• Were Denmark, Norway, Netherlands ever liberated, and if so by who


  • Norway was not liberated, the 400.000 Germans went home when Berlin had fallen.


  • I believe that the Netherlands was liberated by mainly Canadian forces.


  • thank you


    • Denmark was under German controll to the end of the war.
        - No Libaration

    -Netherlands was split between North and South part, were the Northern part was the
    latest liberated by Allied forces.

    -Norway  look up “SUBOTAIS” answer…

  • '12

    Technically, Holland was fully liberated by the end of the war by a few days.  The full unconditional surrender of all German forces was May 7, 1945 and V-E day falls on May 8th.

    By May 5th, the remaining German forces were in western Holland and hostilities ceased May 5th when the German forces negotiated a surrender.

    So yes, complete liberation mainly attributed to the Canadians (arguably rightly or wrongly but I’ll take it!) by a whole 2 days.  I tell ya, they sure do make Canadians feel pretty dang cozy there when we visit.  Amsterdam really is everything they say it is!  Pricey too, luckily our looney has soared!  I really need to get back there one day and go ‘window shopping’ again……


  • @MrMalachiCrunch:

    Technically, Holland was fully liberated by the end of the war by a few days.  The full unconditional surrender of all German forces was May 7, 1945 and V-E day falls on May 8th.

    By May 5th, the remaining German forces were in western Holland and hostilities ceased May 5th when the German forces negotiated a surrender.

    So yes, complete liberation mainly attributed to the Canadians (arguably rightly or wrongly but I’ll take it!) by a whole 2 days.  I tell ya, they sure do make Canadians feel pretty dang cozy there when we visit.  Amsterdam really is everything they say it is!  Pricey too, luckily our looney has soared!  I really need to get back there one day and go ‘window shopping’ again……

    Yes i’ve been meaning to take a trip there myself one of these years, would love to visit the battlefields and as you put it, go window shopping.  :lol:

  • 2024 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    @MrMalachiCrunch:

    By May 5th, the remaining German forces were in western Holland and hostilities ceased May 5th when the German forces negotiated a surrender.

    Strangely, this is not entirely true. On the island of Texel, fighting continued even beyond the capitulation of Germany itself. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_Uprising_of_Texel for some details.

  • '12

    Ahhhhh, a rather interesting sub-story.  Thanks!

  • 2007 AAR League

    @Subotai:

    Norway was not liberated, the 400.000 Germans went home when Berlin had fallen.

    those guys lucked out to the highest degree known to mankind.


  • @balungaloaf:

    @Subotai:

    Norway was not liberated, the 400.000 Germans went home when Berlin had fallen.

    those guys lucked out to the highest degree known to mankind.

    Yes, if they had been sent to the eastern front in 42-43, it would probably be less than 20.000 left of them by the end of the war, same goes if they had been sent to the western front in 44…  :-)

  • 2024 2023 '22 '21 '20 '19 '18 '17

    @Subotai:

    Yes, if they had been sent to the eastern front in 42-43, it would probably be less than 20.000 left of them by the end of the war, same goes if they had been sent to the western front in 44…  :-)

    Out of 400,000, that would imply a 95% casualty rate, which seems very unlikely even with the German death toll rapidly rising towards the end of the war.
    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Casualties_by_branch_of_service

  • '12

    Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics.  The average casuality rate takes into consideration troops that fought at all times in the war, including troops that first saw combat in the last weeks of the war.  If you looked specificaly at German troops who saw combat starting in 42-43 while not averaging in troops that started fighting later in the war and focused only on those on the eastern front you’d see a much higher casualty rate than the average of all fronts and all participants timewise, albietly 95% still seems a bit high still.


  • @Herr:

    @Subotai:

    Yes, if they had been sent to the eastern front in 42-43, it would probably be less than 20.000 left of them by the end of the war, same goes if they had been sent to the western front in 44…  :-)

    Out of 400,000, that would imply a 95% casualty rate, which seems very unlikely even with the German death toll rapidly rising towards the end of the war.
    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties#Casualties_by_branch_of_service

    Well, yes, my suggestion of probable German losses is probably too high, but most German soldiers did not chose where to be sent, and the Germans soldiers in Norway were damn lucky, it could easily be 50%-80% casualties for those who fought on the eastern or western front during the last years of WW2.
    Germany didn’t need more than 100.000 to have close to total control in Norway anyway, and if Norway was invaded by allies instead of France, 400.000 would not be nearly enough to stop US+UK et.al.


  • Okay say the German defense in Norway did go to fight Russia or something, do you think the Allies might then attack Norway?


  • @Dylan:

    Okay say the German defense in Norway did go to fight Russia or something, do you think the Allies might then attack Norway?

    Unlikely imo, although if Germany left Norway totally empty, I think Norway would be secured by some british forces (along with our very few Norwegian soldiers), but if we look at the map, choosing Norway instead of France would mean that the allied forces had to be shipped onboard the ships again and then sail to Denmark, or Northern Germany, or France for an invasion.
    Stalin said no foreign soldiers on Russian soil, so the hypothetical invasion force (for Norway) could not move from northern Norway to Northern Russia, south to balticum, and then to Germany. It was definitely most practical to invade France and then move east to Germany.
    It would even be better to just send all allied troops to Italy and moving upwards towards Germany instead of invading Norway.
    And the Germans treated us “fairly” good, taking the war situation into consideration, I think less than 3000 Norwegians were killed during the war, and that is not so bad if you look at some other countries which were not so lucky, so there was no immediate need to liberate Norway for the intention of saving our civilian population.

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