The History of WWII Podcast XX
[0] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[1] Suddenly out of the dark, it's a bit in love.
[2] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[3] What do they know?
[4] What are their skills?
[5] And what would you do in their position?
[6] Vengeance felt good seeing these.
[7] People paid for what they'd done, felt righteous.
[8] True Spies, from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.
[9] This episode is brought to you by Audible.
[10] In case you didn't know, Audible .com is the premier provider of digital audiobooks with over 85 ,000 titles to choose from.
[11] Listeners of this podcast can sign up for a free 14 -day trial and receive a free audiobook download.
[12] You can cancel at any time before your 14 -day trial is up and keep the audiobook, or you can continue on and choose from one of their subscription plans.
[13] Today, I would like to recommend Last of the Few, The Battle of Britain and the Words of the Pilots Who Won It by Max Arthur.
[14] I just finished listening to this, and it was awesome.
[15] Prose is used to set up the story and the different stages of the Battle of Britain from the pilot's point of view, and then the personal accounts of the British, Canadian, Polish, and even German pilots are left to tell the story.
[16] The actors used to read the accounts are amazing and do a wonderful job of bringing the emotion and painting a first -person view of war.
[17] I said in episode one I wanted to convey the sheer tragedy that is war, and this book does that.
[18] But it also has stories that will make you laugh out loud and cheer on those defending the helpless and the innocent.
[19] Now, there are two ways you can sign up for this free trial.
[20] You can go to my website, worldwar2podcast .net, and click on the banner, or you can go to audibletrial .com forward slash worldwar2podcast.
[21] Again, that's audibletrial .com slash worldwar2podcast.
[22] That way, they'll know who sent you.
[23] And I would like to thank Jordan S. of New York and Stephen S. of the United Kingdom for their contributions.
[24] Again, it all goes to reference materials.
[25] Hello, and thank you for listening to a History of World War II podcast, Episode 17, The Fall of Norway and Denmark.
[26] During World War I, Germany had no direct access to the sea, and this was imprinted on the minds of the German naval officers.
[27] So as another war seemed imminent...
[28] The German naval staff began to ponder among themselves how to solve this problem.
[29] The British during World War I had thrown a net across the North Sea, from the Shetland Islands to the coast of Norway, using mines and ships.
[30] Now that the blockade was up again, German shipping could not make it to the high seas.
[31] In fact, the German U -boats even had trouble getting out to sea.
[32] They finally came up with a plan, but it would call for having some control over Norway's coast.
[33] And if things went well, they could turn the tables and blockade the British.
[34] The Norwegian Sea would be theirs.
[35] As the attack on Poland got underway, the third -ranking naval officer, Admiral Rolf Karls, sent messages to Admiral Rader about the possibility of obtaining some territory on the Norwegian coast.
[36] So on October 3rd, Rader had naval staff check with the appropriate personnel in Germany and Russia to see if the needed coastal territory could be obtained with German and Russian diplomatic pressure.
[37] They were told yes, very possible.
[38] It was time for the next step.
[39] A report was put together and Rader presented it to Hitler on October 10th.
[40] Hitler saw the need for the ports and the possibilities for Germany right away.
[41] He told Rader to leave the report with him and he would look into it.
[42] but because of the planning of the attack on the West, he forgot.
[43] But he was reminded of it two months later for several reasons.
[44] First was winter.
[45] Germany got 11 million tons of its needed 15 million tons of iron ore from northern Sweden.
[46] During the warm months, the iron ore was shipped across the Gulf of Bothnia and across the Baltic to Germany.
[47] British submarines and ships were not allowed to go there.
[48] And even during the winter, with the ice being so thick they couldn't go with that path, the iron ore could be hauled by rail to Narvik, which is in the northwest coast of Norway, and sailed down the Norwegian coast, well within Norwegian waters, again, where the British attacking U -boats and ships were not allowed to go.
[49] So Hitler was happy with the neutral Norway.
[50] This he kept telling his navy when they mentioned anything about their plans throughout the mid -1930s.
[51] When war was declared on Germany by Britain, Churchill saw this opportunity right away to stop Germany from getting its iron ore and stop its war effort.
[52] So in early September 1939, he proposed laying mines along the Norwegian waters to stop the shipments coming down the coast.
[53] Resolute Chamberlain may have been, but he drew the line at violating a country's neutrality.
[54] But the Soviet Union's attack on Finland changed that.
[55] Scandinavia was now in play.
[56] So Britain and France began to put together an expeditionary force in Scotland to help the Finns, who seemed to be somehow holding out against the Soviet onslaught.
[57] Now, the only way this Allied expeditionary force could get to Finland was through northern Norway and Sweden, and Hitler saw that if this force was given permission to cross, or gave themselves permission to cross, the iron ore desperately needed by Germany would be cut off.
[58] Also, Germany would be outflanked on the north.
[59] Hitler, like the West, had to reconsider his stance on a neutral Norway, and several factors went into convincing him to invade.
[60] There was a threat of the iron ore being outflanked on the north, and a Norwegian trader named Major Wittgen Abraham Loretz Quisling, whose name would soon become synonymous with being a trader.
[61] He wanted Germany's help in making him the leader in Norway.
[62] Years before, after spending some time in Russia, he tried to bring communism to Norway.
[63] That failed, and then he went to the other extreme and tried to bring national socialists to Norway.
[64] That failed as well.
[65] Obviously, he needed help.
[66] He was able to make contacts in Germany throughout the 1930s, and he told them he had a lot of important followers, and he wanted support for his cause, and he was given some support.
[67] He was given money and training for his troops.
[68] His plan was to take over the Norwegian government and ask Germany for help, kind of what happened in Austria.
[69] Quisling finally got to meet Admiral Rader on December 11th.
[70] and he warned the Admiral that British had plans to invade Norway.
[71] He gave Rader the details, and Rader was impressed.
[72] And all this he passed on to Hitler.
[73] Hitler was intrigued, but again, enthusiastic about any operation led by the Navy.
[74] He begrudgingly respected British naval strength, and he wanted a neutral Norway if at all possible.
[75] So Hitler decided to meet Quisling for himself to size him up.
[76] They met on December 14th, and although there's no surviving record of the conversation, it's clear that Hitler was impressed with this man. That night, Hitler ordered the OKW to draw up an invasion plan along with Quisling, but Hitler wanted Denmark included in the plan.
[77] The plan was to be called Study North.
[78] The German Navy was split on what, if anything, the British and the French were up to in Norway, while Rader was convinced the British were coming.
[79] but an operations division disagreed and stated the obvious that any naval engagement with Britain would be fraught with danger.
[80] Hitler frowned when he learned of the division within the Navy, as well as when he read Steady North, brought to him in the middle of January.
[81] There was too much hesitation, too much hedging of bets.
[82] He wanted decisiveness, he wanted action, he wanted people to be like him.
[83] So Hitler had General Keitel issue a top secret statement saying that he would personally take over the planning.
[84] He then put Keitel in charge with a representative from each of the three armed services and changed the name to Wesser Rubung, or Wesser Exercise.
[85] To all in the know, Hitler seemed to have made up his mind, but if he did have any doubts, they were removed for him on February 17th by Churchill and Norway.
[86] Although the Graf Spee was lost, one of its auxiliary ships, The Altmark escaped with hundreds of British prisoners bound for Germany.
[87] It had slipped through the British blockade, but had to stop Norway on its way home.
[88] It was inspected by Norwegian officials, but no prisoners were found on board.
[89] It was clear to continue on its voyage home, but Churchill, who knew better, ordered a group of destroyers to go into Norwegian waters, board the Altmark, and rescue the prisoners.
[90] The British destroyer Cossack...
[91] completed its orders on the night of February 16th and 17th in Joesing Ford.
[92] There was a small fight.
[93] Four Germans were killed and five wounded.
[94] The British boarding party rescued 299 seamen who had been locked up in an empty oil tank.
[95] Norway protested loudly about the British action, but Churchill said Norway was the one who was letting Germany use their waters to transport prisoners.
[96] Hitler was very upset by this.
[97] There was not enough fighting back by the Grasby before it was sunk or the Altmark.
[98] Where were the British losses?
[99] And of course, Hitler didn't believe Norway's protests.
[100] He thought they were just covering their own support of Britain.
[101] And for Hitler, this was it.
[102] On February 19th, he pressed for Westerrubung to be completed.
[103] It was time to select a commander.
[104] Keitel suggested and Hitler approved General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, who fought in Finland during World War I. So Falkenhurst was brought to the Chancellery on February 21st and talked with Hitler, and then the Nazi warlord showed Falkenhurst a map of Scandinavia.
[105] They talked about the Norwegian ports, and Hitler put him in charge of the operation right there and then.
[106] He would be given five divisions, one for each port he wanted taken.
[107] He then left Hitler's presence, got an old travel guide of Norway, and went to his hotel room to work out a plan.
[108] He returned to the Fuhrer by 5 p .m. and presented his plan.
[109] Though sketchy, the plan was approved.
[110] The five ports of Norway, going from south to north, were Oslo, the capital, Schwanger, Bergen, Trottheim, and Narvik.
[111] They were all to be taken.
[112] On March 1st, Hitler issued the formal directive for the Vessar exercise.
[113] He wanted to keep the force as small as possible, and he told them to watch out for the British Navy, but to be daring and to use surprise.
[114] They wanted to try to make this occupation as peaceful as possible, but if force is needed, to be ruthless.
[115] The invasion of Denmark and Norway needed to happen at the same time to maximize the surprise.
[116] Generals Brodich and Halder busy planning the war in the West, were completely left out of this.
[117] When they were asked for more troops by Falkenhorst, they were indignant.
[118] But that was nothing compared to what Goring was when he found out.
[119] He flew into a rage.
[120] His planes would play an important role to try to offset the British naval advantage.
[121] But Hitler, who would have screamed at anyone else to shut up, cooed and consoled his rotund field marshal.
[122] Hitler couldn't decide whether to attack the West first or Scandinavia.
[123] But by March 3rd, he decided to go with the North first.
[124] The iron ore there was just too precious.
[125] For those in the know, the war for the Finns was not going well.
[126] But Hitler still couldn't take the chance that the British and the French wouldn't try to land some force there to help them and cut off his iron ore. Plus, he didn't trust Stalin, who was trying to take over the entire country of Finland, to be that much closer to his...
[127] badly needed iron ore. The British and the French kept telling General Mannerheim of the Finnish forces that help was coming just to hold on.
[128] They would probably be there by the end of March.
[129] But Mannerheim knew that it was all over before this message came because he had been told a couple days earlier that Norway nor Sweden would allow the expeditionary force to travel over their territory.
[130] What was Britain and France supposed to do?
[131] Fight through those two countries just to get to the Finns to help them fight Russia?
[132] There was no way that was going to happen.
[133] so the western powers were trying to get to finland before the war was over and hitler was trying to get to norway before they could get to finland but on march twelfth the war was over finland accepted the soviets harsh terms hitler was glad he did not have to support this unpopular war any more but now he had no excuse to invade he was planning on telling the world that he was going to set forces to norway to stop the british and french from invading it And he still didn't trust the British and the French to stop their plans anyway, even though the war in Finland was over.
[134] But Hitler's world immediately became more complex.
[135] Admiral Rader, who Hitler was gaining a larger respect for, was losing his enthusiasm at the idea of besting the British on the seas.
[136] And this affected the Nazi warlord.
[137] Doubt breached Hitler's mental walls.
[138] Also, Hitler felt the cooling wind blowing in from Rome.
[139] Trade between Italy and the West was increasing.
[140] In fact, Mussolini was selling them arms.
[141] But the real trouble for Hitler was that Sumner Wells, the U .S. Undersecretary of State representing the U .S. President Roosevelt, had arrived in Berlin on March 1st to discuss stopping the war in the West before it got going.
[142] Hitler believed, and there seems to be some proof of this, that Sumner was also going to try to detach Mussolini from Hitler.
[143] Hitler had not responded to Mussolini's January 3rd very frank letter, but knew his comrade well enough to know that anything was possible.
[144] Now, Hitler was incredibly ignorant of the U .S. and its history, and the information he received from his German military attaché in Washington didn't help.
[145] He told Hitler that the U .S. was not ready for war and could not be ready anytime soon.
[146] Also that other parts of the federal government were actively fighting Roosevelt and against choosing a side, like there was any possibility that the U .S. would choose Germany's side.
[147] He finished by saying that the U .S. would join the war if Germany fights France, but it wouldn't amount to very much.
[148] Thankfully for Hitler, the German charge d 'affaires in Washington, Hans Thomson, sent a more accurate picture of the U .S. to Berlin.
[149] He told his country that the U .S. was sympathetic to Poland and blamed Germany for the war.
[150] Also, he begged them to stop any plans of sabotage in the U .S. That would be the fastest way to bring the U .S. out of its sleep against Germany.
[151] So the U .S.-German relations had slumped since November when Roosevelt recalled the ambassador in Berlin protesting the Nazi program against the Jews.
[152] Trade between the two countries had come down to a crawl, but then stopped completely when the British blockade started.
[153] But through an act of Congress, the embargo was lifted, but only to supply the U .S.-Western allies.
[154] This was the situation when Sumner came to Berlin.
[155] So Sumner met with Hitler and Ribbentrop and Goering a couple of times the first three days of March, and all the Germans were speaking from the same talking points.
[156] They tried to make Britain look like the aggressor.
[157] But Sumner, to his credit, did not get lost in the long meetings and the twisted Nazi views of reality.
[158] Not only did Sumner not fall for the Nazi interpretation of European history for the last five years, but he claimed he had a long talk with Mussolini, and they agreed that peace was still possible.
[159] Hitler then knew that he would have to set his Italian partner straight.
[160] Only after a German victory in the West could there be peace.
[161] But Hitler caught a break when the British said that they would cut off the shipments of German coal that went through Italy.
[162] This would definitely hurt the Italian economy.
[163] Mussolini was enraged, and he warmed to his German comrade, especially when Hitler said he would replace the losses that Italy suffered because of the British.
[164] This good news from Mussolini came in a long letter from Hitler on March 8th.
[165] He never apologized for his past actions, but he seemed to write of all he was thinking.
[166] Sumner was wasting his time, he said.
[167] He would still attack in the West.
[168] Yes, it would be hard, but he was confident of their success.
[169] Yes, their success.
[170] Hitler told Mussolini that he felt certain that fate would bring them together.
[171] They could fight the West together or separately.
[172] It was as simple as that.
[173] Be by my side as I will be by yours.
[174] The letter ended.
[175] So Mussolini, being Mussolini, let himself be flattered by the letter and told Ribbentrop, who was in Rome, of course he would be by Hitler's side when the time came.
[176] Ribbentrop, who was relieved, then started promising more coal than what was lost due to Britain.
[177] They talked while Ciano took notes on March 11th and 12th.
[178] Both times, Ribbentrop went on to display his amazing ignorance of the world history.
[179] by making extraordinary statements about the U .S., the Soviet Union, and Mussolini, again, being Mussolini, could not help himself and let Ribbentrop do most of the talking, but occasionally got in a sarcastic remark that made Chiano chuckle while taking notes.
[180] Fortunately for everyone, Mussolini's slings and arrows went completely over the German foreign minister's head.
[181] Unfortunately for Italy, when they talked on the second day on March 12th, Mussolini was a changed man, and he told Ribbentrop it was only a matter of time before Italy joined Germany in war.
[182] The timing was crucial, Mussolini was trying to explain.
[183] As he put it, Italy ought not to intervene until all his preparations were made.
[184] That way he would not be a burden to his partner.
[185] This self -serving statement again went over Ribbentrop's blonde head.
[186] Mussolini would join Hitler.
[187] But when he would join would be up to him.
[188] So although Ribbentrop did not get a date out of the KG Duce, he did get a promise to join the war soon.
[189] He also got Mussolini to agree to meet with Hitler personally at the Brenner Pass.
[190] Ribbentrop offered late March, and Mussolini readily agreed.
[191] Of course, Ribbentrop left out that Hitler was about to attack Denmark and Norway any day now.
[192] So Hitler, through Ribbentrop, had Mussolini back in his gilded cage.
[193] When Sumner got back to Rome on March 12th, after meeting in Paris and London and Berlin, he found Mussolini a changed man. There was no more talk of Italy promising to stay out of the war, or as Mussolini probably saw it, the great adventure.
[194] Sumner knew his mission had failed.
[195] But as soon as Ribbentrop left, Mussolini was confessing second thoughts to Ciano.
[196] By the evening of March 12th, Mussolini was hoping he could talk Hitler out of the land war.
[197] He would try when the two leaders met at Brenner.
[198] But Sciano wrote that night in his diary that Mussolini was fascinated by Hitler, and he knew that Hitler would get more out of Mussolini than Mussolini wanted to give.
[199] When the Germans wanted to move the meeting up a few days, this caused Mussolini to explode that the Germans never gave a person a chance to breathe.
[200] Looking back, maybe that was the point.
[201] Hitler knew his Mussolini well.
[202] As the meeting started the morning of March 18, 1940, in Mussolini's special train, as opposed to Hitler's, Chiano knew that Mussolini was a study of internal conflict.
[203] He wanted to fight, he wanted to be a warlord in his own right, but he didn't want to risk the possibility that he might lose.
[204] He would be humiliated.
[205] He wasn't worried about Italy suffering defeat or being bombed, he just did not want to be humiliated in anyone's eyes.
[206] Predictably, the meeting was a monologue.
[207] Hitler made it clear that he would attack in the West when it was best for Germany.
[208] When Mussolini could speak, which wasn't often, he was able to say that although he would join Hitler, the when was still his to decide.
[209] But then Mussolini immediately started hedging.
[210] Italy had to be careful when it came in.
[211] Italy could not afford a protracted war because of its economy.
[212] So maybe if Italy came in at the end and gave France the finishing blow, that would work for everyone.
[213] Mussolini probably thought he was getting something over on his German superior, but Hitler had just spent the last hour building up to this moment.
[214] Mussolini was focused on when to jump in.
[215] Hitler just wanted to make his first step easy, because once he was in, there was no going back.
[216] But Hitler acted like he was falling for Mussolini's line and replied, Exactly.
[217] Let me annihilate the French forces in the north, and then you come along in the south, but not along the alpine front where the mountains are.
[218] That's too harsh.
[219] It's too hard.
[220] We'll find some other place.
[221] And you deliver the killing blow.
[222] It will be glorious.
[223] Mussolini agreed to this, but then said, If Germany is going as slow towards victory, Italy will wait before it comes in.
[224] And Hitler agreed to this.
[225] So Italy was in.
[226] It was just a matter of when.
[227] Why did Hitler put up with all this?
[228] It seems the fascination was a two -way street.
[229] Meanwhile, there was massive confusion and unrealistic views held by some of the French politicians.
[230] Premier Deladia found himself under attack by an increasing number of members of both the Chamber and the Senate.
[231] Laval in the Senate and Flandon in the Chamber both led the way.
[232] Laval, who had voted against France going to war, despite their neighbor Germany gobbling up the surrounding countries, reminded everyone that Germany did not declare war first.
[233] Of course, their actions had made their intentions clear.
[234] He blamed Eladia for not helping Poland and then Finland.
[235] He claimed that if he had been sent to Rome, Mussolini would now be their ally.
[236] He finished his attack by saying that when the USSR attacked Finland, that was the perfect opportunity for France to destroy Russia.
[237] The idea of France taking on and annihilating Germany and Russia, the two largest, most industrialized nations, is staggering.
[238] Amazingly, he was applauded when he sat down.
[239] Welcome to True Spies.
[240] The podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[241] Suddenly out of the dark, it's a bit in love.
[242] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[243] What do they know?
[244] What are their skills?
[245] And what would you do in their position?
[246] Vengeance felt good.
[247] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
[248] True Spies from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.
[249] Flandon was arguing in the same vein.
[250] Although he argued against France going to war with Germany over Czechoslovakia and then Poland, he attacked Deladya for not declaring war against the USSR when it attacked Finland.
[251] He wanted to know why there wasn't an expeditionary force in northern Finland taking back the port of Petsamo and using it as a base to invade Russia or to at least push the Russians out of Finland.
[252] But keep in mind, France was the same country that during the Polish campaign...
[253] They captured a town that was between the Maginot line and the Siegfried line, held it, then retreated back behind their line, and ordered their troops not to fire on German engineers working on the Siegfried line, because the Germans might shoot back.
[254] Flandon's speech also ended in cheers.
[255] Deladier, for his part, was beginning to succumb to the pressure of these attacks.
[256] In January, he had fallen from a horse and fractured his foot.
[257] which left him immobile as well as unable to move around and battle the day -to -day hushed conversations and plots in the corridors of the institutions.
[258] Finally, Deladia had had enough.
[259] He told both houses, if they didn't like the way he was conducting the war, they should be men and vote him out.
[260] So they tried.
[261] The Senate voted 236 for and zero against, but with 60 abstentions and a vote of confidence.
[262] However, the chamber voted on March 20th 234.
[263] to one against, but with 300 deputies abstaining.
[264] Technically, he was safe in his position, but the abstention showed him the writing on the wall.
[265] He resigned right after the second vote.
[266] The president then asked Eladier to form another government, but he refused.
[267] So the president then called on Paul Renaud.
[268] Renaud seemed a good choice.
[269] Although 62, he was energetic.
[270] physically active and known for being decisive.
[271] For years, he had been shouting to the skies for renovation and modernization of the army.
[272] He had opposed appeasing Hitler at Munich, and as Deladieu's minister of finance, he had knowledge and experience and was ready to step in.
[273] Amazingly, the Nazi menace seemed not to disturb the personal, ego -driven world of the French politicians.
[274] Renaud barely survived his first few days as the premier designate.
[275] He knew he would have to keep Deladia in his cabinet as defense minister, because Deladia had the support of the radical Socialist Party in the chamber, so a badly needed shake -up of the army was not going to happen.
[276] They would fight this war like the last one.
[277] Renaud's own party, the Socialist Party, did not support him, so his support came from a hodgepodge of different groups.
[278] Definitely not the way to run a government during wartime.
[279] To demonstrate the amount of support Renaud had, When the vote came for him to be the next premier, it was by a majority of one.
[280] 268 -4, with 156 against, with 111 abstaining.
[281] So it totaled 268 -4 and 267 against.
[282] Again, not the best way to fight a supposedly common enemy.
[283] Having survived, though, Renault brought in Colonel Charles de Gaulle to write the government's declaration.
[284] Being a soldier, he kept it short.
[285] This is total war, he wrote.
[286] To conquer is to save everything.
[287] To succumb is to lose everything.
[288] We need to arouse, reassemble, and direct all the sources of the French energy to fight and to conquer.
[289] De Gaulle knew that if Renaud fell, Laval would step in and bring General Pétain with him.
[290] Pétain, everyone knew, would lead the charge to come to some kind of agreement with the Germans.
[291] There would be no resistance.
[292] But what they didn't know, or should have figured out, was that Hitler wasn't going to offer any armistice.
[293] So after his meeting with Mussolini, Hitler was free to focus on the invasion to the north.
[294] To show how serious it was to him, on March 29th he added two mountain divisions to the operation, which upset Halder and Braulich.
[295] But as upset as they were, they still remained compliant enough not to act on the latest attempt when the non -military plotters against Hitler started urging the military to topple him before any action could be taken in the north.
[296] They had gotten wind that something was about to happen and knew that their chances of getting a decent deal from the west would be diminished if Germany attacked another country.
[297] If Brownich was weak, Halder was less than sincere.
[298] Looking through his detailed diary, his opposition to Hitler was mostly at the beginning of Hitler's dangerous adventures, such as occupying the Rhineland, the operation in Austria, and the former Czechoslovakian state.
[299] In early 1940, Holder's diary covered many of the details in planning the invasion in the West, and the frustration at being left out of the plans for Norway and Denmark.
[300] There was no moral indignation or outrage over the treatment of the Jews or the Poles.
[301] Also, the plotters talking to London through another secret agent made it clear that they would talk of peace, maybe even stop the fighting, but they wanted to keep the lands and the territories Hitler had gained through his daring and bluff.
[302] The military leaders by early March wanted a dictated peace with the West only after Germany won its confrontation with them in the North and the West.
[303] and only after the tide had turned against Germany years later did the generals again think of taking down their mad leader.
[304] The German attack planned for the North was certainly daring enough, but one of the main reasons for its success was that the countries involved simply did not believe the information they were given.
[305] Colonel Oster had warned the Dutch, and Colonel Sasse had warned the Danish.
[306] The Dutch had started to mobilize, but the Danish did not believe it or did not want to believe it, which is all too human in the face of danger.
[307] On March 8, the eve of the assault, when a German transport ship full of German infantry was torpedoed, as well as an eyewitness who had reported a huge German armada sailing past some of the Danish islands, the King of Denmark still chose not to believe his own people.
[308] As for Norway, even with a definite report by one of their own on April 5th saying that the Germans would be landing in a southern Norwegian port, Oslo still did not make a move.
[309] On April 7th, again, Norwegians, their own people, saw British planes attack a German fleet on the Norwegian coast, and it still meant nothing to the government.
[310] Even rescued German sailors, who admitted to being on their way to Norway to protect it from a British invasion, did not cause the government in Oslo to think of mobilizing its army, guarding their harbors with more men, blocking their airfields, or mining the narrow sea approaches to the capital.
[311] The British knew of the naval and military movements of Germany in the North Sea, but they did not put two and two together.
[312] In early April, Chamberlain, trying to sound tough and taunt the Germans, declared that although Britain and France were not ready when war was declared, they certainly were ready now, so Hitler had missed the bus.
[313] He would rue these words.
[314] For now, the British believed that the Germans were building up as to be ready in case the Western powers mined the Norwegian waters, or to make a move to cut off their iron ore shipments.
[315] Churchill, who had been pressing for this almost from the beginning of the war, finally got approval to lay mines and send men to northern Sweden through its neighbor Norway.
[316] So the British believed, without any real evidence, that the Germans would be ready to move.
[317] but would do nothing unless the British moved first.
[318] This is very strange, because so far the Germans had been about action, and the British and the French had been about waiting, so this mindset is hard to fathom.
[319] The British believed that they were getting something over on the Nazis, but it's now clear that each side was heading for the same ports along the Norwegian coast.
[320] Because Hitler was still focused on his war with the West, he wanted and needed the taking of Norway and Denmark to be as quick and bloodless as possible.
[321] He made it clear to his generals that the kings of his latest two victims were not to escape, but wanted to occupy and hold, not fight his way in.
[322] So every trick in the book was to be used to get his troops for Denmark and his ships for Norway as close as possible before the jig was up.
[323] Now that the time for Westerubung was set for April 9th at 5 .15 a .m., the plan for Norway was to go into the harbors with all the ships' lights out and pretend to be British ships.
[324] When contacted, they would answer as if they were British ships having trouble.
[325] This was a bit of dirty pool, but all's fair in love and war.
[326] Hitler had the Foreign Office working on plans to justify this latest aggression, as well as coming up with something to convince the Danish and Norwegians to surrender without a fight.
[327] So on April 9th at 5 .20 a .m., one hour before the German troops were to start their invasions in both countries, German invoice had the country's foreign ministers shaken out of bed in Copenhagen and Oslo, and were presented with a German ultimatum, saying to accept without discussion.
[328] The statement given to both countries stated that Germany is not your enemy.
[329] We do not intend to use your land to set up bases against the British unless we are forced to.
[330] The good relations between our countries will remain.
[331] We will not interfere in your territorial integrity and political independence.
[332] Based on this, we expect no resistance from you.
[333] Any resistance will be put down by all possible means.
[334] The Germans got their wish in Denmark.
[335] By 8 .34 a .m., Copenhagen had let Ribbentrop know that there would be no resistance.
[336] Only Army Commander -in -Chief General W. Pryor wanted to fight, but he was overruled by Premier Stoning, Foreign Minister Munch, and King Christian X. The Danes had a navy and respectable guns at the ports where the Germans landed, and they could have caused significant German casualties.
[337] But landward, their nation was too small.
[338] too flat, and being landlocked with Germany could offer no meaningful resistance to Hitler's panzers.
[339] Again, Danish Army Commander Pryor wanted to resist, but when General Heimer, in charge of all the German forces for the invasion, flew German bombers very low and very slowly over the capital, was the German request for surrender officially accepted.
[340] In all, the Danish suffered 13 killed and almost double in the amount of wounded.
[341] The Germans suffered about 20 casualties.
[342] It would be years before the Danish were treated with the same cruelty as others would soon face.
[343] It was then the Danish started to resist.
[344] But the story in Norway was the opposite.
[345] As early as 5 .52 a .m., one hour after receiving the German ultimatum, The government in Oslo made it clear that they would not submit to German protection.
[346] Their message for Ribbentrop was, we will not submit voluntarily.
[347] The struggle is already underway.
[348] Desperate, Ribbentrop had his message of the hopelessness of resistance resent to the Norwegian government.
[349] But there was no one there to listen.
[350] The king, government, and parliament had fled north to the mountains.
[351] Although Commander...
[352] Colonel Sundlow of the local garrison at Narvik, the northernmost port, was a follower of Quinsling and ready to surrender to the German forces, the naval commander was not.
[353] Ten German destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral Bonte were coming into Narvik, the port where Germany's iron ore was loaded for shipment.
[354] The Norwegian naval commander only had two old ironclads in the harbor to offer in defense, but he had one of them, the Eidsvold, fire a warning shot.
[355] Bonte had one of his officers visit the naval officer in a launch, and when he found out that there would be no surrender, Bonte had the Eidsvold sank with torpedoes just as the launch was safely away, but just barely.
[356] Normally in these situations, the officer on the launch would go back to his commander on the ship, and then the battle would continue, so again, this was bad form on the German side.
[357] The second gunboat, the Norg, opened fire, but was quickly sunk as well.
[358] All the men from both vessels, about 300, were lost, and Narvik was occupied by 8 a .m. All this was made more impressive by the fact that the German flotilla had slipped through the British fleet, whose job it was to keep the Germans out in the first place.
[359] About halfway down the Norwegian west coast was another target, the port and city of Trondheim.
[360] It fell as easily as Narvik.
[361] The harbor batteries were not fired as the German ships that were led by the heavy cruiser Hipper.
[362] The troops were disembarked and only found resistance inland.
[363] Some of the nearby forts held out for a few hours, and the defense of the airfield at Varnaes lasted two days.
[364] But what made this port a prize to the Germans, who were happy to have it without a fight, was that, if need be, they could send troops straight across Norway and cut it in half.
[365] About 300 miles south of Trondheim was Bergen, another target.
[366] It was the second largest city and port of Norway.
[367] It was connected with Oslo by rail and therefore important to the attackers and defenders.
[368] Here, the shore batteries opened fire at the first chance of hitting anything and severely damaged the cruiser Konigsberg and an auxiliary ship.
[369] Both ships were damaged, but they were still able to unload their men and material and were able to take the city by noon.
[370] But here is the first instance of British helping the Norwegians.
[371] That afternoon, 15 naval dive bombers attacked and sank the wounded Königsberg, the first ship of any real size to be sunk by assault from the air.
[372] Before this, sinking ships had to do more with having more or larger ships or getting the first lucky shot in.
[373] Naval war, like war on land, was changing.
[374] Outside the Bergen port, The British had a naval force that could have easily wiped out the German ships, and they were about to do so when they received an order from the Admiralty, and Churchill had agreed to it, to stop.
[375] They saw what their planes did to the German ships, and realized that the same could happen to their ships, since the Germans now had land bases to work from, and assumed that a large air force was involved in this operation for Germany.
[376] This would not be the last instance of British overcaution.
[377] For the Luftwaffe, Their top priority was the Sulla airfield, which was near the port of Stavanger on the southwest coast.
[378] It was taken by German parachute troops.
[379] It was not only Norway's biggest airfield that gave the Germans air superiority, but it would allow German bombers to strike at British ships along the Norwegian coast and at the British naval bases in northern Britain itself.
[380] with this airfield in german hands it made any attempt by the british or the french to land any sizable force in norway almost impossible at christensen located just east or to the right of the southern tip of norway was where the dawning power of the air force was displayed the city and port had twice driven back a german fleet led by light cruiser karsruhl But then the Luftwaffe came in and bombed the forts into silence, and the port was taken by mid -afternoon.
[381] Again, the British made an appearance, and the car's rule was so damaged by the British submarine that it had to be sunk.
[382] So by the afternoon of that day, the five cities and ports sought after by the Germans were occupied, along with the largest airfield.
[383] Hitler's plan of dash and subterfuge gained him an amazing victory, with much fewer losses than he could have expected.
[384] But the capital Oslo still eluded him and his forces.
[385] The ford leading to the capital was 50 miles long, and the German fleet, whose job it was to sail up it to get to the capital, was made up of transport ships, the pocket battleship Lutzloh, and the new heavy cruiser Blücher.
[386] They all started to go towards the capital on the 9th of April 8th, but they would not make it.
[387] Trouble started right away for this German fleet heading towards the capital.
[388] First in the fort, they lost a torpedo boat to a Norwegian mine layer.
[389] Once they got past this, they were still stopped 15 miles short of the capital, at the ancient fortress of Oscarsborg, which was defended by ready troops and by Krump -made German 28 -centimeter guns, which opened up and fired on the fleet.
[390] Even though the guns were several decades old, it was Krump steel and Krump manufactured, so they were very effective.
[391] After this, torpedoes were also launched from land.
[392] The 10 ,000 -ton Blucher was hit and its ammunition exploded, sinking the ship and losing its 1 ,600 men, which also included some Gestapo and administration officials who were to arrest the king and take over the government.
[393] The German fleet had to turn around after this.
[394] This heroic action gave the king and his government time to get aboard a train and head north with the Bank of Norway's gold and its documents from its foreign office.
[395] so with the king and the government gone there was complete confusion in oslo the capital all the officials who mattered were on the train heading eighty miles north to hamar but the germans listening to hitler about thinking outside the box parachuted troops into a near -by airfield at fornenbu There was a small forest, but the government was gone with only citizens left, so the Germans quickly made up a band and marched into the city playing music.
[396] This, combined with the bad news from the ports and the sound of heavy guns a few miles away, convinced the people that the situation was hopeless, and they offered no resistance in the capital.
[397] It was taken, but Norway had not yet fallen.
[398] When the Germans found out that the king, the Storting, which was the Norwegian parliament, and the gold were gone, a captain, Spiller, gathered two companies of German parachutists, jumped aboard buses, and set out to catch them.
[399] Now, Spiller couldn't imagine any kind of resistance, and the chase took on an eerie, touristy feel to it, with his men being on the two buses.
[400] But that ended when Spiller and his men ran into a roadblock, since two battalions of Norwegian infantry were waiting for them, just short of Hamar.
[401] Shots were exchanged and Spiller was seriously wounded.
[402] The touring Germans had to turn around and head back to Oslo.
[403] The next day, Dr. Brauer, the German minister in Norway, was on the same road, but this time alone, trying to get an audience with King Hakon VI to stop the fighting.
[404] Ribbentrop was constantly calling on Brouwer to get an update, but Brouwer's draw was made even more difficult by Quisling, who the night before got on the radio once the capital was safely in German hands and declared himself to be the new head of the government and ordered all Norwegians to stop resisting.
[405] The people of this peaceful country...
[406] who had the misfortune to just be a strategic footnote between Germany and the Western powers, who had not resisted until now, felt the shame of their countrymen Quisling, and started to earnestly resist.
[407] Finally, Dr. Bauer caught up with and was allowed an audience with the king at 3 p .m. on April the 10th.
[408] Brouwer wasted no time in telling the king that resistance was useless.
[409] It would only get more Norwegians killed to please surrender, return to Oslo, and accept Quisling as Norway's new leader.
[410] He begged the king to do this, as his brother, King Christian X, had done in Denmark for the good of his country.
[411] The king had to inform the German minister that he did not rule.
[412] He only reigned.
[413] He would have to talk this over with his government.
[414] The meeting ended and Brower was being told that he would have his answer while on his way back to the German occupied capital.
[415] So when Brower was about halfway back, he was reached by phone and told that the Norwegian government could not accept the German ultimatum and that the king would not name Quisling as his new prime minister.
[416] The resistance would continue as long as possible.
[417] This reply was immediately sent to Berlin.
[418] When the Norwegians said the resistance had started, they weren't kidding.
[419] On the evening of the same day, April 10th, the government and King had sent a message out via a radio station from a nearby village, Nybergsund.
[420] The message declared that the government would not accept the conditions of the Germans, and it called on the people to resist, even if there were only three million of them.
[421] The message ended with the King's endorsement.
[422] now the germans could not wrap their heads around this defiance on april eleventh another attempt was made to get the king and the government to surrender but it only met with silence then the germans tried to set up another meeting between the king and brauer the norwegians smelled a trap and declined they had been right the nazi reaction to this was delivered that evening The village Nybersung, where the radio message had come from, was bombed with explosives and incendiary bombs.
[423] The survivors who were running out of the homes and the buildings were gunned down by the Nazis waiting for them.
[424] But the king and the government officials had ran into the woods when they heard the planes coming.
[425] Hidden in the snow, they watched as their countrymen were slaughtered.
[426] Afterward, they considered running to neutral Sweden, but then realized that since they had asked the people to resist, they could not run to Sweden and be neutrals for the rest of the war.
[427] They decided to head north, towards the northwest coast, and find fellow resistors along the way.
[428] They also held out hope that the British would contribute troops to their cause.
[429] In the north, the government got its wish.
[430] Although Churchill later admitted that they were outwitted by the Germans, they realized that their actions to the north would still be out of range of the punishing German land -based bombers.
[431] So on the morning of April 10th, within 24 hours of when the Germans took Narvik and landed troops, five British destroyers sailed into the harbor.
[432] They sank two of the five German destroyers, damaged the other three, and sank most of the remaining German cargo ships.
[433] Also, the German Rear Admiral Bonte was killed.
[434] But when they left the harbor, they were met by five German destroyers.
[435] One British destroyer was sunk, one had to be beached, but the other three made it to the open waters.
[436] At noon on April 13th, another British naval force, led by the battleship Warspite, entered Narvik and destroyed the remaining German ships.
[437] The German land forces, led by Dietl, ran into the hills.
[438] The British had the opportunity to retake Narvik, but when the British troops came on the next day, Three infantry divisions strong, its commander, a Major General Mackenzie, decided on caution and unloaded his troops instead at Harvstad, 35 miles to the north.
[439] Mackenzie kept his troops there for a month, only then cautiously moving out to attack when he outnumbered the Germans 5 to 1.
[440] Now, the British troops could have been sent to Norway earlier, but on April 8th, there was a sad comedy of errors.
[441] First, they were embarked.
[442] Then they were disembarked, when it looked like every ship would be needed for fighting at sea.
[443] Then they were reembarked, when their original plan was taken up again.
[444] This loss of time cost them the initiative.
[445] By the time it was sorted out, the Germans had had the major ports and control of the air.
[446] Any British action now would only result in casualties, but they would try.
[447] Trondheim, roughly in the center of the western coast of Norway, would be attacked by a British force landing south of it, and by an Anglo -French force that would land north of it.
[448] But since they had no artillery, or any anti -aircraft guns, or any air support, Trotheim was safely in German hands.
[449] The Anglo -French force started south, towards Trotheim, met German resistance, and turned around and went back to its base.
[450] The force in the south of Trotheim knew they couldn't take the port city, so instead they went south to help the Norwegian forces who were trying to slow the German advance coming north from Oslo.
[451] On April 21st, at Lillehammer, north of Hemar, the British and German land forces met for the first time, but it wasn't a close contest at all.
[452] The British only had machine guns and rifles.
[453] Their artillery was at the bottom of the Norwegian Sea.
[454] The British were pushed back 140 miles, only slowing the German advance, but then evacuated during the nights of April 30th and May 1st at Andelnes.
[455] The Anglo -French force, the northern part of the pincer, did the same on May 2nd at Namsos, all this while suffering under German air bombardment.
[456] It seemed to all that stalemate was about to ensue, with the Germans holding the southern half along with the middle, while the still -uncaptured Norwegian forces, British and French, and some Poles, would hold on to the northern half.
[457] This would have been acceptable to the Western powers, because it still would have meant that the iron ore would be denied to Hitler.
[458] But then Case Yellow was launched, Hitler's codename for the attack on the West, and the great German offensive was on.
[459] attacking through Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, and northern France, pushing hard with their panzers.
[460] The amazing and seemingly unstoppable Blitzkrieg shook the western countries to their core.
[461] and it was clear that all their forces would be needed, including those engaged in the Norway operation, if defeat was to be deflected, which meant that the forces slowly advancing on Narvik were re -embarked on June 8th and sent to northern France to help with the unfolding crisis.
[462] Soon after, without the support of the Western powers, the remaining Norwegian forces fighting under Colonel Ruge surrendered.
[463] The Norwegians understandably felt betrayed.
[464] It was then that General Dietl came out of the mountains with his German forces and retook Narvik on June 8th.
[465] The British and French forces trying to help Norway were now headed home to defend their own countries.
[466] King Hekon and his government embarked at Tromsø on June 7th and made for London.
[467] They would be exiled for five years.
[468] Quinsling would be removed from his position after holding it for six days.
[469] But he would be reinstated in 1942, but he was so hated by his own people that he was of very little use to the Germans.
[470] After the war, he was tried and then executed on October 24, 1945.
[471] Now, Poland had fallen much easier for reasons mentioned in previous episodes, and Denmark did not resist, hoping for leniency.
[472] But with the Norway campaign, the Nazi generals watched as Hitler fell apart with the first few days of war, with the Norwegians not falling on their knees, begging for mercy, and watching the British reduce the already smaller German navy.
[473] Although the news got better day by day.
[474] The German generals knew that this back and forth in military adventures was nothing compared to what would happen when the West was attacked.
[475] Hitler's panic attacks over setbacks caused concern for the German high command.
[476] But soon Hitler not only regained his confidence, but quickly became the arrogant warlord again and stated that he can now focus on the coming campaign in the West.
[477] On May 1st, he ordered preparations to be ready by May 5th.
[478] But this was another amazing Nazi victory.
[479] The Rhineland had been reoccupied.
[480] Austria had been taken.
[481] The Czechoslovakia state had been taken.
[482] Poland had been taken.
[483] And now Denmark and Norway.
[484] But Hitler in his calmer moments learned along with his generals that daring was needed.
[485] Daring won battles and wars.
[486] They learned that air power could negate naval power and fighters and bombers were cheaper and easier to build than ships.
[487] And that occupied airfields with bombers and fighters affected the outcome of land battles.
[488] and in Denmark and Norway, they now had airfields hundreds of miles closer to the UK.
[489] Their iron ore was safe, and the Germans now had access to the high seas.
[490] But there was one more casualty worth mentioning.
[491] Even though Churchill had a large hand in the Norway campaign, the buck stopped with Chamberlain.
[492] His days of leading the British against Hitler were about to be over.
[493] Casualties on both sides were comparatively light.
[494] Again, we are talking about human lives.
[495] The Germans lost about 5 ,300, and for the Allies, it was just under 5 ,000.
[496] Concerning naval losses...
[497] The British lost one aircraft carrier, one cruiser, seven destroyers.
[498] The French lost a destroyer.
[499] There was one Polish destroyer lost.
[500] But the Germans lost 10 out of the 20 destroyers, three out of their eight cruisers.
[501] And after France is knocked out of the fight and Germany focuses on the United Kingdom, these naval losses will prove disastrous for the Thousand -Year Reich.
[502] Next time.
[503] will go to the other side of the world, back up a bit, and bring Mao Zedong and China up to speed.
[504] His agreement with Chiang Kai -shek to join forces and fight the Japanese imperialists will mean nothing to him.
[505] He will go on attacking the nationalists, gaining territory, and readying himself for the real struggle, control of China.
[506] Welcome to True Spies, the podcast that takes you deep inside the greatest secret missions of all time.
[507] Suddenly out of the dark it's appeared in love.
[508] You'll meet the people who live life undercover.
[509] What do they know?
[510] What are their skills?
[511] And what would you do in their position?
[512] Vengeance felt good.
[513] Seeing these people pay for what they'd done felt righteous.
[514] True Spies, from Spyscape Studios, wherever you get your podcasts.