Hitler’s Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940 by Henrik Lunde (the reader ebook .TXT) 📕

the area between Sperillen Lake and Randsfjord, Major Daubert’s forces made progress against the reserve battalion of the 6th Inf Regiment after capturing Hallingby at the southern end of Sperillen on April 14. Bjørnevika, near the northern end of the lake, was captured on April 16. Group Daubert reached the vicinity of Bagn on April 18. There followed three days of hard fighting with Norwegian forces, reinforced by units from the 4th Field Brigade that had arrived in the area to the west of Bagn.

The reserve battalion of the Norwegian 6th Inf had marched and fought for nine days and the 1/10th of the 4th Brigade relieved it on April 18. The Norwegians overwhelmed a German company on April 21 after heavy fighting. The Germans lost 13 killed, 19 wounded, and 65 prisoners. Major Daubert concluded on April 20 that his two battalions could not break Norwegian resistance and he withdrew his forces to Hønefoss where they arrived in the evening of April 21. From there they joined Group Adlhoch in the Fluberg area.

The Failed German Airborne Assault on Dombås

The Germans realized soon after their landings that the link-up with other bridgeheads in south and central Norway would not be as easy and quick as they had hoped. Von Falkenhorst was frustrated at the inability of his two divisions to trap and destroy major elements of the 2nd Norwegian Division. Rumors of planned Allied landings at Åndalsnes and Namsos reached the Germans on April 13. To speed the link-up with the forces in Trondheim and trap Norwegian units in Gudbrandsdal, the Germans attempted an airborne operation in the Norwegian rear at Dombås. This was an important road and railroad junction, where the routes from Oslo to Trondheim intersected with those leading west to Åndalsnes.

The airborne operation was launched on April 14 in haste, without adequate intelligence, no time for planning, in unfavorable weather, and with inadequate forces. Fifteen German aircraft carried the reinforced Co 1, 1st Airborne Regiment (185 men). The company commander had the only map of the Dombås area, which was at a scale of 1:100,000. Dombås is located in the mountains but the German paratroopers had no winter or camouflage clothing. The soldiers had provisions for only three days and ammunition was limited to what they carried. The element of surprise was lost when one aircraft was shot down near Lillehammer by Norwegian antiaircraft fire.

The German aircraft had little time to find suitable drop zones since they had to return to Oslo before dark and because they were receiving heavy fire from Norwegian forces. The paratroopers were dropped in six different locations over a 30-kilometer area around Dombås. Not a single platoon was able to assemble all its personnel. The return of the German aircraft turned into a catastrophe. Only seven aircraft returned to Oslo. The rest were shot down or forced to make emergency landings as they ran out of fuel.

Unfortunately for the Germans, the operation took place near the location of the 2/11th Inf. The Norwegians had moved this unit to Dombås to take part in the planned Allied operation against Trondheim. The German commander, Lieutenant Herbert Schmidt, assembled 63 paratroopers who entrenched themselves south of Dombås. The rest were killed, captured, or missing. Schmidt’s men managed to block the road and railroad from Oslo to Trondheim for five days. They repelled two Norwegian attacks before the badly wounded Schmidt surrendered on April 19 when his men ran out of ammunition and supplies. Göring had refused to reinforce the paratroopers despite urgent requests. He was incensed because a court martial was ordered for one of his top generals in Norway for having launched the poorly planned and ill-prepared operation. The charges were eventually dropped due to Göring’s intervention.

While the Dombås operation was a German failure, it had a profound psychological effect on Norwegian and Allied commanders. A number of units that could have been used more productively in other tasks were employed to guard against the threat posed by this new tactical innovation.

Still hoping for an early link-up with forces in Trondheim, von Falkenhorst planned a second airborne operation on April 16 in order to bypass the Norwegian defenses in the Lake Mjøsa area. An infantry battalion and an airborne company were to land on the ice at the northern end of Lake Mjøsa, capture Lillehammer, and advance to Dombås. The operation was cancelled after the Luftwaffe refused to participate because of “technical difficulties.”2

Operation Hammer Is Abandoned

The MCC decided on April 13 to make Trondheim the priority objective in central Norway while at the same time keeping Narvik as a high priority. The plan called for attacks from north and south in conjunction with a direct attack in the fjord. Two Canadian battalions would land near Agdenes and capture the coastal batteries. The 15th Infantry Brigade (withdrawn from the 5th Division in France) would land at the village of Hell, near Værnes Airfield, on April 22. The 147th Brigade constituted the reserve for the operation. The 15th Brigade (Hammerforce) would link up with British and French forces moving south from Namsos (Mauriceforce). The 148th Brigade would land at Åndalsnes (Sickleforce) and move to Dombås. It had a dual mission. First, by threatening Trondheim from the south it was hoped that German forces would be drawn from that city at the same time as the direct attack was carried out. Second, the 148th would be in a position to assist the Norwegians in the south. The overall Allied operation against Trondheim, codenamed Hammer, was to be commanded by Major General F. E. Hotblack.

Problems plagued the planned operation from the start. General Hotblack suffered a heart attack in London on April 17. The commander of the 15th Brigade, Brigadier General Berney-Ficklin, was promoted and designated as Hotblack’s replacement. Simultaneously, the main attack in Trondheimfjord was delayed until April 24. Berney-Ficklin and most of his staff were injured in an airplane crash at Scapa Flow on April 19. Major General Paget took Berney-Ficklin’s place but the