Quick WW2 WI: Allies first to Norway...

just a quick question really... i think early on there was the war for norway (rather quick affair i think) but the germans landed just ahead of the british i think, so they were portrayed as liberators (even though they failed)... so my question is...

What IF allied forces had landed in Norway before the Germans?

have at it you lot's
 

Oddball

Monthly Donor
Norway would have pulled a Denmark. But with even less resistance.

The government and the king would have continued as before in civil matters, and the allied would have taken care of defence and foreign policy

OTL several coatal fortresses hessitated to open fire against the Germans because the approaching ships "could" be British :p:D
 
Catching the bus

Britiain had designs on Norway early on, Churchill wanted to sieze Narvik to cut off Germany's iron ore supplies in Winter using aid for the Finns as a pretext. I suspect the Norweigans would as one responded said have been less hostile than they were to the Germans but we would have had problems. Assisting the Finns may have lead to war with the Soviet Union as well.

As events turned out, the invasion was costly to the Germans as they lost almost their entire destroyer force at Narvik and most of their major surface ships were in dry dock afterwards rendering any invasion of Britain difficult hence Admiral Raeders objections to Operation Sea Lion. Germany had to maintain an army of occupation. Britain gained the worlds 4th largest ocean going merchant fleet at a time when we were loosing the Battle of the Atlantic. The threat of our reinvading Norway also tied German forces down.

The Germans did however gain U-boat and air bases.
Our biggest gain was getting rid of Neville Chamberlain and a gaining coalition government that was largely out to defeat Nazi Germany.

What if the gualatier appointed had been a bit more patient and tried to negotiate with traditional conservatives rather than the Nazi upstart Quisling who was detested by Norweigans and regarded a bit like Oswald Moseley in the UK.

Maybe the timing of events turned out for the best i.e we got a change in government at the right time i.e Churchill when it was to late to go to war with Russia. We may have missed the first bus but at least we caught the Shetland Bus. I'd sooner have people like Leif Larsen on my side.
 
Britiain had designs on Norway early on, Churchill wanted to sieze Narvik to cut off Germany's iron ore supplies in Winter using aid for the Finns as a pretext. I suspect the Norweigans would as one responded said have been less hostile than they were to the Germans but we would have had problems. Assisting the Finns may have lead to war with the Soviet Union as well.

As events turned out, the invasion was costly to the Germans as they lost almost their entire destroyer force at Narvik and most of their major surface ships were in dry dock afterwards rendering any invasion of Britain difficult hence Admiral Raeders objections to Operation Sea Lion. Germany had to maintain an army of occupation. Britain gained the worlds 4th largest ocean going merchant fleet at a time when we were loosing the Battle of the Atlantic. The threat of our reinvading Norway also tied German forces down.

The Germans did however gain U-boat and air bases.
Our biggest gain was getting rid of Neville Chamberlain and a gaining coalition government that was largely out to defeat Nazi Germany.

What if the gualatier appointed had been a bit more patient and tried to negotiate with traditional conservatives rather than the Nazi upstart Quisling who was detested by Norweigans and regarded a bit like Oswald Moseley in the UK.

Maybe the timing of events turned out for the best i.e we got a change in government at the right time i.e Churchill when it was to late to go to war with Russia. We may have missed the first bus but at least we caught the Shetland Bus. I'd sooner have people like Leif Larsen on my side.


i admit that i don't know alot about the norway "campaign" but i didn't think that Neville Chamberlin standing down as Prime minister was assosiated with Norway...

provoking the soviets is obviously a bad idea, but i think that it wouldn't have changed barbarossa in much event(then again i may be wrong)
 
provoking the soviets is obviously a bad idea, but i think that it wouldn't have changed barbarossa in much event(then again i may be wrong)


I'd have to disagree with you on this one:

While, in my own mind, Hitler will eventually come to blows with the USSR - he has to: they're red - this will change a lot of things

France and the Low Countries are still standing, and if any British and French troops got to the Finno-Soviet border (unlikely, as they just wanted an excuse to secure Northern Norway and Sweden) thn Hitler would have been delighted to see his two main enemies - the western allies and the Soviets - slugging it out

What would have happened then,i must confess, i have no idea :eek:


Geordie
 
The pretext was helping Finland as said. So if they might have to do that later on, opening up a can of worms.
 
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