Weser bung

Operation Weserübung was the German codename for Nazi Germany's assault on Scandinavia during World War II. The name translates as "Weser Exercise", the Weser being a German river.

On the early morning of 9 April, 1940 — Wesertag ("Weser Day") — Germany invaded Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a defensive maneuver against a planned (and openly discussed) Franco-British occupation of those countries; upon arrival envoys of the invading Germans informed the countries' governments that the Wehrmacht came to "protect the countries' neutrality" against Franco-British aggression. Big differences in geography, location, and climate between the two countries made the actual invasions very dissimilar.

The invasion fleet's nominal landing time — Weserzeit ("Weser Hour") — was set to 05:15 AM German time, equivalent to 04:15 local Norwegian time.

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Invasion of Denmark

Strategically speaking, Denmark was relatively unimportant to Germany, except as a staging area for operations in Norway, and of course as a border nation to Germany which would have to be controlled in some way. The country is small and relatively flat, ideal territory for German army operations, so Denmark's tiny army had little hope of success in armed resistance. Nevertheless, in the early hours of the morning some Danish regiments engaged the German army, suffering a couple dozen or so dead.

The Danish government capitulated almost instantly in exchange for retained political independence in domestic matters, which resulted in a uniquely lenient occupation, particularly until the summer of 1943, and also postponing the arrest and deportation of Danish Jews until nearly all of them were warned and on their way to refuge in Sweden. In the end, fewer than 500 Danish Jews were deported, and fewer than 50 of them lost their lives.

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Invasion of Norway

Norway was important to Germany for two primary reasons: as a base for U-boats and to secure shipments of iron-ore from Sweden. The long northern coastline was an excellent place to launch U-boat operations into the North Atlantic in order to strangle British commerce. Germany was dependent on iron-ore from Sweden and was worried, with justification, that the Allies would attempt to disrupt those shipments, 90% of which originated from Norway.

The invasion of Norway was given to Group XXI under General 163^rd Infantry Division

69^th Infantry Division
169^th Infantry Division
181^st Infantry Division
DKM Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and 10 destroyers with 2,000 troops to Narvik.

DKM Hipper and 4 destroyers with 1700 troops to Trondheim.
DKM Köln, DKM Königsberg, DKM Bremse, DKM Karl Peters, 3 Torpedo Boats and 5 Motor Torpedo Boats with 1,900 troops to Bergen.
DKM Karlsruhe, 3 Torpedo Boats, 7 Motor Torpedo Boats with 1100 troops to Kristiansand.
DKM Blücher, DKM Lützow, DKM Emden, 3 Torpedo Boats and 8 Minesweepers with 2,000 troops to Oslo
4 Minesweepers with 150 troops to Egersund.

A reasonably complete concise description of the invasion of Norway would entail the following (yet to be written):

In an act of poetic justice, Fate let the heavy cruiser Blücher be sunk in the Oslofjord 9 April 1940 by ancient German Krupp guns (named Moses and Aron, of 280 mm calibre, installed at Oscarsborg Fortress 23 May 1893) and equally ancient torpedoes.
- German ships sailed up the main fjord leading to Oslo, reaching the Drøbak Narrows (Drøbaksundet). In the early morning of April 9, the gunners at Oscarsborg fired on the ship which had been illuminated by spotlights at about 0515hrs. Within two hours the ship was sunk along with at least 1000 men. The wreck blocked the route to Oslo, thus delaying the rest of the group long enough for the royal family and parliament to be evacuated, as well as the national treasury. The result was that Norway never surrendered to the Germans, leaving the Quisling government illegitimate and permitting Norway to participate as an ally in the war, rather than as a conquered nation.
German airborne troops landed at Oslo airport Fornebu, Kristiansand airport Kjevik, and Stavanger airport Sola – the latter constituting the first fallschirmjäger ("paratrooper") attack in history; coincidentally, among the Luftwaffe pilots landing at Kjevik was Reinhard Heydrich.
Quisling's radio-effected coup d'etat – another first.
Partly thanks to the Blücher sinking, royal family and parliament (including government) evaded the German invasion force; King Haakon refused to lay down arms; Clash at Midtskogen; bombs at Nybergsund; royal family, parliament, and national gold reserves moved northward ahead of the Germans.
Cities/towns Bergen, Stavanger, Egersund, Kristiansand S, Arendal, Horten, Trondheim and Narvik attacked and occupied within 24 h.
First and Second Naval Battle of Narvik (Royal Navy vs Kriegsmarine)
Devastating bombing of towns Åndalsnes, Molde, Kristiansund N, Steinkjer, Namsos, Bodø – some of them tactically bombed, some terror-bombed.
Main German land campaign northwards from Oslo with superior equipment; Norwegian soldiers with turn-of-the-century weapons, along with some British and French troops, stop invaders for a time before yielding – first land combat action between British Army and Wehrmacht in WWII.
Land battles at Narvik: Norwegian and Allied (British, French, Polish) success and the following unfortunate withdrawal of the Allied forces (mentioned below); Fighting at Gratangen
The "last stand": Hegra Fortress (Fort Ingstadkleiven) resisted the siege until 5 June; resistance of Allied propaganda importance, like Narvik.
King Haakon, Crown Prince Olav, and parliament left from Tromsø 7 June (aboard British cruiser HMS Devonshire, bound for UK) to represent Norway in exile (King returned to Oslo same date 5 yrs later); Crown Princess Märtha and children later left from Petsamo, Finland, to live in exile in USA.
Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940, two months after Wesertag.

In the far north, Norwegian, French, Polish and British troops fought against the Germans over the control of the Norwegian winter harbour Narvik, important for the export of Swedish iron ore. The Germans evacuated on May 28, but due to the detoriating situation on the European continent, the allied troops were evacuated in Operation Alphabet – and the Germans recaptured Narvik on June 9, by then deserted also by the civilians.

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Encirclement of Sweden and Finland

Operation Weserübung did not include a military assault on (likewise neutral) Sweden — there was no need. Through holding Norway, the Danish straits, and most of the shores of the Baltic Sea, the Third Reich fathomed Sweden from the North, the West and the South – and in the East, there was the Soviet Union, the successor of Sweden's and Finland's arch-enemy Russia, on friendly terms with Hitler through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Sweden's and Finland's trade was totally controlled by the Kriegsmarine. As a consequence, Germany put pressure on neutral Sweden to permit transit of military goods and soldiers on leave. On June 18 an agreement was reached: soldiers were to travel unarmed and not be part of unit movements. A total of 2,140,000 German soldiers, and over 100,000 German military railway carriages, crossed Sweden until the traffic was officially suspended on August 20, 1943.

In August, 1941, Finland agreed to give access to her territory for the Wehrmacht. Initially for transit of troops and military equipment to and from northernmost Norway, but soon also for minor bases along the transit road, that eventually would grow in preparation of Operation Barbarossa.

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Weser bung

Invasion of Denmark

Invasion of Norway

Encirclement of Sweden and Finland

See also