Home > Operation Weserübung

On the early morning of 9 April, 1940 —Wesertag ("Weser Day") — Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a defensive maneuver against a planned (and openly discussed) Franco- British occupation of those countries; upon arrival envoys of the invading Germans informed the countries' governments that the Wehrmacht came to "protect the countries' neutrality" against Franco-British aggression. Big differences in geography, location, and climate between the two countries made the actual invasions very dissimilar.

The invasion fleet's nominal landing time —Weserzeit ("Weser Hour") — was set to 05:15 AM German time, equivalent to 04:15 local Norwegian time.

1 Invasion of Denmark

Strategically speaking, Denmark was relatively unimportant to Germany, except as a staging area for operations in Norway, and of course as a border nation to Germany which would have to be controlled in some way. The country is small and relatively flat, ideal territory for German army operations, so Denmark's tiny army had little hope of success in armed resistance. Nevertheless, in the early hours of the morning some Danish regiments engaged the German army, suffering a couple dozen or so dead.

The Danish government capitulated almost instantly in exchange for retained political independence in domestic matters, which resulted in a uniquely lenient occupation, particularly until the summer of 1943, and also postponing the arrest and deportation of Danish Jews until nearly all of them were warned and on their way to refuge in Sweden. In the end, fewer than 500 Danish Jews were deported, and fewer than 50 of them lost their lives.

2 Invasion of Norway

Main article: Operation Weserübung Order of Battle

Iron ore is extracted in Kiruna and MalmbergetMalmberget is a town in Sweden, chiefly known as a major site for extraction of iron ore from deep mines., and brought by rail to the harbours of Luleå and NarvikNarvik is a town in the county of Nordland, Norway. It has 18,463 inhabitants as of 2003. The municipality of Narvik covers 2041 km², including large areas outside the town. Narvik is one of the most northerly towns in the world, with a railroad connectin.
(Borders as of 1920–1940.) Norway was important to Germany for two primary reasons: as a base for U-boatOctober 1939. U-47 returns to port after sinking HMS Royal Oak''. The battlecruiser Scharnhorst is seen in the background. A U-boat is any of the German submarines of World War I and World War II, as well as the Austro-Hungarian submarines of World War I.s and to secure shipments of iron-ore from Sweden. The long northern coastline was an excellent place to launch U-boat operations into the North Atlantic in order to strangle British commerce. Germany was dependent on iron-ore from Sweden and was worried, with justification, that the Allies would attempt to disrupt those shipments, 90% of which originated from Norway.

The invasion of Norway was given to Group XXI under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst and consisted of the following units:

• 163^rd Infantry Division
• 69^th Infantry Division
• 169^th Infantry Division
• 181^st Infantry Division
• 214^th Infantry Division

The initial invasion force was transported in several groups, by Deutsche Kriegsmarine ships:

1. Battleships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and 10 destroyers with 2,000 troops to Narvik
2. Admiral Hipper and 4 destroyers with 1700 troops to Trondheim
3. Köln , Königsberg , Bremse , Karl Peters, 3 torpedo boats and 5 motor torpedo boats with 1,900 troops to Bergen
4. Karlsruhe , 3 torpedo boats, 7 motor torpedo boats with 1100 troops to Kristiansand
5. Heavy cruiser Blücher, Lützow, Emden , 3 torpedo boats and 8 minesweepers with 2,000 troops to Oslo
6. 4 minesweepers with 150 troops to Egersund

A reasonably complete concise description of the invasion of Norway would entail the following (yet to be fleshed out from the outline):

• In an act of poetic justice, Fate let the heavy cruiser Blücher be sunk in the Oslofjord 9 April 1940 by ancient German Krupp guns (named Moses and Aron, of 280 mm calibre, installed at Oscarsborg Fortress 23 May 1893) and equally ancient torpedoes:
  • German ships sailed up the main fjord leading to Oslo, reaching the Drøbak Narrows ( Drøbaksundet ). In the early morning of April 9, the gunners at Oscarsborg fired on the ship which had been illuminated by spotlights at about 0515hrs. Within two hours the ship was sunk along with at least 1000 men. The wreck blocked the route to Oslo, thus delaying the rest of the group long enough for the royal family and parliament to be evacuated, as well as the national treasury. The result was that Norway never surrendered to the Germans, leaving the Quisling government illegitimate and permitting Norway to participate as an ally in the war, rather than as a conquered nation.
• German airborne troops landed at Oslo airport Fornebu, Kristiansand airport Kjevik , and Stavanger airport Sola – the latter constituting the first paratrooper ( Fallschirmjäger) attack in history; coincidentally, among the Luftwaffe pilots landing at Kjevik was Reinhard Heydrich.
• Quisling's radio-effected coup d'etat – another first.
• Partly thanks to the Blücher sinking, royal family and parliament (including government) evaded the German invasion force; King Haakon refused to lay down arms; Clash at Midtskogen; bombs at Nybergsund; royal family, parliament, and national gold reserves moved northward ahead of the Germans.
• Cities/towns Bergen, Stavanger, Egersund, Kristiansand S, Arendal, Horten, Trondheim and Narvik attacked and occupied within 24 h.
• First and Second Naval Battle of Narvik (Royal Navy vs Kriegsmarine)
• Devastating bombing of towns Åndalsnes, Molde, Kristiansund N, Steinkjer, Namsos, Bodø – some of them tactically bombed, some terror-bombed.
• Main German land campaign northwards from Oslo with superior equipment; Norwegian soldiers with turn-of-the-century weapons, along with some British and French troops, stop invaders for a time before yielding – first land combat action between British Army and Wehrmacht in WWII.
• Land battles at Narvik: Norwegian and Allied (British, French, Polish) success and the following unfortunate withdrawal of the Allied forces (mentioned below); Fighting at Gratangen
• The "last stand": Hegra Fortress (Fort Ingstadkleiven) resisted the siege until 5 June -- of Allied propaganda importance, like Narvik.
• King Haakon, Crown Prince Olav, and parliament left from Tromsø 7 June (aboard British cruiser HMS Devonshire, bound for UK) to represent Norway in exile (King returned to Oslo exact same date 5 yrs later); Crown Princess Märtha and children, denied asylum in her native Sweden, later left from Petsamo, Finland, to live in exile in the USA.
• Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940, two months after Wesertag.

In the far north, Norwegian, French, Polish and British troops fought against the Germans over the control of the Norwegian winter harbour Narvik, important for the export of Swedish iron ore. The Germans evacuated on May 28, but due to the detoriating situation on the European continent, the allied troops were evacuated in Operation Alphabet – and the Germans recaptured Narvik on June 9, by then deserted also by the civilians.