WI: British invade Norway first

WI in ww2 the British spring their invasion of Norway before the Germans spring theirs? Would the Norweigians then side with the Germans who are not far behind? Or would they go limp and try to be neutral?
 
Britain would gain belligerence for invading a neutral country. The Norwegians would fight them initially but since they had good diplomatic relations maybe they would stand down and join the camp, I´m not too familiar with that...
Nevertheless, the military conditions would not change since Britain would still suffer from the same shortcomings as in OTL, few men, no tanks, no airforce, no co-op. More time for trenches and pillboxes but that´s about all.

At least that´s what I think :)
 
The political fallout would likely be terrible but militarily it would be quite good idea, probbaly keeping Norway in allied hands which in turn likely keeps Finalnd out of the war, makes the artic convoys a hell of a lot safer, also means that the Germans have to focus a lot more resources on the Baltic and northern Germany for fear of allied airsrikes and invasion.
 

Cook

Banned
WI in ww2 the British spring their invasion of Norway before the Germans spring theirs? Would the Norweigians then side with the Germans who are not far behind? Or would they go limp and try to be neutral?

The British plan was to land and occupy Narvik, then march across northern Norway into Sweden to occupy the Iron Ore mines in the north of the country; all on the pretext of providing aid to Finland in the Winter War against the Soviet Union.

The result probably would have been the Norway, Sweden and the Soviet Union would all have entered the war as co-belligerents of Nazi Germany.
 
The British plan was to land and occupy Narvik, then march across northern Norway into Sweden to occupy the Iron Ore mines in the north of the country; all on the pretext of providing aid to Finland in the Winter War against the Soviet Union.

The result probably would have been the Norway, Sweden and the Soviet Union would all have entered the war as co-belligerents of Nazi Germany.

Yeah, I feel like the operation would have REALLY backfired on them.
 
In a purely military way I can't see how the British could hold Norway in the short to medium term. The Germans could bring overwhelming airpower to bear on southern Norway from bases in Denmark, the British would not be able to prevent them gaining a lodgement in the south of the country. This leaves the Germans advancing up Norway with lots of land based airpower and land transported supplies in the face of Britain relying on seapower. Perhaps the RN could make attacks on the open sea flank as the Germans advanced but I doubt it would be enough to stop them. And once the Germans reach a certain spot, Trondhiem for example, the British will have to evacuate in the face of diminishing forces and approaching defeat.
 

Oddball

Monthly Donor
This have been discussed several times before ;)

IMO the Norwegians would, after a few diplomatic protests, fully have cooperated with the British.

Afterall we were for all practical purposes a British vassal at the time.

What would have followed, is a more interesting question :)
 
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