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Operation WeserbungOperation ''Weserbung'' was the German codename for Nazi Germany's assault on Scandinavia during World War II. The name translates as "Weser Exercise", the Weser being a German river. On the early morning of 9 April, 1940 — Wesertag ("Weser Day") — Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a defensive maneuver against a planned (and openly discussed) Franco-British occupation of those countries; upon arrival envoys of the invading Germans informed the countries' governments that the Wehrmacht came to "protect the countries' neutrality" against Franco-British aggression. Big differences in geography, location, and climate between the two countries made the actual invasions very dissimilar. The invasion fleet's nominal landing time — Weserzeit ("Weser Hour") — was set to 05:15 AM German time, equivalent to 04:15 local Norwegian time. Background Starting in the spring of 1939, the British admiralty began to view Scandinavia as a potential theater of war in a future conflict with Germany. The British government was reluctant to engage in another land conflict on the european continent that they believed would be a repeat of World War I. So they began studying a blockade strategy in an attempt to weaken Germany indirectly. The German industrial complex was heavily dependent on the import of iron ore from the Swedish mining district. Much of this ore was shipped through the northern Norwegian port of Narvik. Control of the coast of norway would also serve to tighten a blockade against Germany. In October of 1939 the head admiral of the German navy, Erich Raeder, discussed with Hitler the danger that British bases in Norway would pose, and the possibility of Germany seizing them. However at this time the other branches of the Wehrmacht were not interested, and Hitler had just issued a directive stating the main effort would be spent on a land offensive through the low countries. Toward the end of November, Winston Churchill, as a new member of the British War Cabinet, proposed the mining of Norwegian waters. This would force the ore transport ships to travel through the open waters of the North Sea, where the British Royal Navy could interdict them. However this proposal was turned down by the dovish Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax, due to fear of an adverse reaction among neutral nations such as the United States. After the start of the war between the Soviet Union and Finland in November had changed the diplomatic situation, Churchill again proposed his mining scheme but was once more denied. In December, Britain and France began serious planning for sending aid to Finland. Their plan called for a force to be landed at Narvik in northern Norway, then advance across Sweden to reach Finland. Conveniently, this plan would also allow the allied forces to occupy the Swedish iron ore mining district. This plan received the support of both Chamberlain and Halifax. They were counting on the cooperation of Norway, which would alleviate some of the legal issues. However, stern warnings issued to both Norway and Sweden resulted in strongly negative reactions in both countries. Planning for the expedition continued, but the justification for this act was removed when Finland sued for peace in March. Meanwhile, convinced of the threat posed by the allies to the iron ore supply, the Germany military had begun planning for an invasion of Norway and Denmark in January. This plan was named Operation Weserbung on January 27th, 1940. In February the HMS Cossack boarded the German transport ship Altmark while in Norwegian waters, freeing 300 captive british sailors. Hilter viewed this as a further sign that the British government would be willing to violate norwegian neutrality, and so became even more strongly committed to the invasion plan. On February 21, 1940, command of the operation was placed in the hands of General Falkenhorst. Initially the plan was to invade Norway and to gain control of danish airfields through diplomatic means. However Hilter issued a new directive on March 1st that called for the invasion of both Norway and Denmark. On March 12th, Britain decided to send an expeditionary force to Norway just as the Winter War was winding down. The expeditionary force began boarding on the 13th, but the force is recalled and the operation cancelled with the end of the Winter War. Instead the British cabinet voted to procede with the mining operation in norwegian waters, followed by troop landings. The first German ships set sail for the invasion on April 3rd, and on the 8th a British destroyer began laying the first minefield in norwegian waters. On the 9th the German invasion was underway. Invasion of Denmark Strategically speaking, Denmark was relatively unimportant to Germany, except as a staging area for operations in Norway, and of course as a border nation to Germany which would have to be controlled in some way. The country is small and relatively flat, ideal territory for German army operations, so Denmark's tiny army had little hope of success in armed resistance. Nevertheless, in the early hours of the morning some Danish regiments engaged the German army, suffering a couple dozen or so dead. The Danish government capitulated almost instantly in exchange for retained political independence in domestic matters, which resulted in the uniquely lenient Occupation of Denmark, particularly until the summer of 1943, and also postponing the arrest and deportation of Danish Jews until nearly all of them were warned and on their way to refuge in Sweden. In the end, fewer than 500 Danish Jews were deported, and fewer than 50 of them lost their lives. Invasion of Norway Main article: Operation Weserbung Order of Battle Norway was important to Germany for two primary reasons: as a base for U-boats and to secure shipments of iron-ore from Sweden. The long northern coastline was an excellent place to launch U-boat operations into the North Atlantic in order to strangle British commerce. Germany was dependent on iron-ore from Sweden and was worried, with justification, that the Allies would attempt to disrupt those shipments, 90% of which originated from Norway. The invasion of Norway was given to Group XXI under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst and consisted of the following units: The initial invasion force was transported in several groups, by Deutsche Kriegsmarine ships: - Battlecruisers (or light battleships) Scharnhorst, Gneisenau as distant cover, 10 destroyers with 2,000 troops to Narvik
- Admiral Hipper and 4 destroyers with 1700 troops to Trondheim
- Kln, Knigsberg, Bremse, Karl Peters, 3 torpedo boats and 5 motor torpedo boats with 1,900 troops to Bergen
- Karlsruhe, 3 torpedo boats, 7 motor torpedo boats with 1100 troops to Kristiansand
- Heavy cruisers Blcher, Ltzow, Emden, 3 torpedo boats and 8 minesweepers with 2,000 troops to Oslo
- 4 minesweepers with 150 troops to Egersund
A reasonably complete concise description of the invasion of Norway would entail the following (yet to be fleshed out from the outline): - In an act of poetic justice, Fate let the heavy cruiser Blcher be sunk in the Oslofjord 9 April 1940 by ancient German Krupp guns (named Moses and Aron, of 280 mm calibre, installed at Oscarsborg Fortress 23 May 1893) and equally ancient torpedoes:
- German ships sailed up the fjord leading to Oslo, reaching the Drbak Narrows (Drbaksundet). In the early morning of April 9, the gunners at Oscarsborg Fortress fired on the ship which had been illuminated by spotlights at about 0515hrs. Within two hours the ship was sunk along with at least 1000 men. The wreck blocked the route to Oslo, thus delaying the rest of the group long enough for the royal family and parliament to be evacuated, as well as the national treasury. The result was that Norway never surrendered to the Germans, leaving the Quisling government illegitimate and permitting Norway to participate as an ally in the war, rather than as a conquered nation.
- German airborne troops landed at Oslo airport Fornebu, Kristiansand airport Kjevik, and Stavanger airport Sola — the latter constituting the first paratrooper (Fallschirmjger) attack in history; coincidentally, among the Luftwaffe pilots landing at Kjevik was Reinhard Heydrich.
- Quisling's radio-effected coup d'etat — another first.
- Partly thanks to the Blcher sinking, royal family and parliament (including government) evaded the German invasion force; King Haakon refused to lay down arms; Clash at Midtskogen; bombs at Nybergsund; royal family, parliament, and national gold reserves moved northward ahead of the Germans.
- Cities/towns Bergen, Stavanger, Egersund, Kristiansand S, Arendal, Horten, Trondheim and Narvik attacked and occupied within 24 h.
- First and Second Naval Battle of Narvik (Royal Navy vs Kriegsmarine)
- Devastating bombing of towns ndalsnes, Molde, Kristiansund N, Steinkjer, Namsos, Bod — some of them tactically bombed, some terror-bombed.
- Main German land campaign northwards from Oslo with superior equipment; Norwegian soldiers with turn-of-the-century weapons, along with some British and French troops, stop invaders for a time before yielding — first land combat action between British Army and Wehrmacht in WWII.
- Land battles at Narvik: Norwegian and Allied (British, French, Polish) success — first tactical victory against the Wehrmacht in WWII — and the following unfortunate withdrawal of the Allied forces (mentioned below); Fighting at Gratangen
- The "last stand": Hegra Fortress (Fort Ingstadkleiven) resisted the siege until 5 May -- of Allied propaganda importance, like Narvik.
- King Haakon, Crown Prince Olav, and parliament left from Troms 7 June (aboard British cruiser HMS Devonshire, bound for UK) to represent Norway in exile (King returned to Oslo exact same date 5 yrs later); Crown Princess Mrtha and children, denied asylum in her native Sweden, later left from Petsamo, Finland, to live in exile in the USA.
- Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940, two months after Wesertag.
In the far north, Norwegian, French, Polish and British troops fought against the Germans over the control of the Norwegian winter harbour Narvik, important for the export of Swedish iron ore. The Germans evacuated on May 28, but due to the detoriating situation on the European continent, the allied troops were evacuated in Operation Alphabet — and the Germans recaptured Narvik on June 9, by then deserted also by the civilians. Encirclement of Sweden and Finland Operation Weserbung did not include a military assault on (likewise neutral) Sweden — there was no need. Through holding Norway, the Danish straits, and most of the shores of the Baltic Sea, the Third Reich fathomed Sweden from the North, the West and the South — and in the East, there was the Soviet Union, the successor of Sweden's and Finland's arch-enemy Russia, on friendly terms with Hitler through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Sweden's and Finland's trade was totally controlled by the Kriegsmarine. As a consequence, Germany put pressure on neutral Sweden to permit transit of military goods and soldiers on leave. On June 18 an agreement was reached: soldiers were to travel unarmed and not be part of unit movements. A total of 2,140,000 German soldiers, and over 100,000 German military railway carriages, crossed Sweden until the traffic was officially suspended on August 20, 1943. In August, 1940, Finland agreed to give access to her territory for the Wehrmacht. Initially for transit of troops and military equipment to and from northernmost Norway, but soon also for minor bases along the transit road, that eventually would grow in preparation of Operation Barbarossa. See also External links Weserbung
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