Initially, Adolf Hitler showed little interest in Norway, but about six months after the conclusion of the invasion of Poland, which started World War II, he decided to launch a combined arms operation against neutral Norway with the object of ensuring that the Allies would not interdict the free passage of Swedish iron ore to the Reich's war machine.

On April 9, 1941, the German army occupied Denmark and, on the same day, invaded six major ports along a thousand miles of neutral Norway's coast. The attack consisted of airborne assault as well as troops clandestinely transported into the harbors in the holds of merchant ships. Altogether, the invasion force of 25,000 achieved total surprise, which was further facilitated by a Norwegian pro-Nazi underground and turncoats, chief among whom was Vidkun Quisling, whose very name would become a byword for treason. Control of Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand, and Oslo--all key ports--was accomplished within a mere 48 hours. Oslo, the nation's capital, was taken by just 1,500 parachutists. Much of the Norwegian army, apparently stunned into inaction, surrendered without offering resistance. A minority of the forces rallied around King Haakon VII, retreated inland, and organized a gallant but largely ineffective resistance from headquarters in forests and mountains.

At the behest of Winston Churchill, the Allies attempted a counter-invasion between April 14 and 19, landing primarily at Namsos and Andalsnes, on either side of Trondheim, on the central coast. Simultaneously, they attacked in the far north, in and around Narvik. Inadequately supported logistically, most of the hastily conceived operation soon collapsed, and 30,000 Allied troops withdrew. By May 3 all of central Norway was under firm German control.

The Allies enjoyed more success in the far north, at Narvik, but, here, too, they were ultimately forced to withdraw--not because of the situation in Norway, but because of the collapse of France in the Battle of France. The last Allied troops left Narvik on June 9, taking with them King Haakan VII, who presided over a government in exile in London.

At sea, the Germans did not fare nearly so well. To begin with, Norway's large merchant fleet--perhaps 1,000 vessels--joined the Allies. British warships sank a heavy German cruiser, two light cruisers, 10 destroyers, 11 troop transports, eight submarines, and 11 auxiliary vessels for the loss of the aircraft carrier Glorious, the cruisers Effingham and Curlew, nine destroyers, and six submarines. The German navy would never make up the losses among its surface fleet, without which the prospect for an invasion of Britain dimmed significantly. Nevertheless, the German conquest of Norway and Denmark secured the northern flank of the German armies and assured the Reich access to iron ore as well as agricultural produce--the latter an important hedge that significantly reduced the stranglehold of the British naval blockade. Militarily, Germany gained submarine and air bases from which to attack Allied convoys in the North Atlantic. . .

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