Figure 1.--. |
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The one Allied offensive in the first year of the War was planned to secure Norway. The Germans responded with an offensive north on April 9, invading Denmark and Norway. It was a rapidly organized invasion to counter a planned British attempt to move into Norway to cut off iron shipments. The German Krriegsmarine suffered severe losses, especilly of destroyers. The British fough on in northern Norway for 3 weeks, but the superiority of the Luftwaffe finally forced them to withdraw. The loss of Norway not only provided access to raw material, but meant that the U-boats could not br bottled up as they were in World war I. It also mean later in the War that supplying Russia would be very difficult.
Norway's stastegic location attracted British and German interest in both World Wars. Norway in World War I managed to remain neutral. The countey wa not so lucky in World War II.
British efforts to bottle up German U-boats and surface units was premised on command of the North sea. The British had effectively done this in World war I and it severely hampered U-boat operations. German Admiral Wegener during World War I wrote about Norway's geo-strtegic importance. After the War the importance of German naval bases in Norway was stressed. Bases in Norway, especially air bases would greatly faciltate Allied operations in the North Sea. In addition Norway was an important producer of iron ore. Swedish iron ore was also important and this passed through the Norwegian port of Narvik. Both the British and Germans imported Scandinavian iron ore.
There were not just the strategic location and the raw materials that drew Hitler'a attention to Scandinavia. NAZI racial theories saw Scandinavians as a repository of Nordic blood that Hitler and the NAZIs so prized.
Hitler at the onset of the War had not considered invading Norway. Hitler's initial planned to to keep Norway neutral. Only after Poland had been digested and he began to give increasing thought to his Western offensive did he begin to think more about Norway.
Hitler ordered a study of the possibility of invading Norway (December 13, 1939). The resulting assessment "Studie Nord" recommended a preemptive operation (January 10, 1940).
One of the strongest proponents was Admiral Raeder. Many on his staff considered Allied violation of Norwegian neutrality unlikely. Raeder ordered further assessments. The initial planning by the Kriegsmarine called primarily for naval operations. Planners concluded that weather cinditions would inhibit Luftwaffe operations. [Claasen] OKW concluded, however, from a early point that the Ludtwaffe would play a major role in any Norwegian operation. Generalmajor Alfred Jodl, at the time head of the OKW's operations section, conferred with Luftwaffe staff concerning Norway. Hitler's ordered the creation of a smll group to stufy the occupation of Norway (December 13). Jodl met with Hauptmann von Sternurg, a Luftwaffe staff officer (December 13) and Hans Jeschonnek, the Luftwaffe's chief of staff (December 18).
These consultations let to Jodl and Generaloberst Wilhelm Keitel, OKW's chief of staff, discussing the deploying of X Fliegerkorps elements and the Luftwaffe's Strategic Air Reconnaissance Group "Rowehl" in reconnaissance operations over Norway. One of the recommendations of Studie Nord was to appoint a Luftwaffe commander to oversee a planning staff and then command the actual operation. Generaloberst Erhard Milch, the Air Ministry's state secretary and the Luftwaffe's armaments chief, was given the assignment to oversee the planning staff which became known as Auster (Oyster). Auster met (January 14, 1940. After this meeting, Hitler had second thoughts about Studie Nord. He dissolved Auster and assigned OKW to plan the Norwegian operaion. [Claasen]
With the outbreak of War, Winston Churchill, was recalled to the Admiralty. At the time as a result of the NAZI-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact were virtual allies. When the Soviet's invaded Finland in the Witer War (1939), Britiain and France conidered how to help the Finns. One idea was set up bases in Norway and ship men and supplies across Sweden to the Finns. This had the advantage od cutting off Norwegin and Swedish iron ore to the Germans. [Osborn] It would of course been disastrous as it would have meant war with the Soviet Union.
A Royal Navy destroyer entered Norwegian waters to attack the German ship Altmark which was tranporting British POWs to a BBalktic port. The Norwegian government protested the violation of its neutrality.
The one Allied offensive in the first year of the War was planned to secure Norway. The French and British mined Norwegian waters to stop the passage of German ships (April 8).
The Germans learned of the Allied plans. The Germans responded with an offensive north on April 9, invading both Denmark and Norway. It was a rapidly organized invasion.
As German air and sea forces move toward Norway, the Wehrmact moves accross the Danish frontier (April 9). Denmark had no creditable military force. The Danes offered no real resistance to the Germans and the country is quickly occupied.
German sea and airborne units launch their invasion of Norway (April 9). The Germans target Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stavanger, and Narvik. The Norwegians were stunned by the German invasion, but managed to organoizecsome resistance. Three German cruisers and four troopships were sunk. The Allies land an expeditionary force landed in southern Norway (April 16–19), but are eventually forced to withdraw (May 3). The Narvik operation was especially daring as it was located in the far north of the country and involved a naval operation against the far superior Allied naval forces. It was accomplished by a German destroyer squadron moving ground forces all the way to Narvik. This German force succeeded in holding the town even after the the British sank the destroyers (April 13).
The Germans steadily reinforce their foothold. After the Allies with drew from the south, the Norwegians have no real hope of resisting the Germans on their own. When the Germans took thev key rail center of Dombas, organized Norwegian resistance rapidly ceased. A British ground force retook Narvik (May 28), but was eventually withdrawn. The superiority of the Luftwaffe and developments in France were the deciding factors (June 10). The NAZIs placed a Reich-commissar in charge of Norway which took over the legal administration of the country. The Reich-commissar dissolved all Norwegian political parties except the pro-NAZI Nasjonal-Samling (September 25). The occupation regime was run administered by 13 commissars.
Hitler met with Quizling (Deceas he began to consider a possible Norwegian campaign (Decenber 1939).
The German Krriegsmarine suffered severe losses, especially of destroyers. The loss of Norway not only provided access to raw material, but meant that the U-boats could not be bottled up as they had been in World war I. It also meant later in the War that supplying Russia would be very difficult and Allied convoys to Archangel and Murmansk suffered dreadful losses. The occupation of Norway like the later occupation of the Balkans and opperations in North Africa all served to weaken the offensive power of the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe when Germany invaded the Soviet Union (June 1941). Hitler boasted in 1942 that his success during 1940 in Norway would prove to be one of the two decisive actions of the War. He compared his decissive action with the failure of Germany's World War I leadership act decisively. [Claasen]
Claasen, Adam R. A. Hitler's Northern War: The Luftwaffe's Ill-Fated Campaign, 1940-1945 (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001), 338p. ISBN 0-7006-1050-2
Osborn, Patrick R. Operation Pike.
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