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

paratroopers. These troops were loaded on requisitioned buses and trucks and headed north, intermingled with the stream of civilians fleeing the capital. It was an independent attempt to capture the Norwegian Government and royal family in a lightning raid on Hamar. In 1945 von Falkenhorst referred to the raid as “Spiller’s private war,”7 and it seems that neither he nor Bräuer knew about or sanctioned Spiller’s action.

The Germans arrived in Hamar only to learn that the Norwegian authorities had continued their flight to Elverum and Spiller continued on towards that town. Major O. Helset, a Norwegian officer scraped together some Royal Guard recruits, officers attending a chemical warfare course, and local gun club members. This improvised force of 93 men met the Germans at Midtskogen, a narrow passage on the road between Hamar and Elverum. The defenders hoped to catch the Germans in a deadly crossfire but the plan could not be executed because the German column was intermingled with civilian vehicles fleeing Oslo. The Germans encountered the Norwegian defenses around 0230 hours on April 10 and withdrew after a sharp engagement. Nine Norwegians were wounded. The exact number of German casualties is not known, but Captain Spiller was fatally wounded.

The Norwegian Government and royal family were saved from capture for a second time in a 24-hour period, first by Colonel Eriksen’s guns at Oscarborg and then by a motley and hastily assembled group at Midtskogen. After the loss of Captain Spiller, Captain Walther abandoned the deep penetration and returned to Oslo.

The ability of the Germans to make such a deep penetration into Norway served to illustrate the weaknesses of the Norwegian defenses at this stage but it also had political fallout that worked against German interests. It demonstrated that the Germans could not be trusted since they had undertaken offensive moves despite a Norwegian stipulation to the contrary in their reply to the German request for a meeting. Furthermore, although it was only a minor skirmish, the action at Midtskogen boosted Norwegian morale in the same way as Colonel Eriksen’s action at Oscarborg. In their mind, a scratch force of trainees and gun club members had stopped and driven back a force of German paratroopers of equal size.

The Germans were still hoping for a political solution. Minister Bräuer broadcast an appeal to the Norwegians to cease all resistance. This took place at about the same time as he requested the meeting with the Norwegian Government and King. The parliament, when it reconvened at Elverum, gave the government full powers to take the decisions necessary to ensure the country’s security. It also designated a delegation to negotiate with the Germans. The officials also learned that Quisling had formed a government in Oslo.

Quisling met Hans Wilhelm Scheidt, Rosenberg’s personal representative in Norway, in the morning of April 9 and claimed that he was the only person who could fill the political vacuum created when the Norwegian Government fled. Scheidt passed the question to Berlin and Hitler agreed that same afternoon, disregarding Foreign Minister Ribbentrop’s reservations. Bräuer was instructed to cooperate with Quisling and to demand that the Norwegian king accept Quisling as Prime Minister. Quisling also made a broadcast at 1930 hours. He announced that he had seized the reins of government and ordered the people to cease all resistance.

The news of Quisling’s coup in Oslo and the German raid to capture the government and the king served to stiffen the Norwegians resolution to resist, not only among those assembled at Elverum but also among a public that had long looked upon Quisling with disdain. Dr. Bräuer traveled to Elverum on April 10. He demanded a one-on-one meeting with the king. The king declared that he would only negotiate if his foreign minister was present and this was agreed.

The German envoy repeated the earlier demands with the addition that the king should accept Quisling as his prime minister. For their part, the Germans guaranteed Norwegian sovereignty and the continuation of the monarchy. If the Norwegians refused these demands, the full power of the German armed forces would be used to break all resistance, causing needless bloodshed. The king told Bräuer that he could not, under his constitutional responsibilities, answer without conferring with the government. The German Ambassador returned to Oslo while the king met with the government.

In the meeting with his government, the king stated that he saw it as a breach of his constitutional duties to accept a government that did not have the people’s support. If the government felt it necessary to accept the German conditions, he would abdicate. The government decided unanimously to reject the German demands and this decision was telephoned to Bräuer while he was on his way back to Oslo.

The Germans changed their approach from persuasion to force. An air attack on Elverum, with the obvious goal of eliminating the government and the royal family, destroyed the town’s central district and caused 32 fatalities. While no officials were killed, the government and the royal family were forced to move to Otta and later to the town of Molde on the west coast. As in the case of Spiller’s raid and the appointment of Quisling as prime minister, the bombing only served to galvanize the Norwegian resolve to resist.

A New Norwegian Commander-in-Chief

Justice Minister Terje Wold met General Laake and his staff at the army headquarters on April 10 in what he describes as a defeatist setting. In this heated meeting, the officers accused the government of bringing on a catastrophe by its neglect of the defense establishment and its failure to heed earlier calls for mobilization. Laake, who did not have faith in Allied promises of timely support is alleged to have stated that the only choices open to the government were those of negotiation or capitulation. It was obvious that there had to be a change in the military leadership to energize defense measures after the rejection of Germany’s demands for a second time on April 10. The exhausted and sickly Laake understood the