The fact that Norway was an ardent neutral meant little to the great powers and their plans.īoth sides planned to violate Norway’s neutrality, the British by mining her waters and then landing troops at Narvik to cut the rail and sea line, the Germans by landing troops at key ports the length of Norway. Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, who commanded the Kriegsmarine, saw in Norway’s vast coastline an opportunity to provide his ships with bases on the Atlantic and to prevent the British from repeating the deadly blockade of 1914-1918. The British wanted to shut down the route in order to cripple Germany’s economy, while the Germans needed to secure it.Īt the same time, the German Navy, despite its small size, had great dreams. The all-weather port was the route by which Germany received vast supplies of Swedish iron ore. Norway in general and Narvik in particular had been central to Allied and German strategic planning since the outbreak of war. Instead, the Germans were about to face their first large-scale naval action since Jutland, and a massive defeat. Now all the German destroyers and the tough men of General Edouard Dietl’s mountain troops were taking on fuel, ready to return to Germany and prepare for new victories. Without suffering the loss of a single soldier or sailor, the German Army and Navy had sailed 1,500 miles through waters dominated by the British Royal Navy and captured Narvik without firing a shot, bagged nearly 500 Norwegian soldiers, seized one of Norway’s major military depots, and even taken five armed British merchant ships and their crews.
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