Best use of German resources in WWII?

[paulo]

By late 41 Germany is already at war with USA - not declared, but the ships / u-boats of both nations are exchanging shots regularly. Only missing is the excuse for FDR declare war.
The U-boat pens in France are probably the worst targets for nukes.

 

[Look More Closely Later]

...BTW the Norwegian campaign was superflous as the German dependence on Swedish iron ore stopped after the Germans took possession of the French ironore and coal mines in N. France after the 1940 campaign. Next I wonder what the implications would have been of the Norwegian campaign having been "just" a British-French invasion of a neutral country? Unlike in WWI Denmark by 1940 wasn't capable of credibly preventing British attempts to threaten N. Germany but with the events in Norway I guess it would not be entirely implausible if Denmark officially joins the Axis. Not that it would in itself change much in the big war, but it would add extra resources as would the absense of the Norwegian losses and occupation force.

Norwegian campaign
Even if the OTL Norwegian campaign is assumed (as you suggest) to have been purely about iron ore supply as far as the Germans were concerned, it started before the invasion of France. At the time that it took place Norway was essential to all year round security of ore supply to Germany from Sweden; the Germans didn't know that the French would have folded by the middle of the summer, and that Germany would be able to loot/access French resources.

 

[Redbeard]

Norwegian campaign
Even if the OTL Norwegian campaign is assumed (as you suggest) to have been purely about iron ore supply as far as the Germans were concerned, it started before the invasion of France. At the time that it took place Norway was essential to all year round security of ore supply to Germany from Sweden; the Germans didn't know that the French would have folded by the middle of the summer, and that Germany would be able to loot/access French resources.

The German plan to invade Norway and Denmark was initiated by the Altmark affair in Feburary 1940 as the Germans lost confidence in Norwegian will to defend its neutrality against British intrusions. It would not be difficult to butterfly away the incident and thus postpone any plans for Norway by a few months and thus have the French campaign preceed it and make it superflous. The question is of course if a no Altmark PoD also makes a British-French action vs. Norway superflous? Might be, but it will still leave the Germans with extra valuable forces - and the British an extra carrier for the Far East.