70th Anniversary - Invasion of Norway & Denmark


  • After a long wait the war in the west begins when Germany invades Norway and Denmark on April 9th; Denmark fell in 12 hours. Funny thing was the allies were ready to move into Norway there self. Thus the fight in Norway is joined quickly on both land and at sea. This was the first battle to be fought in all three spheres (air, land, and water) at the same time at the same level of intenisty.  Organized fighting continued until June 10th 1940 making Norway the nation to resist German occupation the longest of all those to fall (62 Days)

    Link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_invasion_of_Norway

    Casuatlies:

    Allied- 4,765 KIA
    Norwiegian - 1,335 KIA
    Germany - 5,638 KIA


  • Total Norwegian losses during the war was about 9500. Pretty good compared to the eastern front…  :-) 8-)

    What I still can’t forgive, is that there was no serious attempts at killing Quisling during the WW2.  :evil:  :|  :cry:

    Better later than never, some say, and I agree. But I am still a little bit shameful about this, even I was born long after the war was ended.

    And those totally retarded Norwegian politicians who didn’t chose (the right) side when Germany attacked us, is also disturbing. We were “neutral” during the WW1, and that worked out pretty good, but there is no excuse to not see what happened in Europe in from 1939 until 1940.


  • I think a qood question in response to the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Norway is, was it worth the cost in ships and occuping troop strength for the Germans?


  • @ABWorsham:

    I think a qood question in response to the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Norway is, was it worth the cost in ships and occuping troop strength for the Germans?

    Imo, definitely not, and some historians would also agree to that.

    I think Germany had around 400.000 soldiers in Norway in 1944 or 1945… :-)


  • @Subotai:

    @ABWorsham:

    I think a qood question in response to the 70th anniversary of the German invasion of Norway is, was it worth the cost in ships and occuping troop strength for the Germans?

    Imo, definitely not, and some historians would also agree to that.

    I think Germany had around 400.000 soldiers in Norway in 1944 or 1945… :-)

    IMO it was.  There were lots of advantages, one of the biggest being a secure source of high quality steel from Sweden.  Without holding Norway and Denmark, this source becomes at risk of being cut off.  If no steel were supplied to Germany, then I think she is defeated not in 1945, but possibly as early as 1943.

    Another way I am looking at this is the opportunity cost.  Considering Germany sent millions there, would an additional 400,000 troops made a difference on the eastern front or enabled Operation Sealion?  There is no way to tell, but my guess is that this would not.


  • They did not need steel from Sweden after they got the French steel in 1941. Also the 400 000 troops they had in Norway was poor quality. The Norwegian insurgents was playing with them, at will. So basically Fritz had no real reason to be in Norway, only to bother us. Go home, Fritzy.


  • Wierdly Norway did provide a safe hiding spot for the Triptz and other ships to hide for a few years  :-D

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