Download or read book The German Invasion of Norway April 1940 written by Geirr H. Haarr and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 481 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major history documents the German invasion of Norway, focusing on the events at sea. The first operation in which the air force, army, and navy worked closely together, Operation Weserübung included the first dive-bomber attack to sink a major warship and the first carrier task-force operations. Based on primary sources from British, German, and Norwegian archives, this book gives a balanced account of the reasons behind the invasion and showcases an unrivaled collection of photographs. As the definitive study of Germany's first and last major seaborne invasion, it offers a close look at an important but often neglected aspect of World War II.
Download or read book Hitler s Pre emptive War written by Henrik O. Lunde and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “excellent” history of the often overlooked WWII campaign in which Hitler secured a vital resource lifeline for the Third Reich (Library Journal). After Hitler conquered Poland and was still fine-tuning his plans against France, the British began to exert control over the coastline of neutral Norway, an action that threatened to cut off Germany’s iron-ore conduit to Sweden and outflank from the start its hegemony on the Continent. The Germans responded with a dizzying series of assaults, using every tool of modern warfare developed in the previous generation. Airlifted infantry, mountain troops, and paratroopers were dispatched to the north, seizing Norwegian strongpoints while forestalling larger but more cumbersome Allied units. The German navy also set sail, taking a brutal beating at the hands of Britannia, but ensuring with its sacrifice that key harbors would be held open for resupply. As dive-bombers soared overhead, small but elite German units traversed forbidding terrain to ambush Allied units trying to forge inland. At Narvik, some six thousand German troops battled twenty thousand French and British until the Allies were finally forced to withdraw by the great disaster in France, which had then gotten underway. Henrik Lunde, a native Norwegian and former US Special Operations colonel, has written the most objective account to date of a campaign in which twentieth-century military innovation found its first fertile playing field.
Download or read book Denmark and Norway 1940 written by Douglas C. Dildy and published by Osprey Publishing. This book was released on 2007-04-24 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On 9 April 1940, German forces invaded Denmark, and then Norway, in an attempt to secure the vital mineral resources of Scandinavia for their war industry. This assault, Operation Weserübung, represents the first joint air-land-and-sea campaign in the history of warfare, and was the only such campaign planned, launched, and completed by the three services of the Wehrmacht. It also included the use of the rarest of German armoured vehicles, the Naubaufahrzeug NbFz.A/B (PzKw V/VI) experimental 'land battleship'. This book describes the events of this tumultuous campaign of World War II (1939-1945) that not only led to Winston Churchill's appointment as British Prime Minister, but also saw the crippling of the German Kriegsmarine as a fighting force, as it was reduced to a fleet of submarines and a handful of heavy warships used as commerce raiders.
Download or read book Norway 1940 written by Franöois Kersaudy and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: En forholdsvis nyforsket redegørelse for det, som det, som anmelderne benævner den ødelæggende og inkompetente allierede kampagne, som franske og engelske styrker, støttet af nordmændene udførte til Norges forsvar i 1940. Der er fokus på politiske og militære fejl i kampagnen og dennes konsekvenser.
Download or read book Hitler Strikes North written by Jack Greene and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A detailed account of Germany’s groundbreaking Operation Weserübung, the first three dimensional—land, sea, air—strategic invasion in history. The German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 brought a sudden and shocking end to the “Phoney War” in the West. In a single day, multiple seaborne and airborne landings established German forces ashore in Norway, overwhelming the unprepared Norwegian forces and catching the Allied Powers completely by surprise. Their belated response was ill-thought-out and badly organized, and by June 9 all resistance had formally ended. The strategic importance of Scandinavian iron ore, shipped through the port of Narvik to Germany, was the main cause of the campaign. The authors show how Allied attempts to interdict these supplies provoked German plans to secure them, and also how political developments in the inter-war years resulted in both Denmark and Norway being unable to deter threats to their neutrality despite having done so successfully in the First World War. The German attack was their first “joint” air, sea, and land operation, making large-scale use of air-landing and parachute forces, and the Luftwaffe’s control of the air throughout the campaign would prove decisive. Although costly, particularly for the Kriegsmarine, it was a triumph of good planning, improvisation and aggressive, determined action by the troops on the ground. Making full use of Norwegian, Danish, and German sources, this book is a full and fascinating account of this highly significant campaign and its aftermath both for the course of the Second World War and the post-war history of the two countries conquered with such unprecedented speed.
Download or read book The German Decision to Invade Norway and Denmark written by Earl F. Ziemke and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Hitler s Northern Utopia written by Despina Stratigakos and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2022-03-22 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "How Nazi architects and planners envisioned and began to build a model 'Aryan' society in Norway during World War II"--
Download or read book Paying for Hitler s War written by Jonas Scherner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-21 with total page 477 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paying for Hitler's War is a comparative economic study of twelve Nazi-occupied countries during World War II.
Download or read book German Paratroops in Scandinavia written by Óscar González and published by Schiffer Military History. This book was released on 2009 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details the well-trained and highly motivated force of the 1940 Fallschirmjäger, and their participation in Operation "Weserübung"--The codename for the Wehrmacht assault on Denmark and Norway.
Download or read book Gold Run written by Robert Pearson and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gold Run is the true story of arguably one of the greatest gold snatches in history. It is a tale of immense bravery, endurance and great leadership of loyal Norwegians, plus a little good fortune and help from the British against intrigue and overwhelming odds. The German invasion of Norway on the night of April 8th/9th 1940 almost took Norway completely unawares; had it not been for the defiance of one small coastal battery, the Norwegian Royal Family, Government, and nearly 50 tons of Gold bullion would have had no chance to escape. In desperate haste the Royal Family fled Oslo by rail, dodging bombs and strafing, eventually reaching the port of Molde which was subsequently devastated by fire bombing. The gold with extraordinary ingenuity was moved by road, rail and fishing boat, hotly pursued by the Germans. Its weight and the need for total secrecy created unique transportation problems. After several instances of near disaster, the Norwegians managed to get the gold to the coast where the Royal Navy came to the rescue. Such was the difficulty of extricating the bullion, it was not possible to load it in one cargo, and it was taken off in three Royal Navy Cruisers, HMS Enterprise, Galatea and Glasgow, from different locations. The ships were attacked in port, then constantly harassed and bombed by the Luftwaffe as they made their way back to the UK. The loss of the bullion was a blow to the Germans. They had gained a country, but lost a King, a government and huge amount of bullion that would have financed their war machine. That loss is directly attributed to a visionary bank chief, a Colonel, a hastily assembled body of Norwegians and the ships and men of the Royal Navy, ever resourceful, brave and loyal to their respective countries. This is their story. Robert Pearson is a high school teacher and writer, who researches Norway in the Second World War. He is particularly passionate about the roles that the Norwegians and British played during the War, Naval Intelligence and the Special Operations Executive Ð better known as SOE.
Download or read book Hitler s Northern War written by Adam R. A. Claasen and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Adolf Hitler had high hopes for his conquest of Norway, which held both great symbolic and great strategic value for the Fuhrer. Despite early successes, however, his ambitious northern campaign foundered and ultimately failed. Adam Claasen for the first time reveals the full story of this neglected episode and shows how it helped doom the Third Reich to defeat. Hitler and Raeder, the chief of the German navy, were determined to take and keep Norway. By doing so, they hoped to preempt Allied attempts to outflank Germany, protect sea lanes for German ships, access precious Scandinavian minerals for war production, and provide a launchpad for Luftwaffe and naval operations against Great Britain. Beyond those strategic objectives, Hitler also envisioned Norway as part of a pan-Nordic stronghold—a centerpiece of his new world order. But, as Claasen shows, Hitler's grand expectations were never realized. Gring's Luftwaffe was the vital spearhead in the invasion of Norway, which marked a number of wartime firsts. Among other things, it involved the first large-scale aerial operations over sea rather than land, the first time operational objectives and logistical needs were fulfilled by air power, and the first deployment of paratroopers. Although it got off to a promising start, the German effort, particularly against British and arctic convoys, was greatly hampered by flawed strategic thinking, interservice rivalries between the Luftwaffe and navy, the failure to develop a long-range heavy bomber, the diversion of planes and personnel to shore up the German war effort elsewhere, and the northern theater's harsh climate and terrain. Claasen's study covers every aspect of this ill-fated campaign from the 1940 invasion until war's end and shows how it was eventually relegated to a backwater status as Germany fought to survive in an increasingly unwinnable war. His compelling account sharpens our picture of the German air force and widens our understanding of the Third Reich's way of war.
Download or read book Why Germany Nearly Won written by Steven D. Mercatante and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-01-16 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a unique perspective for understanding how and why the Second World War in Europe ended as it did—and why Germany, in attacking the Soviet Union, came far closer to winning the war than is often perceived. Why Germany Nearly Won: A New History of the Second World War in Europe challenges this conventional wisdom in highlighting how the re-establishment of the traditional German art of war—updated to accommodate new weapons systems—paved the way for Germany to forge a considerable military edge over its much larger potential rivals by playing to its qualitative strengths as a continental power. Ironically, these methodologies also created and exacerbated internal contradictions that undermined the same war machine and left it vulnerable to enemies with the capacity to adapt and build on potent military traditions of their own. The book begins by examining topics such as the methods by which the German economy and military prepared for war, the German military establishment's formidable strengths, and its weaknesses. The book then takes an entirely new perspective on explaining the Second World War in Europe. It demonstrates how Germany, through its invasion of the Soviet Union, came within a whisker of cementing a European-based empire that would have allowed the Third Reich to challenge the Anglo-American alliance for global hegemony—an outcome that by commonly cited measures of military potential Germany never should have had even a remote chance of accomplishing. The book's last section explores the final year of the war and addresses how Germany was able to hang on against the world's most powerful nations working in concert to engineer its defeat.
Download or read book The bitter years written by Richard Petrow and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Norwegian Shipping in the 20th Century written by Stig Tenold and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-01-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is open access under a CC BY NC ND 4.0 license. This open access book discusses how Norwegian shipping companies played a crucial role in global shipping markets in the 20th century, at times transporting more than ten per cent of world seaborne trade. Chapters explore how Norway managed to remain competitive, despite being a high labour-cost country in an industry with global competition. Among the features that are emphasised are market developments, business strategies and political decisions The Norwegian experience was shaped by the main breaking points in 20th century world history, such as the two world wars, and by long-term trends, such as globalization and liberalization. The shipping companies introduced technological and organizational innovations to build or maintain a competitive advantage in a rapidly changing world. The growing importance of offshore petroleum exploration in the North Sea from the 1970s was both a threat and an opportunity to the shipping companies. By adapting both business strategies and the political regime to the new circumstances, the Norwegian shipping sector managed to maintain a leading position internationally.
Download or read book Danish Reactions to German Occupation written by Carsten Holbraad and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2017-02-06 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For five years during World War II, Denmark was occupied by Germany. While the Danish reaction to this period of its history has been extensively discussed in Danish-language publications, it has not until now received a thorough treatment in English. Set in the context of modern Danish foreign relations, and tracing the country’s responses to successive crises and wars in the region, Danish Reactions to German Occupation brings a full overview of the occupation to an English-speaking audience. Holbraad carefully dissects the motivations and ideologies driving conduct during the occupation, and his authoritative coverage of the preceding century provides a crucial link to understanding the forces behind Danish foreign policy divisions. Analysing the conduct of a traumatised and strategically exposed small state bordering on an aggressive great power, the book traces a development from reluctant cooperation to active resistance. In doing so, Holbraad surveys and examines the subsequent, and not yet quite finished, debate among Danish historians about this contested period, which takes place between those siding with the resistance and those more inclined to justify limited cooperation with the occupiers – and who sometimes even condone various acts of collaboration.
Download or read book Hitler s Arctic War written by Chris Mann and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past the German General Staff had taken no interest in the military history of wars in the north and east of Europe. Nobody had ever taken into account the possibility that some day German divisions would have to fight and to winter in northern Karelia and on the Murmansk coast. (Lieutenant-General Waldemar Erfurth, German Army). Despite this statement, the German Armys first campaign in the far north was a great success: between April and June 1940 German forces totaling less than 20,000 men seized Norway, a state of three million people, for minimal losses. Hitlers Arctic War is a study of the campaign waged by the Germans on the northern periphery of Europe between 1940 and 1945.As Hitlers Arctic War makes clear, the emphasis was on small-unit actions, with soldiers carrying everything they needed food, ammunition and medical supplies on their backs. The terrain placed limitations on the use of tanks and heavy artillery, while lack of airfields restricted the employment of aircraft.Hitlers Arctic War also includes a chapter on the campaign fought by Luftwaffe aircraft and Kriegsmarine ships and submarines against the Allied convoys supplying the Soviet Union with aid. However, Wehrmacht resources committed to Norway and Finland were ultimately an unnecessary drain on the German war effort. Hitlers Arctic War is a groundbreaking study of how war was waged in the far north and its effects on German strategy.
Download or read book Attack at Dawn written by Ron Cope and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-10 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On March 1, 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Norway. Having swept across Europe at a terrifying pace, the Nazi assault on Scandinavia was designed to secure the valuable source of iron ore being delivered by rail from Sweden to the Norwegian port of Narvik. To complete the task, Hitler sent ten large, modern destroyers, with 220 Alpine Troops on each. Five smaller British H Class destroyers were sent up the fjord in retaliation by the Allied forces, with little knowledge of what to expect. On April 10, the first battle of Narvik began. Royal Naval Captain, Bernard Warburton-Lee, led his flotilla at midnight into the fjord. They had to navigate the four hour passage undetected, under darkness and in driving snow storms. The harbour - eerily silent on their arrival - quickly erupted into a torpedo attack. Back into the fjord, the destroyers Hardy, Hunter, Hotspur, Havock and Hostile were confronted by five German destroyers, coming from both the front and rear. This resulted in a ferocious sea battle with the loss of Hardy and Hunter and damage to the enemy ships. Those crew members who managed to abandon ship and swim ashore, under bombardment from the Germans, had to endure a ten mile march and pray for safe passage back to Britain in order to survive. Author Ron Cope delivers a comprehensive and gripping account of the Narvik battle, juxtaposing the myriad strategic difficulties encountered by the British Navy, with the vivid and insightful personal accounts of the brave survivors involved, most of whom were under the age of twenty-three. Including first-hand testimony from Cope's own father Cyril, a then twenty-one year old Torpedoman, and documents shared for the first time by the family of Captain Warburton-Lee, Cope presents an arresting account of this crucial British naval victory, as told by the sailors who were there. "Meticulously researched, Attack at Dawn relates the vivid real-life experiences of the British sailors who took part in the extraordinarily bold attack by five British destroyers against superior German forces at Narvik... and the desperate running battle that ensued as they tried to make their escape." John Warburton-Lee, grandson of Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee. V.C.
