On April 9, 1940, Nazi forces launched an invasion of Denmark and Norway. Official Copenhagen surrendered on the same day, and the Nazis took a little more than two months to complete the occupation of Norway. The success of the operation in Scandinavia strengthened the position of the Nazis in northern Europe and secured the transit of raw materials for the military industry of the Reich from Sweden.

The most important springboard

The prerequisites for the Nazi invasion of Scandinavia arose already at the initial stage of World War II, told Alexander Mikhailov, a specialist historian at the Victory Museum.

According to him, against the background of the capture of the Nazis by Poland, England and France entered into the so-called "strange war" with Germany. In 1939, Franco-British troops invaded several kilometers inland Germany, and then rolled back to the fortifications of the Maginot Line, after which active hostilities temporarily ceased. However, both sides of the conflict understood that its transition to the hot stage is only a matter of time.

“Both the British and German commanders pondered over strategic plans that would create favorable conditions for the further conduct of the war. Due to the absence of Germany, unlike England, colonies and dominions, Berlin paid close attention to Scandinavia, whose countries had significant reserves of the necessary Reich strategic raw materials, in particular iron ore, ”Mikhailov emphasized.

The Scandinavian countries on the eve of World War II tried to adhere to neutral positions. Denmark on May 31, 1939 concluded a non-aggression pact with Germany, and the Norwegian authorities, confident that their country was sufficiently protected by the sea, did not see the need for an agreement with Berlin. Sweden, despite its neutral status, showed its readiness to make concessions to Germany, in particular in the field of economic cooperation.

“Both the British and Germans saw in Norway and Denmark the most important bridgehead, covering the territory of the Reich from the north and allowing controlling the coastal zone in the North Atlantic. In addition, for the Nazis it was one of the possible springboards for a jerk against the Soviet Union, ”military historian Yuri Knutov said in an interview with RT.

At the end of 1939, official London began to exert diplomatic pressure on Oslo to establish an economic blockade of Germany and at the same time began to develop plans for a possible invasion of Norway to cut off the Reich from Sweden’s trade routes. This could have disastrous consequences for the Nazi military-industrial complex.

According to experts, on average about 30% of the metal from which the German guns and tanks were made during the Second World War was supplied from Sweden. For a number of items, Swedish supplies were almost indispensable. In addition, Stockholm provided Berlin with international financial and transit services.

  • Incident with Altmark. Germans killed in the incident carry ashore for funeral
  • © Wikimedia Commons

On January 27, 1940, the Wehrmacht High Command issued a directive on the development of an operational-strategic plan for the invasion of Scandinavia. The process of military planning became more active after the British destroyer Kazak on February 16, 1940, the German tanker Altmark, carrying British prisoners, was boarded off the coast of Norway. The Norwegian military chose not to intervene.

According to historians, this caused anger in Hitler and forced him to give a command about the immediate preparation for the invasion of Scandinavia. The main goal of the Nazis was Norway, however, to ensure the landing, the Nazis needed Danish airfields and guarantees of safe navigation off its shores.

Operation Weserubung

The Danish-Norwegian operation of the Nazi forces, code-named "Weserubung", began on April 9, 1940. Early in the morning, the German embassy handed over to the Danish Foreign Ministry a memorandum of intent to occupy the country, after which Luftwaffe planes and parts of the Wehrmacht crossed the border.

“There was no organized rebuff to the Nazis in Denmark, there were only occasional skirmishes,” said Yuri Knutov.

  • German troops in Denmark, 1940
  • Gettyimages.ru
  • © ullstein bild Dtl.

According to the historian, Danish troops opened fire on the Nazis at checkpoints and retreated in a hurry. In addition to invading the land border, the Nazis landed a number of naval and airborne assault forces. German troops appeared right in the center of Copenhagen, seized the telephone station, police station, customs and fort. Danish military and government officials were locked in basements.

After the German command warned the Danish authorities of the start of the bombing, King Christian X ordered the surrender. The monarch spoke on the radio and urged the country's population not to resist the Nazis, after which the demobilization of the army began.

“It took just a few hours to defeat Denmark. It was an occupation between breakfast and lunch. The Danes ate for the first time a day before the war, and the second after it was over, ”said Andrei Koshkin, member of the Academy of Military Sciences, reserve colonel.

On April 9, 1940, a few hours after the invasion of Denmark, German troops began a landing in Norway. The British ships who were off the coast of Scandinavia tried to resist the Nazis, but the German infantry immediately captured Oslo and several other Norwegian cities.

  • German tanks in the city of Aubenro
  • © Wikimedia Commons

The Nazis tried to capture or kill the king of Norway Haakon VII. However, he was saved by the military who remained loyal to the oath. After Sweden refused to grant him asylum, the monarch hid in the forest until he was found by the British who landed in Norway.

On April 12, 1940, the first units of the 24th Infantry Brigade of Scottish Riflemen were sent to Narvik, which were soon joined by other British, French and Polish units. However, the actions of the various units of the Allies and the Norwegian troops were not coordinated among themselves, which sharply reduced their effectiveness.

On April 24, the Germans dealt a powerful blow to the Western allies and the Norwegians, after which they began a retreat, which soon escalated into flight. Even Winston Churchill further admits that in the Norwegian campaign, German superiority in design, leadership and energy was undeniable.

On May 28, the Allies made their last attempt at an offensive in the Narvik area and even pressed the Germans. However, the start of a large-scale Hitler offensive in Western Europe forced London and Paris to withdraw their units from Scandinavia. Norway officially capitulated on June 10, after which the whole country was occupied by the Nazis.

  • German infantry in Norway
  • © Wikimedia Commons

Weserubung set an example of a carefully planned and firmly carried out operation of all three types of armed forces. The German side has demonstrated its superiority over the Allies in the development of military art, the degree of readiness of the high command and staffs for carrying out complex operational and tactical forms of action, the level of combat training of the ground forces, aviation and navy, ”writes in his book“ Weserubung ”: Norwegian campaign of 1940 ”historian Sergey Patyanin.

According to Yuri Knutov, the ratio of losses during the Danish-Norwegian operation was in favor of the Nazis. So, during the capture of Denmark, two Germans and 16 Danish military personnel were killed. In Norway, the Nazis irretrievably lost about 3.7 thousand people - mostly on ships sunk during sea battles. The total losses of the allies amounted to about 4 thousand killed.

“The only position where the losses of Germany were significantly greater than the British-French is the fleet. Especially many Germans lost auxiliary vessels, ”said the historian.

Weserubung Results

Having occupied Denmark and Norway, Germany in the early summer of 1940 secured itself from a possible strike from the north, provided ore transit from Sweden, got a new exit to the USSR border and the ability to control the coastal zone of the North Atlantic, Knutov noted.

“Norwegians and Danes transferred to the Wehrmacht most of their stocks of weapons, ammunition and provisions. In the interests of the Reich, it became possible to exploit the industry of the occupied states with all their factories and mineral deposits. In addition to this, which is important, the Wehrmacht strengthened the faith in its forces for further aggressions, ”the expert emphasized.

According to him, in both occupied countries there was a serious increase in collaborationist sentiments. Against this background, the resistance movement from 1940 to 1942 was not too active.

Norwegian and Danish enterprises worked under occupation in the interests of the German military-industrial complex, construction firms erected fortifications, and farmers supplied products to the Wehrmacht.

Natives of Denmark and Norway actively volunteered for SS troops. Scandinavian units were part of the SS divisions Nordland and Viking, as well as individual security battalions. They fought on the territory of the USSR and Yugoslavia.

Against the backdrop of tightening occupation conditions and a turning point in the war in 1943, the activity of the Resistance movement in Scandinavia intensified.

  • Soviet soldiers are sitting on a German cannon captured during the fighting. Kirkenes, Norway
  • RIA News
  • © Dmitry Kozlov

On October 7, 1944, the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation of the Soviet troops began, as a result of which the northern part of Norway was liberated from the Nazis. In southern Norway and Denmark, German forces capitulated in early May 1945.

“The Danish-Norwegian operation had a significant impact on the course of World War II. On the one hand, Hitler was again convinced of the fighting efficiency of his troops, on the other, he was greatly embarrassed by the significant loss of the fleet during the invasion of Norway. He realized that he was not ready for a landing in Britain, and began to forcefully prepare for an attack on the Soviet Union. True, the eastern campaign, as we know, immediately went to the Nazis quite differently than in Norway. Easy victories for them have ended, ”summarized Yuri Knutov.