Oslo, Occupied Norway • February 7, 1942 On this date in 1942 in German-occupied Norway, Minister President Vidkun Quisling abolished the Norwegian constitution and established a dictatorship 1 year after ascending to the presidency. Quisling had been a reserve officer in the Norwegian Army and served as the Norwegian Minister of Defense from 1931 to 1933….
Berlin, Germany • December 14, 1939 On this date in 1939 Adolf Hitler and high-ranking members of the German Navy and Army met with Norway’s right-wing politician Vidkun Quisling, whose private visit to Berlin had been sponsored by Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party’s chief racial theorist. From 1931 to 1933 Quisling had served as Norway’s…
Berlin, Germany • April 9, 1940 On this date in 1940 German land, sea, air, and specialized forces advanced overland into Denmark and attacked various points along Norway’s coast from the air and sea. Earlier in the year, on January 27, the German High Command (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, OKW) had established a task force to orchestrate…
In February 1943’s Operation Gunnerside Norwegian saboteurs temporarily crippled heavy-water production crucial to Germany’s atomic weapons program.
Narvik, Norway • April 29, 1940 Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, and Oslo, Norway’s capital, succumbed to German invaders on April 9, 1940, the first day of Operation Weseruebung. Though planning for Weseruebung had begun the previous December, Adolf Hitler did not order full speed ahead until British warships entered the territorial waters of neutral Norway in February…
Tromsø, Occupied Norway • June 7, 1940 Within days of the German invasion of neutral Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940 (Operation Weseruebung), it became clear that the Norwegian armed forces could not resist the more powerful Wehrmacht (German armed forces), bristling with modern weaponry and supported by highly effective air cover. Caught largely by…
Oslo, Norway • May 8, 1945 On May 5, 1945, five days after Adolf Hitler’s suicide in the catacombs beneath his Reich capital, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, sent a telegram to resistance leaders in Norway, who passed it to the hardline commander in chief of German armed forces…
Berlin, Germany · December 14, 1939 On this date in 1939 Adolf Hitler and high-ranking members of the German Navy and Army met with Norway’s Vidkun Quisling, whose private visit to Berlin had been sponsored by Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party’s chief racial theorist. From 1931 to 1933 Quisling had served as Norway’s minister of…
Telemark, Occupied Norway · November 16, 1943 In the spring of 1940 Norway fell under the Nazi jackboot in a campaign that lasted 62 days and cost 5,000 lives on both sides. Three and a half years later, on this date in 1943, a massive daylight bombing raid by 143 U.S. Army Air Forces B‑17s caused extensive damage…
Tromsø, Occupied Norway · June 7, 1940 Within days of the German invasion of Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940, it became clear that the Norwegian armed forces could not resist the more powerful Wehrmacht (German armed forces), bristling with modern weaponry and supported by highly effective air cover. Caught largely by surprise, the…