46 GERMANY TRIUMPHANT 1939–1941
Luftwaffe air attacksBritish positions
British and French troop landings
SOUTHERN NORWAY FALLS TO GERMANY
APRIL 9–MAY 3, 1940British and French troops landed at Åndalsnes, Molde, and Namsos and linked up with Norwegians to launch a counterattack at Trondheim. However, the Allies found themselves attacked by the Luftwaffe; without adequate air defenses, Allied troops evacuated from Åndalsnes (April 30–May 1) and Namsos (May 2–3). By early May, German forces had pushed inland from Oslo, Bergen, and Trondheim and secured southern Norway.
4
TWO NAVAL BATTLES AT NARVIK
APRIL 10–13, 1940 A day after the German landings, five destroyers of the Royal Navy’s 2nd Destroyer Flotilla entered Ofotfjord (the inlet on which Narvik lies), sank two German destroyers, and damaged five more. Two British ships were lost. The British battleship HMS
Warspite
and the
carrier HMS
Furious
later arrived with nine destroyers,
seeking any remaining German ships. On April 13, eight German destroyers and a U-boat were sunk or scuttled. Narvik harbor was then blockaded.
3
German ships sunk at Narvik on April 10
German ships sunk at Narvik on April 13 Feb
16–17
Sailors from the British HMS
Cossack
board the
German ship
Altmark
in Jøssingfjord.
Apr 10
An attack by 16 Blackburn
Skua dive-bombers from the British
Fleet Air Arm sinks the German light cruiser
Königsberg
at Bergen.
Apr 8
The British destroyer
Glowworm
unexpectedly encounters
German ships. Hit by gunfire from
the heavy cruiser
Admiral Hipper
,
Glowworm
rams and damages
Admiral Hipper
before sinking.
Jun 8
The British carrier
HMS
Glorious
is intercepted
and sunk by
Scharnhorst
and
Gneisenau.
May 27–31German air attacks devastate central Bodø, where a British force was landed a month earlier. The British evacuate on May 31.
Jun 7
King Haakon VII of Norway leaves
Tromsø aboard British heavy cruiser
HMS
Devonshire
along with leading
officials to form a government-in-exile
in England.
Apr 9
The
German heavy cruiser
Blücher
is
sunk by gunfire in Oslofjord.
△
German losses at sea
The crew of one of the German destroyers sunk at the Battle of Narvik pose for a photograph alongside the saved insignia of their ship.
German paratroop drops
RAPID STRIKES ON NORWAY APRIL 9, 1940Reports of warship movements from German ports had reached Allied commanders, and Royal Navy units arrived in the Norwegian Sea on April 7. Norway was unprepared for the scale of the invasion as six German attack groups (designated 1–6) assaulted Norway’s coastal cities from Narvik in the north to Oslo in the south, landing thousands of troops. Paratroopers also secured the airports at Stavanger and Oslo. By noon on April 9, German forces controlled Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Egersund, and Kristiansand.
2
German advance
DENMARK FALLS APRIL 9, 1940German vessels and troops tasked with the capture
of Denmark were organized into five attack groups (designated 7–11). At about 4:15
am, a German ship
entered Copenhagen harbor; units of German paratroopers (
Fallschirmjäger
) made airborne drops to
secure landing areas, including Aalborg airport. Hours after the German transport ships had disgorged their troops, the Danish government ordered a cease-fire. By the end of the day, Germany controlled Denmark.
1
German paratroop drops
German advance
LakeVä
ner
Örnsköldsvik
Norrköping
Vossevangen
Copenhagen
Lillehammer
Kristiansand
Flekkefjord
Egersund
Jøssingfjord
Magdeburg
Haugesund
Östersund
Trondheim
Støren
Linköping
Dortmund
Karlskrona
Stockholm
Stavanger
Sola
Leikanger
Flensburg
Halmstadt
Hamburg
Sundsvall
Tromsø
Ålesund
Ventspils
Svolvær
Potsdam
Bollnäs
Finnsnes
Namsos
Rostock
Örebro
Malmö
Uppsala
Harstad
Aalborg Odense
Bremen
Rørvik
Esbjerg
Lübeck
Gävle
Bergen
Kalmar
Emden
Hamar Group 5
Group 3
Group 6
Group 2
Group 4
Århus
Narvik
Ofotfjord
Leipzig
Šiauliai
Bod
Kiruna
Molde
Åndalsnes
Assen
Berlin
Larvik
Oslo
Rjukan
Riga
Kiel
Group 1
Steinkjer
Bornholm
North
Sea
Norwegian
Sea
B (^) fo fluG
to
nh
ai
Baltic Sea
DENMARK
ESTONIA
LATVIA
LITHUANIA
S
W
E
D
E
N
G
R
E
A
T
E
R
G
E
R
M
A
N
Y
N
O
R
W
A
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