Author: Chris mann & Christer Jørgensen Published: 2002 Pages: 224 The German army's first campaign in the far north was an outstanding success: Between April and June 1940, German forces of less than 20,000 seized Norway, a state of three million people, while suffering only minimal losses. The army learned new skills to fight effectively in snow and ice. Since the terrain prohibited the use of tanks and heavy artillery, and lack of airfields restricted the employ-ment of aircraft, the war became an infantry duel waged across a frozen landscape. While the war in the far north was an effec-tive campaign that resulted in significant losses to the Red Army and Allied convoys, the Wahrmacht resources com--mitted there ultimately drained the German war effort. In the end, Hitler's obsession with preventing an Allied invasion of Norway contributed heavily to the German collapse of 1944-45.
|
