German occupation of Norway

By the late 1930s, the Norwegian parliament (the Storting) had accepted the need for a strengthened military and expanded the budget accordingly, even by assuming national debt.

The government was also increasingly pressured by Britain to direct ever larger parts of its massive merchant fleet to transport British goods at low rates as well as to join the trade blockade against Germany.

[1] In March and April 1940, British plans for an invasion of Norway were prepared, mainly in order to reach and disable the Swedish iron ore mines in Gällivare.

Blücher transported the forces that would ensure control of the political apparatus in Norway, and the sinking and death of over 1,000 soldiers and crew delayed the Germans, so that the King and government had the chance to escape from Oslo.

[5] The major Norwegian ports from Oslo northward to Narvik (more than 1,200 mi (1,900 km) away from Germany's naval bases) were occupied by advance detachments of German troops, transported on destroyers.

By that time the German offensive in France had progressed to such an extent that the British could no longer afford any commitment in Norway, and the 25,000 Britons and Frenchmen were evacuated from Narvik only 10 days after their victory.

[3] Fighting continued in Northern Norway until 10 June, when the Norwegian 6th Division surrendered shortly after Allied forces had been evacuated against the background of looming defeat in France.

Among German-occupied territories in Western Europe, this made Norway the country to withstand the German invasion for the longest period of time – approximately two months.

By occupying Norway, Hitler had ensured the protection of Germany's supply of iron ore from Sweden and had obtained naval and air bases with which to strike at Britain.

[3] Prior to the invasion, on 14 and 18 December 1939, Vidkun Quisling, the leader of Norway's fascist party, the Nasjonal Samling ("National Gathering"), had tried to persuade Adolf Hitler that he would form a government in support of occupying Germans.

[4]: 16  Hence, on the first day of invasion, Quisling, using his own initiative, burst into the NRK studios in Oslo on 9 April and made a nationwide broadcast at 7:30 pm declaring himself prime minister and ordering all resistance halted at once.

[4]: 73  They demanded that King Haakon formally appoint him as prime minister and return his government to Oslo; in effect, giving legal sanction to the invasion.

When the German ambassador to Norway, Curt Bräuer, presented his government's demands to Haakon, the king let it be known he would abdicate before appointing Quisling prime minister.

Quisling was consequently re-instituted as head of state on 20 February 1942, although Terboven retained the sole means to use violence as a political tool, which he did on several occasions (e.g. by imposing martial law in Trondheim and ordering the destruction of the village of Telavåg).

Military forces such as the Army Norway (Heer) and Luftwaffe remained under direct command of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht in Germany throughout the war, but all other authority was vested in the Reich commissioner.

742 were killed in concentration camps, 23 died as a result of extrajudicial execution, murder, and suicide during the war; bringing the total of Jewish Norwegian dead to at least 765, comprising 230 complete households.

[citation needed] In June 1940, some 13 warships and 5 aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Navy, including their 500 operating personnel, followed the King and parliament to Britain.

In early October 1944, some 53,000 men of the German 19th Mountain Corps were still 45 mi (72 km) inside Russia along the Litsa River and the neck of the Rybachy Peninsula.

By 7 October however, the combined Soviet 14th Army and Northern fleet, consisting of 133,500 men under Field Marshal Kirill Meretskov, attacked the weakest point of the German line, the junction between the 2nd and 6th Mountain Divisions.

The German High Command ordered Rendulic to hold the Soviets at bay whilst vital supplies amounting to some 135,000 short tons (122,000 t) could be shipped to safety.

Volunteers from the local population were hastily formed into "guard companies" armed with Soviet weapons pending the arrival of more troops from either Sweden or Britain.

In the new year the Norwegian forces slowly retook Finnmark, helping the local population in the arctic winter and dealing with occasional German raids from the air, sea and land as well as the ever-present danger from mines.

A total of 1,442 people and 1,225 short tons (1,111 t) of material were flown in by Dakota transport aircraft from Kallax in Sweden to Finnmark, and by April the Norwegian forces numbered over 3,000 men.

Towards the end of the war, in March 1945, Norwegian Reichskommissar Josef Terboven had considered plans to make Norway the last bastion of the Third Reich and a last sanctum for German leaders.

This led to an immediate and full mobilisation of the Milorg underground resistance movement—more than 40,000 armed Norwegians were summoned to occupy the Royal Palace, Oslo's main police station, as well as other public buildings.

The following afternoon, on 8 May, an Allied military mission arrived in Oslo to deliver the conditions for capitulation to the Germans, and arranged the surrender, which took effect at midnight.

Finally, on 7 June, which also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the dissolution of Norway's union with Sweden, King Haakon VII and the remaining members of the royal family arrived in Oslo onboard the British cruiser HMS Norfolk.

Fritz Moen, the only known victim of dual miscarriage of justice in Europe, was the child of a Norwegian woman and a German soldier, as was ABBA member Anni-Frid Lyngstad.

Before the German invasion of Russia, a number of them managed to make their way out of Sweden and travel via Russian territory to Britain, often via India, South Africa or Canada.

[citation needed] The lone surviving original example of the Arado Ar 234 Blitz turbojet-powered Nazi German reconnaissance bomber, restored and on display in the Smithsonian Institution's Udvar-Hazy Center, in 1945 was based in Norway with Kampfgeschwader 76 (76th Bomber Wing) and brought to the United States through the efforts of Operation Lusty, on the deck of the Royal Navy's HMS Reaper escort carrier.