Hitler’s Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 Henrik Lunde (general ebook reader txt) 📖

Despite this fact, the writings during and immediately after the war accredited many of the German successes and Norwegian-Allied failures to treachery, sabotage, espionage, and fifth column operations. Politicians and historians alike, contributed to these myths. Even Winston Churchill added to these misconceptions. He writes in 1948:

German lecturers, actors, singers, and men of science had visited Norway in the promotion of a common culture. All this had been woven into the texture of the Hitlerite military plan, and a widely scattered internal pro-German conspiracy set on foot … The deed of infamy and treachery now performed may take its place with the Sicilian Vespers and the massacre of St. Bartholomew.1

While historians have now debunked most of the myths, there are people on both sides of the Atlantic who cling to the view that the Germans used deceit, espionage, and treachery in their attack on Norway and that Norwegians betrayed their own country. Many of the most outrageous claims came from British soldiers returning from their abortive efforts to stop the Germans.

In his excellent analysis of the Norwegian and Allied rationale for defeat, Richard Petrow writes that such stories served to make an otherwise incomprehensible defeat understandable.2 He could have added that the stories also served as convenient shields for the mistakes by civilian and military officials in both Norway and Great Britain.

The facts are that the political and military leaders in Norway and Great Britain were asleep at the wheel and ignored the loud wake-up calls that came in for two weeks prior to the invasion. Most ignored clear indications that a military storm was gathering just over the horizon. That fantasy evaporated at 2315 hours on April 8 when foreign warships entered the restricted zone in Oslofjord. Thirty-five minutes later a short message from the 1st Naval District reported that the outer forts were engaging foreign warships. Norway’s 126 years of continuous peace had ended.

The Landings

The German pre-dawn attacks in southern and central Norway must be viewed as an unparalleled success. By the end of the day on April 9, all major Norwegian population centers and ports were in German hands. The success did not come without losses but these were judged acceptable by the Germans. About 1,500 men in the invasion force perished by April 10 and the material losses to the German Navy were considerable. These losses point to the high risks the Germans were willing to assume and to the fact that the invasion could have been a costly affair if the Norwegians had heeded the many warnings received during the week leading up to the attack.

The Germans were correct in their assumption that the Norwegian Navy posed no serious obstacle, even to the lighter units of the invasion force. They also assumed that the coastal fortresses were no serious obstacles because they had only a caretaker, or small complement, present for duty. This underestimation caused considerable losses to the ships in the task forces.

The manning of the coastal forts was inadequate and the minefields covering the approaches to the main harbors were not laid. Only about 30% of authorized strength was present for duty and some of the personnel had not served since 1918. A number of gun batteries were therefore not manned and some guns had not fired a live round since the 1890s. The failure to provide infantry protection led to the quick capture of the forts and the Germans hastily prepared them to contest expected British attacks. While a full discussion of the landings is outside the scope of this book, a short summary of the landing operations is in order.

Task Force 5 entered Oslofjord shortly before midnight on April 8. The Germans were able to pass the outer line of forts without sustaining damage because of heavy fog and Norwegian adherence to neutrality procedures, which called for firing warning shots. The TF approached the inner line of forts (Oscarborg) at slow speed (12 knots) with the flagship, the heavy cruiser Blücher, in the lead, followed by the heavy cruiser Lützow and the light cruiser Emden. The Germans hoped to pass the fort without receiving fire and to capture the capital and the Norwegian Government by surprise.

With Colonel Birger Eriksen in command, the Norwegian fort opened a devastating fire on Blücher at a range of only 1,800 meters as dawn was breaking. Blücher, which had been commissioned only seven months earlier and was the most modern of the large units in the German Navy, sustained numerous hits from heavy caliber shells and torpedoes. Within a short time, the ship capsized and sank with the loss of about 1,000 soldiers and sailors. The German naval and land component commanders passed temporarily into Norwegian captivity. The shore batteries then shifted their fires to the other major German units, and the heavy cruiser Lützow sustained substantial damage before the task force withdrew. This action disrupted the German timetable and allowed the Norwegian government and royal family to leave the capital. After withdrawing outside the range of the Norwegian guns, the Germans landed troops on the east side of the fjord, and the unprotected Oscarborg surrendered at 0900 hours on April 10.

German plans called for the capture of Fornebu Airport outside Oslo by parachute troops followed by air-landing two infantry battalions. The parachute drop was aborted due to heavy fog. The seven operational Norwegian Gladiators took to the air and engaged the German aircraft in a spirited fight. They were able to destroy five German aircraft before they exhausted their fuel and ammunition. Three of the Norwegian aircraft were destroyed while the remaining four landed on lakes in the country’s interior. The German fighters that were to provide cover for the parachute operation ran out of fuel and had to land at Fornebu despite the fact that the airfield had not been secured. The transport aircraft, which had now arrived on the scene, saw the fighters land and followed suit. Two German aircraft were destroyed and five severely damaged