWC will now pay tribute to The Heroes of Telemark by following their journey across the Hardangervidda plateau to the very same building where they carried out the attack.

Read about the Heroes of Telemark and their mission which changed the course of history:

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without our wonderful sponsors and the companies who have backed us. A special Thank You to: