air operations in Norway when the time came. He kept up his
attack on the army’s Norway plan. On March , at a Reich
Chancellery conference, he dismissed it as unworkable. Hitler
solved the dispute simply: He excluded the field marshal from
all the remaining planning conferences that month.
Late that month the Forschungsamt intercepted a crucial
Finnish diplomatic telegram, sent from Paris to Helsinki, re-
vealing that Winston Churchill had disclosed in secret French
talks that a British expeditionary force was poised to invade
Norway. Shocked into emergency activity, on April Hitler or-
dered Göring and navy chief Raeder to land German troops in
Norway seven days later. That same night the first three steam-
ships sailed for Narvik, in Norway’s far north, laden with con-
cealed infantry and their arms and ammunition.
Germany invaded Norway and Denmark on April , .
In southern Norway, Göring was able to demonstrate con-
clusively the role of air power. Göring’s paratroops captured
airfields and within minutes the first transport planes were de-
bouching troops onto them. His planes landed on frozen Nor-
wegian lakes and unloaded guns and equipment. His fighters
and bombers strafed the British expeditionary force without
mercy. On April , Hitler would direct Göring to destroy any
Norwegian villages occupied by the British “without regard
for the civilian population.”
At Narvik, in northern Norway, General Eduard Dietl’s
force was heavily outnumbered and cut off from supplies. Ger-
many hoped to persuade Sweden to allow the transit of supplies
across their territory, and on April Dahlerus arrived in Berlin
bringing Vice-Admiral Fabian Tamm, commander of the Swed-
ish navy, for talks. At the Air Ministry Göring subjected the
delegation to an hour-long diatribe. “While Göring was speak-
ing,” recalled one of them, Gunnar Hägglöf, “I noticed that he