They were counting on the co-operation of Norway, which would alleviate some of the legal issues, but stern warnings issued to both Norway and Sweden by Germany resulted in strongly negative reactions in both Scandinavian countries. The plan received the support of both Chamberlain and Halifax. Conveniently, that would also allow the Allied forces to occupy the Swedish iron ore mining district. Their plan called for a force to land in Narvik, in northern Norway, the main port for Swedish iron ore exports and then to take control of the Malmbanan railway line from Narvik to Luleå in Sweden on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia. In December 1939, the United Kingdom and France began serious planning for sending aid to Finland. Churchill again proposed his mining scheme but once again was denied.
The start of the Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in November 1939 changed the strategic situation. Though later implemented, Operation Wilfred was initially rejected by Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax for fear of an adverse reaction among neutral nations like the United States. That would force the ore transports to travel through the open waters of the North Sea, where the Royal Navy could intercept them.Ĭhurchill assumed that Wilfred would provoke a German response in Norway and that the Allies would then implement Plan R 4 and occupy Norway. Toward the end of November 1939, Winston Churchill, as a new member of the British War Cabinet, proposed the mining of Norwegian waters in Operation Wilfred. 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.
The navy argued that possession of Norway would allow control of the nearby seas and serve as a platform for staging submarine operations against the United Kingdom. In October 1939, the chief of the German Kriegsmarine, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, discussed with Adolf Hitler the danger posed by potential British bases in Norway and the possibility of Germany seizing those bases before the British could. Control of the Norwegian coast would serve to tighten a blockade against Germany. 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. Therefore, the British began to consider a blockade strategy in an attempt to weaken Germany indirectly. The British government was reluctant to engage in another land conflict on the continent in the belief that would repeat the First World War. In the spring of 1939, the British Admiralty began to view Scandinavia as a potential theatre of war in a future conflict with Germany. ( April 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This section needs additional citations for verification. The invasion fleet's nominal landing time, Weserzeit ( transl. Significant differences in geography, location and climate between the two nations made the actual military operations very dissimilar. After the occupation of Denmark (the Danish military was ordered to stand down as Denmark did not declare war with Germany), envoys of the Germans informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that the Wehrmacht had come to protect the countries' neutrality against Franco-British aggression. In the early morning of 9 April 1940 ( Wesertag, " Weser Day"), Germany occupied Denmark and invaded Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, French-British occupation of Norway known as Plan R 4 (actually developed as a response to any German aggression against Norway). 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. Operation Weserübung ( German: Unternehmen Weserübung, transl.
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