An “excellent” history of the often overlooked WWII campaign in which Hitler secured a vital resource lifeline for the Third Reich (Library Journal). After Hitler conquered Poland and was still fine-tuning his plans against France, the British began to exert control over the coastline of neutral Norway, an action that threatened to cut off Germany’s iron-ore conduit to Sweden and outflank from the start its hegemony on the Continent. The Germans responded with a dizzying series of assaults, using every tool of modern warfare developed in the previous generation. Airlifted infantry, mountain troops, and paratroopers were dispatched to the north, seizing Norwegian strongpoints while forestalling larger but more cumbersome Allied units. The German navy also set sail, taking a brutal beating at the hands of Britannia, but ensuring with its sacrifice that key harbors would be held open for resupply. As dive-bombers soared overhead, small but elite German units traversed forbidding terrain to ambush Allied units trying to forge inland. At Narvik, some six thousand German troops battled twenty thousand French and British until the Allies were finally forced to withdraw by the great disaster in France, which had then gotten underway. Henrik Lunde, a native Norwegian and former US Special Operations colonel, has written the most objective account to date of a campaign in which twentieth-century military innovation found its first fertile playing field.

Despatches in this volume include that on the first and second battles of Narvik in 1940; the despatch on operations in central Norway 1940, by Lieutenant General H.R.S. Massy, Commander-in-Chief, North West Expeditionary Force; Despatch on operations in Northern Norway between April and June 1940; the despatch on carrier-borne aircraft attacks on Kirkenes (Norway) and Petsamo (Finland) in 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey; the despatch on the raid on military and economic objectives in the Lofoten Islands (Norway) in March 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey, Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet; and the despatch on the raid on military and economic objectives in the vicinity of Vaagso Island (Norway) in December 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey.??This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in what was one of the most significant periods in British military history.

Senior military commander assesses the reasons behind the ignominious failure of the British campaign in Norway in 1940.

Church Resistance to Nazism in Norway, 1940-1945 examines the evolution of the Lutheran state Church of Norway in response to the German occupation. While German Protestant churches generally accepted Nazism and state incorporation, Norway’s churches rejected both Nazism and ideological alignment. Arne Hassing moves through the history of the Church of Norway’s relationship to the Nazi state, from its initial confused complicities to its open resistance and separation. He writes engagingly of the people at the center of this struggle and reflects on how the resistance affected the postwar church and state.

Despatches in this volume include that on the first and second battles of Narvik in 1940; the despatch on operations in central Norway 1940, by Lieutenant General H.R.S. Massy, Commander-in-Chief, North West Expeditionary Force; Despatch on operations in Northern Norway between April and June 1940; the despatch on carrier-borne aircraft attacks on Kirkenes (Norway) and Petsamo (Finland) in 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey; the despatch on the raid on military and economic objectives in the Lofoten Islands (Norway) in March 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey, Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet; and the despatch on the raid on military and economic objectives in the vicinity of Vaagso Island (Norway) in December 1941, by Admiral Sir John C. Tovey.This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in what was one of the most significant periods in British military history.

In May 1941, the Norwegian Section of SOE received a dossier warning of the dangers of a hydroelectric fertiliser plant in Norway. Vemork produced heavy water, an essential part of making plutonium for nuclear weapons. When the Germans overran Norway the entire stock had been smuggled out of the country, but the plant was intact and soon producing heavy water again, destined for the German nuclear programme. Despite the difficulties of getting to and operating in such a remote, hostile area, SOE decided it had to destroy the plant. Six ski-borne commandos had the task of slipping past 300 heavily armed guards and passing through a ravine the Germans thought impassable. Fully illustrated with stunning new commissioned artwork, this is the thrilling story of the daring Norwegian-led SOE raid that prevented Hitler from building an atomic bomb.

"What stopped Hitler in 1940 - why did he not attempt to invade Britain? And if he had, would he have been successful? Most of us would answer that "The Few" of Fighter Command saved Britain from certain invasion, because every historian of World War Two, from Winston Churchill onwards, has said so. Yet in this fresh look, Derek Robinson argues that the Battle of Britain alone could not have been why Operation Sealion, the planned German invasion, was scrapped. The greater obstacle was a force that both Churchill and Hitler failed to acknowledge." "Robinson suggests that most accounts of 1940 are written as if the Channel and the Royal Navy did not exist. In fact, an inadequate German fleet was relying on the use of 1,000 flat-bottomed barges as landing craft - which even in a flat calm would have taken ten days to effect the complete landing. These cumbersome vessels would also have been sitting ducks for the Royal Navy, which at that time was still massive - 70 to 80 destroyers were ready and waiting in home waters." "The skill and courage of the Spitfire and Hurricane pilots who fought the Battle of Britain are not in question, and Robinson never downplays the extent of their sacrifice - he is the author of many acclaimed books depicting the lives of fighter pilots in both world wars. Here he challenges a verdict that has been in place for 50 years and his views will be unwelcome to some. But as well as relating the Battle of Britain with his trademark realism, Robinson now presents clear evidence to make us question our easy acceptance of the old story."--BOOK JACKET.

Paying for Hitler's War is a comparative economic study of twelve Nazi-occupied countries during World War II.

Grade Level 5.5, Book# 85, Points 4.