Western Europe · Norway, United Kingdom, France and Poland vs Germany
Invasion of Denmark and Norway
9 April 1940 – 10 June 1940
Operation Weseruebung seized Denmark in a day and landed German troops at six Norwegian ports simultaneously. Allied forces landed in central and northern Norway but were driven out of the centre by early May. Narvik was retaken on 28 May, only for the Allies to withdraw when France collapsed; Norway capitulated on 10 June.
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Day by day
— Weseruebung
Before dawn German forces cross into Denmark and land at six Norwegian ports at once, from Oslo to Narvik, carried in warships and covered by paratroops seizing the airfields at Sola and Fornebu. Denmark gives in within hours. In Oslofjord the new heavy cruiser Bluecher is sunk at the Drobak narrows by the old guns of Oscarsborg, delaying the capture of the capital long enough for the King and the gold to leave.
— The fjord destroyers
Ten German destroyers had put the mountain troops ashore at Narvik and then found themselves short of fuel and trapped in the fjords. Five British destroyers went in on 10 April, sank two of them and lost two of their own. On the 13th the battleship Warspite and nine destroyers went up Ofotfjord and sank the eight that were left, along with a U-boat; the German landing force was stranded ashore.
— Namsos and Andalsnes
British and French troops land north and south of Trondheim, at Namsos from 14 April and at Andalsnes from the 17th, in the hope of pinching the port out. They have no air cover, no anti-aircraft guns worth the name and no snow transport. Instead of turning north the Andalsnes force is pulled south to prop up the Norwegians in the Gudbrandsdal.
— Central Norway abandoned
Bombed out of both bridgeheads by Luftwaffe squadrons flying from captured airfields, the Allies take their men off from Andalsnes on the night of 30 April and from Namsos on 2 May. The destroyer Afridi and the French Bison are sunk on the way home. Southern and central Norway are German, and only the north is still fighting.
— Narvik retaken
Norwegian, French Foreign Legion and Polish troops land across Rombaksfjord in the small hours and take Narvik, the first town recovered from the Germans anywhere. Dietl's men fall back towards the Swedish frontier. By then France is collapsing and the decision to leave has already been taken in London.
— Glorious
With France falling the whole northern force is withdrawn between 4 and 8 June, 25,000 men lifted without loss ashore. Returning with two squadrons of fighters aboard, the carrier Glorious and her two escorting destroyers are caught by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the Norwegian Sea and sunk; some 1,500 men are lost. Norwegian forces capitulate on 10 June.
