The Norway Campaign in World War Two

Page 5 of 7

• 1. Hitler's gamble
• 2. German troops land
• 3. Attack and counter-attack
• 4. Narvik
• 5. Evacuation
• 6. Britain's strategic failure
• 7. Find out more
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Evacuation

After delays caused by divided counsels, Narvik was finally taken on 28 May, but the decision to evacuate it had by that time been made. The German victories of that month in France and the Low Countries had transformed the strategic situation, and had left the Allies with little alternative. In any case, the withdrawing Germans had done a comprehensive job of destroying the iron ore facilities.

The evacuation was marred by the loss of the British aircraft carrier Glorious which, with an escort of two destroyers, was returning ahead of the rest of the fleet carrying evacuated Hurricane fighters. The carrier was caught by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and sunk with gunfire, although Scharnhorst was torpedoed and seriously damaged by the escorting destroyer Acasta.

'... by the end of the campaign the German navy had only three cruisers and four destroyers operational.'

Shortly afterwards Gneisenau was also torpedoed by the submarine Clyde, and by the end of the campaign the German navy had only three cruisers and four destroyers operational. This was not a force that could contest the command of the Channel to cover a cross-Channel invasion, and in this way the Norwegian campaign probably helped save Britain.

Although Germany succeeded in pushing back the British blockade line, it never found Norway to be the asset it had hoped for. And although the territory later provided a base from which to attack Allied Arctic convoys to the USSR, Norway's defence tied down more forces than the country's strategic usefulness merited.

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Published: 2004-06-07