The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940

BOOK REVIEW - FIVE STARS

The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940 by Geirr H. Haarr

Neutral Norway would be sucked into a war they didn’t want or need. This fascinating historical story is interwoven with numerous tales of blunders, bravado, bushwhacking, deceptions, deceit, power grabbing, plunder, and pillage., driven by a narcissistic Nazi.

My father’s first cousin Martin Grimsrud was there to point the Krupp canon and sink the first German war ship in the Oslo fjord April 1940.

This book answered many questions not spoken about today in Norway that had divided the country and gave the hard-headed and determined Norwegians reasons to resist.

Excerpts:

Around 8,850 men would be on board the warships heading for Norway in the first attack wave, while the airborne contingent would be some 3,500 men. The transport ships would land an additional 3,900 men, 742 horses, 942 vehicles and four tanks on the invasion day. Altogether there would be less than sixteen thousand men in the first wave, roughly the size of a regular German division. Not much to seize a whole country, but reinforcements of men and material would follow by air and sea as fast as possible. Most of these would go to Oslo in the ships of the sea transport echelons. The route east of Denmark to the Oslofjord would be the shortest and furthest away from the Royal Navy and the RAF. Weather was also less hazardous here than in the North Sea. Within three days, eight thousand troops were to be transported by air and sea, and an additional 16,700 during the subsequent week. In all a hundred thousand men would be brought to Norway in a continuous shuttle.

German war ships flew British flags as a subterfuge

Few Norwegian officers would open fire on British ships; in the initial operation order, signed on 6 March, the warships were instructed to fly British flags until just before disembarkation commenced. All challenges from patrol vessels or coastguard stations should be answered in English. The exception was Narvik, where the local commander, Oberst Sundlo, was known to be German-friendly

The Norwegian Declaration of Neutrality was convenient for Germany only as long as it was respected by the Allies. Hitler had no respect for international law and it is inconceivable that he held any moral obligation to respect Norway’s desire to be outside the European conflict any longer than it served his own purposes. Norwegian neutrality was convenient, as it allowed blockade-runners, ore ships, trawlers and other civilian vessels to move safely inside the Leads between the Skagerrak and the Norwegian Sea.