Germany invades Denmark and Norway

The Wehrmacht launches Operation Weserübung

Although Great Britain and France had declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939 after the German invasion of Poland two days earlier, the winter of 1939/40 saw no significant hostilities. The Wehrmacht ended this period of “phony war” on 9 April 1940 by launching an invasion of the neutral states of Norway and Denmark – the latter of which Germany had signed a non-aggression treaty with – under the code name Weserübung. Not preceding the attack by a declaration of war, the Third Reich had hoped to gain a march on Norway and thereby capture its harbours intact in order to secure the iron ore supply coming to Germany from Scandinavia. Physical control of the access to the Baltic Sea achieved in this way would also improve the starting position for the war against the Western powers.

Whilst Denmark soon capitulated, Norway put up stiff resistance with British and French help. The German invasion of France and the Low Countries in May 1940, however, caused the British and French to withdraw. No match for the invader on its own, Norway was forced to capitulate on 10 June 1940. During the occupation of the two states, the Third Reich even considered annexing Norway and Denmark into a “Greater Germanic Reich”.