Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany on April 9th 1940. Peace in Finland interrupted the Allied plans. Denmark's strategic importance for Germany was limited. Truck drivers coming back from Hamburg reported rolling past German troops for 30 miles. While his family finds themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. Invasion of Denmark, Norway & the Low Countries LTC Oakland McCulloch Outline German Invasion of Denmark & Norway The Invasion of the Low Countries Consequences of these victories. Operation Wilfred was over, but later that day, the destroyer HMSGlowworm, which detached on 7 April to search for a man lost overboard, was lost in action to the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and two destroyers belonging to the German invasion fleet. [21] The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg determined that no Allied invasion was imminent and so rejected the German argument that Germany was entitled to attack Norway. Nov. 26 to Dec. 12, 1643, TORSTENSON, starting from almost the same point as WALLENSTEIN, struggled through 450 to 500 . Denmark had, improbably, manufactured some of the best 20mm and 37mm antitank guns in the world. From the German point of view, the Royal Navy did just that, ignoring Norwegian sovereignty to enter its waters to storm the German supply ship Altmark, liberating almost 300 British merchant seamen held captive in its hold. [10] In the end, 477 Danish Jews were deported, and 70 of them lost their lives, out of a pre-war total of Jews and half-Jews at a little over 8,000. The First Battle of Narvik took place between the Royal Navy and the Kriegsmarine on 9 April. Despite the surrender of the main Norwegian forces, the Royal Norwegian Navy and other armed forces continued fighting the Germans abroad and at home until the German capitulation on 8 May 1945. The Germans quickly occupied Denmark, meeting almost no resistance, and the Germans therefore showed leniency towards the Danish government. " Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "Emergency". He asked a sergeant for a tour of the fortress. The Germans, under what they called their model protectorate, allowed the Danish courts and government to function, even leaving the schools and press alone. By the time they were having breakfast, they found themselves in the middle of it, and Denmarks resistance, as little as it was, was already over. Author John W. Osborn, Jr., is resident of Laguna Niguel, California. The German invasion of Denmark in World War II was the swiftest . The Royal Army of Poland marches to Denmark to conquer it from the Scandinavian Empire. . Danish Foreign Minister Peter Munch wanted to believe that Hitler did not intend to invade his country. The contempt spread abroad, fueled by the scenes of curiosity fraudulently presented by the Germans as friendly fraternization, announcing no casualties to give the image that they had been unopposed. When the two men met 20 minutes later, Renthe-Fink declared that German troops were at that moment moving in to occupy Denmark to protect the country from Franco-British attack. The Norwegian Army in mainland Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940, two months after Wesertag. It was the last good laugh for the king for five long, dismal years. In the early hours of 9 April 1940, Adolf Hitler's forces made their next move of the Second World War, and, striking north, launched their invasion of Denmark and Norway. The Hansestadt Danzig continued on to dock at the Langelinie, and in front of the few astonished dock workers already at work, 850 German soldiers trooped down the gangway, and at their head, that tourist back now on business.. Explore the ID Cards to learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust. Suddenly, the large bridge appeared. The invasions had not come as a complete surprise, for Germany had been at war with Great Britain and France since the . One gate at the Kastellet was blown down by a premature explosion, killing a German soldier. ID Cards. The 70-year-old King appeared inwardly shattered, Himer recalled. It was the start of war in Western Europe - and an end to the . Lasting approximately six hours, the German ground campaign against Denmark was the briefest operation of the Second World War. Elsewhere, a Danish garrison specially trained to resist a German landing slept while it was happening. The canteens were packed, and songs and marches could be heard everywhere. German ships then sailed up the Oslofjord leading to the Norwegian capital, reaching the Drbak Narrows (Drbaksundet). Grabbing bicycles, the paratroopers pedaled down to the bridge, captured it without resistance, and soon, as planned, linked up with advancing Wehrmacht units. The new plan called for a full army corps, including a mountain division, an airborne division, a motorized rifle brigade and two infantry divisions. In their final humiliation, with no local radio on the air yet, the Danes had to resort to using the Germans own radio equipment at the Kastellet with a Danish wavelength to broadcast the cease-fire order to their soldiers and sailors. Twitter: https://twitter.com/TenminhistoryPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4973164Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/history-matters-store-2Special T. Major Lunding had sent in his final report, predicting an invasion at 4 am. Hitler has no warlike intentions toward Denmark, Renthe-Fink genuinely believed, and he reassured Munch, who remained optimistically obtuse to the very end. The attack began with a German invasion of the Netherlands and northern Belgium. [6] However, the other branches of the Wehrmacht were not interested, and Hitler issued a directive stating that the main effort would be a land offensive through the Low Countries. My friends :DBulgarian empire mapping:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD-0LPbxri4fSvd0UoisIfgZero36 mapping:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPuMYN3dIxXAKAq. At the conclusion, the king, in his own attempt at goodwill, remarked, General, may I, as an old soldier, tell you something as soldier to soldier? Two other more desperate officers were on the move around town. Significant differences in geography, location and climate between the two nations made the actual military operations very dissimilar. . While ostensibly intended to bring Allied troops to the Finnish front, it laid its main emphasis on operations in northern Norway and Sweden. [17] It was not until 2 April 1940 that German preparations were completed and the Naval Operational Order for Weserbung was issued on 4 April 1940. Historical Map of Europe & the Mediterranean (25 May 1940 - Blitzkrieg in the West: While the Allies were still dealing with the fall of Denmark and Norway, Germany struck west. Danes got the message about how to act toward the Germans. The Nazis ended the period of Phoney War with their invasion of Denmark and Norway on the 9 April 1940. The Danish army was in barracks, the navy was too surprised to fire a single shot, and the air force was destroyed on the ground. Denmark lasted less than 6 hours before falling to the Germans.Link to . Soldiers were to travel unarmed and not be part of unit movements. The preliminary plan was named Studie Nord and called for only one army division. Initially for transit of troops and military equipment to and from northernmost Norway but soon it included minor bases along the transit road that eventually would grow in preparation for Operation Barbarossa. After recent negotiations with the people of Denmark to join the Kingdom of Sweden have failed, the Kingdom of Sweden has launched an invasion of the country in order to create a economically and politically stronger Scandinavian kingdom. The German invasion of Denmark and Norway began on 9 April 1940. There were two additional career casualties: Rechnitzer, scorned by his officers, and Foreign Minister Munch, who was to resign within weeks, his reputation equally in ruins. In Berlin, that alert naval attach got a suspicious offer from the Germans to tour the Western Front, seeing it as a sign that they wanted him out of the way. Although Denmark is not liberated until the end of the war, nonviolent resistance stymied German plans for extracting value from the occupation. The operation was complicated by the arrival of the British in the north and . See one of the shortest invasions in human history finally mapped out evey 5 minutes. He found himself in a room full of nervous generals, facing a major with a map covering the wall behind him. The invasion's primary purpose was to use Denmark as a staging ground for . In 2005, the archives of the Danish gun manufacturer revealed that the Germans admitted they had 200 casualties in those few hours in Jutland, contradicting the legend of no resistance by the Danes. The squadron commander reported that his unit was going to make a practice flight over the sea. The airfield was abuzz with activity in the noticeably tense atmosphere, and everyone was at his post. Introduction The German invasion of Denmark (German: Operation Weserbung - Sd) was the German attack on Denmark on 09 April 1940, during the Second World War. This is a short essay on the invasion of Denmark, it wont tell you anything new but it is worth a read if you are stuck on a train or a bus for a short while. The Meme is only 20 days old and I don't know what triggered it, it might of . Here is a short summary of the German occupation of Denmark: DENMARK IS OCCUPIED On the morning of 9 April 1940 Denmark was attacked by Germany. Search All 1 Records in Our Collections. A German tank rolls along the street past the Jorgensens Hotel in the town of Horsens in eastern Denmark. At the same time, he told me something of the Citadel, its garrison and importance. The first Germans to invade Denmark came in the guise of tourists, a more familiar form of foreigner. Nazi forces had attacked the Low Countries-The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg-on May 10th. The next day, the British made their own move regarding Norway, mining its territorial waters. The men listened attentively to their commander: The Fhrer has decided to attack Denmark and Norway in order to protect the Reich. In just a few hours, the German Army had overwhelmed Denmark's army and navy, and . World War II: In Depth. It was the last show of kingly courtesy Christian X was to show the Germans. In Warsaw, they shot at us. At a banquet inside Copenhagens Amalienbord Palace, by contrast, the 70-year-old King Christian X, who had ruled since 1912, dismissed talk of war, heading off to the Royal Theater to laugh his way through Shakespeares The Merry Wives of Windsor. Under the code name ' Operation Weserbung ', Nazi Germany attacked Denmark and Norway on 9 April 1940. Of course, the main significance of this event was to the people who were affected by it -- especially Jews in Denmark. In land battles at Narvik, Norwegian and Allied forces under General Carl Gustav Fleischer achieved the first major tactical victory against the Wehrmacht in WWII. A few minutes later, another phone call gave rise to the days most controversial conversation. German invasion was to protect Denmark against an Allied attack. The relief of the generals surrounding me was palpable, he recalled after the war. German industry was heavily dependent on the import of iron ore from the northern Swedish mining district, and much of that ore was shipped through the northern Norwegian port of Narvik during the winter months. Hitler had issued the order for the invasion of Norway on March 1st under the code word "Weserbung". Almost all U-boat operations in the Atlantic were to be stopped for the submarines to aid in the operation. The country was a useful base of operations for the fight against Norway. But it was also begun by a cruel display of diplomatic deceit. He is still looking for an excuse". Given Denmark's position on the Baltic Sea, the country was also crucial for the control of naval and shipping access to major German and Soviet harbours. . In the early morning of 9 April 1940 (Wesertag, "Weser Day"), Germany occupied Denmark and invaded Norway, ostensibly as a . Soon after, a chimney appeared. . Enjoy your travel with us! It would slowly dawn on the Germans just what was behind the veneer of customary Danish courtesy. The engines were repeatedly checked. All available submarines, including some training boats, were used as part of Operation Hartmut in support of Operation Weserbung. Their sole weapon was an obsolete Remington rifle with no bullets. At 05:25, two squadrons of German Messerschmitt Bf 110s attacked Vrlse airfield on Zealand and neutralised the Danish Army Air Service by strafing. He complied with my request in the friendliest manner, the tourist was to remember. The plan received the support of both Chamberlain and Halifax. The History Learning Site, 20 Apr 2015. On 21 February 1940, command of the operation was given to General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst. RIGHT: While attending a lecture on January 13, 1941, Cecil von Renthe-Fink (left) confers with Danish Prime Minister Thorvald Stauning. In the east, there was the Soviet Union, the successor of Sweden's and Finland's archenemy, Russia, on friendly terms with Hitler under the terms of the MolotovRibbentrop Pact. At 7:06pm 5 Norwegian fighters were sent into battle to combat a wave of 7080 enemy planes. [9][pageneeded]. German Invasion of Denmark and Norway (World War II) The German invasion of Denmark was the fighting that followed the German army crossing the Danish border on 9 April 1940 by land, sea and air. After some beer with him, he showed me the quarters of the commanders, the military offices, the telephone exchange, the watch posts, and the old gates by the north and south entrances.. Over 80 years ago, on April 9, 1940, neutral Denmark was invaded by the Nazis on orders from Adolf Hitler. The Norwegian government-in-exile based in London remained, therefore, an Allied nation in the war. Operation Weserbung did not include a military assault on neutral Sweden because there was no strategic reason. Norway now has a rulership situation similar to Denmark: the . At 8.30pm the Norwegian destroyer ger was attacked and sunk outside Stavanger by ten Junkers Ju 88 bombers, after it sank the German cargo ship MSRoda. Mass nonviolent direct action began first with labor strikes. Three companies of paratroopers would be used to seize airfields. With Jesper Christensen, Bodil Jrgensen, Mads Reuther, Gustav Dyekjr Giese. In February, the Royal Navy destroyer HMSCossack boarded the German transport ship Altmark in Norwegian waters. Both ships were torpedoed and sunk with great loss of life. Two of the fortress guns were 48-year-old German-made Krupp guns (nicknamed Moses and Aron) of 280mm (11in) caliber. Munch had just enough time to throw on a suit when Renthe-Fink arrived, the diplomat with tears in his eyes. At 4:15 on the morning of 9 April 1940, German forces crossed the border into neutral Denmark, in direct violation of a German-Danish treaty of non-aggression signed the previous year. Some troops crossed the Jutland border into Denmark, others emerged from hiding in German merchant ships in Copenhagen harbor, and paratroops landed at key points around the country. During a major battle, old King Hamlet killed Norway's King Fortinbras. But Prior proved to be the lone voice of resistance. German forces then overpowered Norwegian troops at Gratangen. . At the time Ambassador Renthe-Fink and Foreign Minister Munch were facing each other, a German passenger ship turned troop transport, the Hansestadt Danzig, was sliding unimpeded through Copenhagen Harbor. The threat from the fortress (and the mistaken belief that mines had contributed to the sinking) delayed the rest of the naval invasion group long enough for the Royal Family, the Cabinet and members of Parliament to be evacuated, along with the national treasury. Although he preserved outward appearances and maintained absolute dignity during the audience. On April 9, 1940 the German army crossed the Danish border by land, sea and air during Operation Weserbung. The Danish commander in chief, General Walter Wein Prior, had left the Kastellet scant moments before the Germans had barged in, headed for the War Ministry. The invasion of Norway was given to the XXI Army Corps under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst and consisted of the following main units: The initial invasion force was transported in several groups by ships of the Kriegsmarine: Shortly after noon on 8 April, the clandestine German troopship SSRio de Janeiro was sunk off Lillesand by the Polish submarine ORPOrze, part of the Royal Navy's 2nd Submarine Flotilla. The German ambassador demanded that Danish resistance cease immediately and that contact be made between Danish authorities and the German armed forces. The German invasion of Denmark was the fighting that followed the German army crossing the Danish border on 9 April 1940 by land, sea and air. Eighty years ago today, on May 11, 1940, the world looked very different in Europe than it had just the morning before. He has written for WWII History on a variety of topics. [citation needed], The 1941 Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran, and the 1940 German invasion of Norway have been argued to be preemptive, with the German defense in the Nuremberg trials in 1946 arguing that Germany was "compelled to attack Norway by the need to forestall an Allied invasion and that her action was therefore preemptive". On that same day, Denmark surrendered and was occupied. They would actually knock out a quartet of tanks and a dozen armored cars. Captain Giercke was preparing his part to make them so back at his base. Then, as the Allied armies raced north to deal with this threat, the main German offensive smashed through the lightly defended hills of . To the Danes, the Times of Londonobserved, belongs the credit of inventing a new order unthought-of by Hitler: the Order of the Cold Shoulder.. It came from the naval headquarters, requesting authorization to start firing. Operation Weser Exercise, 9 April 10 June 1940) was Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign. The invasion of Norway. Initially, the plan was to invade Norway and to gain control of Danish airfields by diplomatic means. Operation Weserbung (German: Unternehmen Weserbung [vezyb], transl. Everything took place quickly under the cover of an alert exercise. On the 9th April, 1940, the German forces invaded Norway and Denmark. Into the Darkness: Directed by Anders Refn, Kasper Frederik Mortensen. The invasion of Denmark was a part of the operation "Weserbung . Major Hans Lunding ran a spy ring in northern Germany, which sent him reports of troop concentrations, increases in military traffic, and the stockpiling of supplies. Resist had been shot forces to occupy the Swedish iron ore mining district hold it until infantry?! A shot to help found NATO in 1949 by land, sea air. 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