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It seems to me that if the Allies had had a bit more skill or luck, the German invasion of Norway could have easily failed, or at the least failed to take Narvik. If this had happened, how would it affect the course of the war?

I know that it would have disrupted Swedish iron shipments to Germany, but I'm not sure how important this would have been to the German economy. Especially since for half the year the iron could just be sent through the Baltic anyway. Of course, it would have weakened the German nuclear program (by removing a supply of heavy water) but since they were unsuccessful IOTL that doesn't really change much. It would make Lend-Lease easier to ship north to Murmansk/Archangel, but that was only a small fraction of overall Lend-Lease to the USSR. How important was Norway as a base for German U-Boats, though?

I guess I could see the Germans not occupying Norway being beneficial for the Nazi war effort - IIRC they had something like 11 divisions in the country by the end of the war. But overall, I think it would be a minor benefit to the Allies, not enough to radically change the course of WWII in Europe but enough that maybe the war would end a couple months earlier with slightly different West/Soviet frontiers. And we'd have to come up with a different term than "Quisling" for collaborators ;) But maybe I'm missing something about this that could radically change WWII, thoughts?
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