World War II (1939-1945)

The Nazi invasion of neutral Norway was intended to preempt any possible British alliance or occupation. Adolf Hitler feared the result of Norwegian ports and trade routes in the hands of the British, who would use them to blockade the Baltic Sea and cut off iron supplies from neutral Sweden. On April 9, 1940 German forces under the command of General Nikolas von Falkenhorst (1885-1968) landed simultaneously up and down the Norwegian coast. German forces made amphibious landings at: Oslo, Bergen, Kristiansmund, Trondheim, and Narvik while paratroopers landed and seized the Oslo and Stavanger airports. This was the worlds first airborne offensive operation and the first European amphibious assault of the war.  All of this was done under the Royal Navy’s nose while mine laying ships were active in trying to cut off shipping from Sweden.¹

The amphibious landings caught the Norwegian government completely by surprise. The Royal family had only a short time to escape as Nazi forces seized hold of Norway’s capital. The King Haakon VII (1872-1957) and members of the Norwegian parliament fled while other members of the government refused to accept the installation of the Nazi collaborationist Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945). Fighting in Norway continued well into June even though Germany controlled almost all of the major coastal cities. Because of the poor state of Norway’s National Militia a joint British and French expeditionary force landed in Norway to assist with the defense. German pilots now based in Denmark flew countless sorties over southern Norway forcing Norwegian and Allied forces into the central area of the country. British and French forces only withdrew from their successful defense of Narvik in June of 1940 when it appeared that France would be overrun and demolished by the German offensive. Norway was forced to submit to German occupation and an armistice was signed on June 9, 1940. ²

The attack paved the way for the use of advanced assault tactics and airborne forces would be used again during the unrelenting drive through the Low Countries and France during the Western Offensive. While a success in the use of joint strategic operations (amphibious warfare and airborne invasion) the German attack obliterated a significant portion of their surface warfare potential. A flotilla led by the British battleship Warspite sunk nine German destroyers and a U-boat at Narvikfjord. Elsewhere the Germans lost another three cruisers and four U-boats irreparably damaging the already small German surface fleet. The Royal Navy lost only an aircraft carrier and some smaller units. ³

While the German planners hoped that Norway would serve as a contributor to the Nazi war machine it quickly became a liability quickly. The Norwegian resistance let loose an unrelenting campaign of sabotage against the occupiers and their collaborators under the command of Quisling and Nazi Commissar Josef Terboven (1898-1945). But perhaps the greatest resistance to German occupation was the economic complication of maintaining a Norwegian occupation. Economically Norway lacked labor potential and survived heavily on free trade. The Nazis were able to utilize the aluminum industry but had no ability to expand Norwegian industrial capacity. They were forced to level the highest occupation tax in Nazi controlled Europe to cover rising economic cost that made it a severe liability.⁴ In  May of 1945 King Haakon and his government returned to Norway after Germany’s surrender to the Allies and restored democratic governance to the country.⁵

Daniel Roberts