German Invasion of Denmark and Norway
The open discussions on an Allied expedition to northern Scandinavia, also without consent of the neutral Scandinavian countries, and the Altmark Incident on 16 February, alarmed the Kriegsmarine and Germany by threatening iron ore supplies and gave strong arguments for a German securing of the Norwegian coast. Codenamed Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway commenced on 9 April. From 14 April, Allied troops were landed in Norway, but by the end of April the southern parts of Norway were in German hands. The fighting continued in Northern Norway until the Allies evacuated in early June in response to the German invasion of France and the Norwegian forces in mainland Norway laid down their arms at midnight on 9 June.
Read more about this topic: Phoney War
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“I don’t want to shoot any Englishmen. I never saw one ‘til I came up here. But I suppose most of them never saw a German ‘til they came up here.”
—Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959)
“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not the invasion of ideas.”
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“Such was the very armor he had on
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