Norwegian Campaign: Encyclopedia II - Norwegian Campaign - German invasion

Norwegian Campaign - German invasion

Norwegian Campaign - Movement of the fleets

The German invasion first started on April 3, 1940 when supply vessels began to head out in advance of the main force. The Allies initiated their plans on the following day, with sixteen Allied submarines ordered to the Skagerrak and Kattegat to serve as a screen and advance warning for a German response to Operation Wilfred, which was launched the following day when Admiral William Whitworth in the HMS Renown set out from Scapa Flow for the Vestfjords with twelve destroyers.

On April 7th, bad weather began to develop in the region, blanketing the area with a thick fog, and causing rough seas making travel difficult. Renown's force soon got caught in a heavy snowstorm, and HMS Glowworm, one of the destroyer escorts, had to drop out of formation to search for a man swept overboard. However, the weather aided the Germans, providing a screen for their forces and in the early morning they sent out Gruppe 1 and Gruppe 2, who had the largest distance to travel.

Though the weather did make reconnaissance difficult, the two German groups were discovered 105 miles south of the Naze (the southernmost part of Norway) slightly past 08:00 by RAF patrols and reported as one cruiser and six destroyers. A trailing squad of bombers sent out to attack the German ships found them 78 miles further north then they had been before. No damage was done during the attack, but the German groups strength was reassessed as being one battlecruiser, two cruisers and ten destroyers. Due to a strict enforcement of radio silence, the bombers were not able to report this until 17:30.

On learning of the German movement, the Admiralty came to the conclusion that the Germans were attempting to break the blockade that the Allies had placed on Germany and use their fleet to disrupt Atlantic trade routes. Admiral Sir Charles Forbes, Commander-in-Chief of the British Home Fleet, was notified of this and at 20:15 he set out to intercept them.

With both sides unaware of the magnitude of the situation, they proceeded as planned. The Renown arrived at the Vestfjords late that night and maintained position near the entrance while the minelaying destroyers proceeded to their task. Meanwhile, the Germans launched the remainder of their invasion force. The first direct contact between the two sides occurred the next morning without either sides' intention.

The Glowworm, on its way to rejoin the Renown, happened to come up behind the Bernd Von Arnim and then the Hans Lüdemann in the heavy fog around 8:00. Immediately a skirmish broke out and the German destroyers fled, signalling for help. The request was soon answered by the Admiral Hipper, which quickly crippled the Glowworm. Being too damaged to outrun the larger German ship, the Glowworm proceeded to ram it instead. Significant damage was done to Hipper's starboard and Glowworm was destroyed by a close range salvo immediately afterwards. During its fight Glowworm had broken radio silence and informed the Admiralty of her situation. She was not able to complete her transmission though, and all the Admiralty knew was that the Glowworm had been confronted by a large German ship, shots were fired, and contact with the destroyer could not be reestablished. In response, the Admiralty ordered the Renown and its single destroyer escort (the other two had gone to friendly ports for oil) to abandon its post at the Vestfjords and head to the Glowworm's last known location. At 10:45 the remaining eight destroyers of the minelaying force were ordered to join as well.

At noon the Polish submarine Orzeł confronted and sunk the German tanker Rio de Janeiro in the Skagerrak. In the wreckage it discovered uniformed German soldiers and various military supplies. Though the Orzeł reported the incident to the Admiralty, they were too concerned by the situation with the Glowworm and the presumed German breakout to give it much thought and did not pass the information along. Many of the German soldiers from the wreck were rescued by Norwegian fishing boats and on interrogation disclosed that they were assigned to protect Bergen from the Allies. This information was passed on to Oslo where Storting, the Norwegian Parliament, dismissed it as ignorance on the part of the German soldiers and did not set about any defensive measures other then to alert the coastal guard.

At 14:00 word reached the Admiralty that aerial reconnaissance had located a group of German ships a considerable distance WNW of Trondheim, bearing west. This reinforced the notion that the Germans were indeed intending on a break out and the Home Fleet changed direction from north east to north west to again try and intercept. Additionally, Churchill cancelled Plan R4 and ordered the four cruisers carrying the soldiers and their supplies to disembark their cargo and join the Home Fleet. In actuality though the German ships, Gruppe 2, were only performing delaying circling manoeuvres in order to approach their destination of Trondheim at the designated time.

That night, after learning of numerous sightings of German ships south of Norway, Charles Forbes began to doubt the validity of the break out idea, and he ordered the Home Fleet to head south to the Skagerrak. He also ordered the HMS Repulse, along with another cruiser and a few destroyers, to head north and join the Renown.

At 23:00, as Forbes was just learning of the incident with the Orzeł, Gruppe 5 was approached by the Norwegian patrol vessel Pol III at the entrance to the Oslofjord. The Pol III quickly sent an alarm to the naval base at Horten and opened fire on the torpedo boat Albatros with its single gun shortly before colliding with it. The Albatros and two of its companions responded with anti-aircraft fire, killing its captain and destroying the ship. Gruppe 5 continued into the Oslofjord and cleared the outer batteries without incident. Several of the smaller German ships then broke off of in order to capture the bypassed fortifications along with Horten. This activity did not go unnoticed and soon reports had reached Oslo, leading to a midnight session of the Storting. At this meeting the order for a partial mobilization (delivered by post), and a statement that British and French ships were not to be fired on were issued.

At about this time, further north, the Renown was heading back to Vestfjord after reaching the Glowworm's last known location and not finding anything. Heavy seas had caused Whitworth to sail more north than normal and had separated him from his destroyers when he encountered the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The Renown engaged the two battlecruisers and during the short battle Gneisenau had its fire-control system damaged, causing it and Scharnhorst to flee north. Renown attempted to pursue, but by 4:00 it lost sight of them in the poor weather.

Norwegian Campaign - Weserzeit

In the Ofotfjord leading to Narvik the ten German destroyers of Gruppe 1 made their approach. With the Renown and her escorts earlier diverted to investigate the Glowworm incident, no British ships stood in their way and they entered the area unopposed. By the time they had reached the inner area near Narvik, most of the destroyers had peeled off from the main formation to capture the outer batteries of the Ofotfjord, leaving only three to contend with the two old Norwegian coastal defence ships standing guard, Eidsvold and Norge. Though antiquated, the two coastal defence ships were quite capable of taking on the much more lightly armed and armored destroyers. After a quick parliance with the captain of the Eidsvold, the German ships opened fire preemptively on the coastal defence ship, sinking it after hitting it with three torpedoes. Norge entered into the fray shortly after and began to fire on the destroyers, but her marksmen were inexperienced and she did not get any hits before being sunk by a salvo of torpedoes from the German destroyers.

At Trondheim Gruppe 2 also faced minor resistance to their landings. In the Trondheimsfjord, the Admiral Hipper engaged the defensive batteries while its destroyers sped past them at 25 knots. A well placed shot by the Hipper severed the power cables for the searchlights and rendered the guns ineffective. Only one destroyer received a hit during the landing.

At Bergen, the defensive fortifications put up stiffer resistance to Gruppe 3's approach and the light cruiser Königsberg and the artillery training ship Bremse were damaged, the former seriously. The lack of working lights reduced the effectiveness of the guns though, and the landing ships were able to dock without much opposition. The fortifications were surrendered soon after, when Luftwaffe units arrived.

The fortifications at Kristiansand put up an even more resolute fight, twice repulsing the landing and damaging the Karlsruhe, nearly running the cruiser aground. Confusion soon sprung up though when the Norwegians received the order not to fire on British and French ships and the Germans began to use Norwegian codes they had captured at Horten. The Germans used this opportunity to quickly reach the harbour and unload their troops, capturing the town by 11:00.

Gruppe 5 encountered the most serious resistance at the inner defensive fortifications of the Oslofjord, in the vicinity of Drøbak. Blücher, leading the group approached the forts assuming that, like many in the outer fjord, they were unmanned. It was not until the cruiser was at point blank range that the Norwegian fortress opened fire, connecting with every shot. Within a matter of minutes Blücher was crippled and burning heavily. The damaged cruiser was soon finished off by a salvo from land based torpedo tubes, sinking the ship which carried many of the administrative personnel for the occupation of Norway and the headquarters of the army division intended to seize Oslo. The cruiser Lützow, also damaged in the attack, was forced to retreat, with Gruppe 5, twelve miles south to Sonsbukten where it unloaded its troops. This distance delayed the arrival of the main German invasion force for Oslo by over 24 hours, though Oslo would still be captured less than twelve hours later by troops flown into the Fornebu airfield.

Fornebu was originally supposed to be secured by paratroops an hour before the first troops were flown in, but the initial force became lost in the fog and didn't arrive. Regardless, it was not heavily defended and the German soldiers who did arrive captured it promptly. On learning of this Oslo itself was declared an open city, soon to be followed by full surrender.

For Gruppe 6 at Egersund and the paratroops at Stavanger, there was no significant opposition and they quickly captured their targets.

The Wehrmacht crossed the Danish border around 4:15 in the morning of April 9. In a coordinated operation, German troops disembarked at the docks of Langelinie in Danish capital, Copenhagen, and began occupying the city. Simultaneously, an ultimatum was presented by the German ambassador to King Christian X. Reports describing the German plans had been submitted to the government a few days earlier but were ignored. The Danish army was small, ill-prepared and used obsolete equipment but resisted in several parts of the country; most importantly the Royal Guards located at Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, and forces in the vicinity of Haderslev in South Jutland. By 6:30, King Christian X, having consulted with Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning, decided to capitulate, believing that further resistance would only result in a useless loss of Danish lives. The Danish public was taken completely by surprise by the occupation, and was instructed by the government to coorporate with the German authorities. Germany's occupation of Denmark was completed on April 10 and lasted until May 5, 1945. An important part of the Danish commercial navy escaped the occupation, as Arnold Peter Møller, President of the Mærsk shipping company, on April 8 instructed his 36 ships on the high seas to move to Allied or neutral ports if at all possible.

Norwegian Campaign - Allied response

Soon after this, the German invasions at Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, as well as the skirmishes in the Oslofjords became known. Not willing to disperse too thinly due to the unknown location of the two German battlecruisers, the Home Fleet chose to focus on the nearby Bergen and dispatched an attack force. RAF reconnaissance soon reported stronger opposition than anticipated, and this, along with the possibility that the Germans might be controlling the shore defenses, caused them to recall the force and instead use the aircraft carrier HMS Furious to launch torpedo bombers at the enemy ships. The attack never commenced though as Luftwaffe bombers launched an assault of their own against the Home Fleet first, sinking the destroyer HMS Gurkha and forcing the Home Fleet to withdraw north when their anti-aircraft measures proved ineffective. This German air superiority in the area led the British to decide that all southern regions had to be left to submarines and the RAF, while surface vessels would concentrate on the north.

In addition to the German landings in south and central Norway, the Admiralty was also informed via press reports that a single German destroyer was in Narvik. In response to this they ordered the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla, mostly consisting of ships previously serving as escort destroyers for Operation Wilfred, to engage. This flotilla, under the command of Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee, had already detached from the Renown during its pursuit of the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, being ordered to guard the entrance to the Vestfjord. At 16:00 the flotilla sent an officer ashore at Tranöy fifty miles west of Narvik and learned from the locals that the German force was 4-6 destroyers and a submarine. Warburton-Lee sent these findings back to the Admiralty, concluded by his intention to attack the next day at "dawn, high water", which would give him the element of surprise and protection against any mines. This decision was approved by the Admiralty in a telegram that night.

Early the following morning Warburton-Lee led his ship, the HMS Hardy, and four other destroyers into the Ofotfjord. At 4:30 he arrived at the Narvik harbour and entered along with the HMS Hunter and HMS Havock, leaving the remaining two destroyers, HMS Hotspur and HMS Hostile to guard the entrance and watch the shore batteries. That morning the fog and snow was extremely heavy, allowing Warburton-Lee's force to approach undetected. When they arrived at the harbour itself they found five German destroyers and opened fire, starting the First Battle of Narvik. Warburton-Lee's ships made three passes on the enemy ships, being joined after the first by Hotspur and Hostile, and smashed two of the destroyers, disabled the remaining three, and sank six tankers. The 2nd Destroyer Flotilla then left the harbour, almost untouched.

At 6:00 as the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla was making their way back to the entrance of the Vestfjord when, from the Herjangsfjord behind them three German destroyers emerged and a few minutes later two more arrived in front of them, surrounding Warburton-Lee's force. The Hardy was the first ship to be hit and was quickly taken out of action, beached by one of its officers after it was crippled. Hunter was the next ship put out of commission, coming to a dead halt in the water after several hits. Hotspur was then hit and received damage to her steering system, causing her to crash into the Hunter. Several more hits were registered on the pair until Hunter was able to reverse out of the wreck. The Hostile and Havock meanwhile had raced ahead, but turned about and came back to aid the retreat of the Hunter. The German ships having received a few hits and, more importantly, being critically short of fuel, were not able to pursue. As they exited the Ofotfjord, the three British destroyers managed to sink the German ammunition ship Rauenfels.

Shortly after the First Battle of Narvik, two more German capital ships were sunk by British forces. A long range attack by Fleet Air Arm from their base at Hatston in the Orkney Islands was made against Bergen and destroyed the disabled German cruiser Königsberg; recorded as the first major warship sunk by aircraft. Additionally the submarine HMS Truant sunk the Karlsruhe on the night of April 9 shortly after it had left Kristiansand. The next day, April 10, the Furious and the battleship HMS Warspite joined the Home Fleet and another air attack was made against Trondheim in hopes of sinking the Admiral Hipper. Hipper had managed to escape through a watch set up outside of the port earlier though, and was on her way back to Germany when the attack was launched; none of the remaining German destroyers or support ships were hit in the assault. Better luck was had in the south when the HMS Spearfish severely damaged the Lützow at midnight on April 11, putting the ship out of commission for a year.

With it becoming more evident the German fleet had slipped out of Norwegian waters, Home Fleet continued north to Narvik in the hopes of catching the remaining destroyers. On route they suffered further harassment from German bombers, forcing them to divert course west away from the shoreline. By the April 12 they were in range of Narvik and an aerial attack on Narvik from Furious was attempted, but the results were disappointing. It was instead decided to send in the battleship Warspite and a powerful escort force, to be commanded by Whitworth.

On the morning of April 13 Whitworth's force entered the Vestfjord using the Warspite's scouting aircraft to guide the way. Aside from locating two of the German destroyers, the scouting aircraft also sunk an enemy submarine, the first such occurrence. Warspite's destroyers travelled three miles in advance of the battleship and were the first to engage their German counterparts which had come to meet them, starting the Second Battle of Narvik. Though neither side inflicted notable damage, the German ships were running low on ammunition and were gradually pushed back to the harbour. By that afternoon most attempted to flee up the Rombaksfjord, the only exception being the Künne which beached itself as it made for the Herjangsfjord and was destroyed by the HMS Eskimo. Four British destroyers continued to chase the German ships up through the Rombaksfjord, the Eskimo soon damaged by the waiting opposition. However, the German situation was hopeless and by the time the remaining British ships arrived the crews had abandoned ship. The British destroyed these ships and by 18:30 were making their way out of the now cleared fjord.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "German invasion", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki