In the far north, Norwegian, French and Polish troops, supported by the Royal Navy and
the RAF, fought against the Germans over the control of the Norwegian harbour Narvik, important for the year-round export of Swedish iron ore (The Swedish harbour of Luleå is blocked by ice in the winter months). The Germans were driven out of Narvik on 28 May, but due to the deteriorating situation on the European continent, the allied troops were withdrawn in Operation Alphabet and the Germans recaptured Narvik on 9 June, by then deserted also by the civilians due to massive Luftwaffe bombing.

German airborne troops landed at Oslo airport Fornebu, Kristiansand airport Kjevik, and Sola Air Station the latter constituting the first opposed paratrooper (Fallschirmjäger) attack in history;[5] coincidentally, among the Luftwaffe pilots landing at Kjevik was Reinhard Heydrich.

Quisling’s radio-effected coup d’etat another first. Partly thanks to the sinking of the Blücher in the Oslo Fjord narrows, the Royal family, the Parliament and the Cabinet Nygaardsvold evaded the German invasion force; King Haakon refused to lay down arms; Clash at Midtskogen; bombs at Elverum and Nybergsund; the Royal family, the Cabinet, the Parliament, and the national gold reserves moved northward ahead of the Germans.

Heroic, but wholly ineffective, stand by the Norwegian armoured coastal defence ships Norge and Eidsvold at Narvik. Both ships torpedoed and sunk with great loss of life.

First and Second Naval Battle of Narvik (Royal Navy vs Kriegsmarine). The German force took Narvik and landed the 2,000 mountain infantry, but a British naval counter-attack by the old battleship HMS Warspite and a flotilla of destroyers over several days succeeded in sinking all ten German destroyers once they ran out of fuel and ammunition.

Devastating bombing of towns Nybergsund, Elverum, Åndalsnes, Molde, Kristiansund N, Steinkjer, Namsos, Bodø, Narvik some of them tactically bombed, some terror-bombed. Main German land campaign northward from Oslo with superior equipment; Norwegian soldiers with turn-of-the-century weapons, along with some British and French troops (see Namsos Campaign), stop invaders for a time before yielding first land combat action between British Army and Wehrmacht in WWII.

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Berlin office workers enjoy the spring sunshine during their lunch break, end of April 1940. The lives of most ordinary people across Europe were relatively unaffected by the war. That was about to change.

Marie Vassiltchikov was a Russian emigre with a Lithuanian passport, living in Berlin. Her language skills found her work with the German Foreign Ministry Information Department. Her private diary was to increasingly chronicle the impact of the war on Berliners but up to now is largely concerned with her social life.

28th April: The virtual disappearance of many indispensables since the start of the war has had a comical aftermath at my office: for some time now our bosses had been complaining about the inexplicable consumption of unaccountable quantities of w.c. paper. At first they concluded that the staff must be suffering from some new form of mass diarrhoea, but as weeks passed and the toll did not diminish, it finally dawned on them that everyone was simply tearing off ten times more than he (or she) needed and smuggling it home. A new regulation has now been issued: all staff members must betake themselves to a Central Distribution Point, where they are solemnly issued with the amount judged sufficient for their daily needs!

See Marie Vassiltchikov: The Berlin Diaries, 1940-45.

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The 3rd ‘Blackshirt’ Division was one of several Italian division made up of Fascist volunteers. Generally less well-trained in comparison to standard Italian Army divisions, the 3rd Blackshirts put up a spirited defense against the British during Operation Compass in late 1940 but was eventually overrun and destroyed on the border with Egypt.

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A pre war RAF Gloster Gladiator

The British land forces operating in central Norway were to bitterly complain that they rarely, if ever, saw their own aircraft. It was not for want of trying by the Fleet Air Arm. They were now operating aircraft from the aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal and Glorious. Because the air threat to the ships themselves they stayed 100-150 miles offshore, which in consequence stretched the operating capabilities of their aircraft. An account of the difficulties encountered by Midshipman ‘Doc’ Goble when he ran out of fuel when flying a Skua from the Ark Royal on the 24th April 1940 can be found on Dinger’s Aviation Pages.

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