The Practice of Operational Art in Operation Weserubung: The German Invasion of Norway 1940

Abstract

In April of 1940, the peaceful and neutral country of Norway became a battleground between Germany, France, and England in their desire to control it for their own war objectives. The Battle of Norway and as the Germans called it, Operation Weseruebung, was the first major military operation in history to utilize naval, ground, air, and airborne forces in the assault phase of the attack. The German success in this operation provides an outstanding example of the application of operational art and the principles of war by Germany in the early stages of World War II. The principles of surprise and security were the most critical in this German military success. Operation Weseruebung included both the invasion of Denmark and the invasion of Norway. The first phase of the operation was the invasion of Denmark; its air bases were needed for the invasion of Norway, and it fell in a single day. The focus of this paper will be on the Norwegian portion of Weseruebung. German military planning took into account and exploited the operational factors of time, space and force, another key element in why this operation is worthy of further analysis and study. The operational lessons learned that could be applied from the belligerents' experiences further illustrate several important lessons that are applicable today. From the Germans one learns the importance of planning around apparent disadvantages, command and control as it relates to operational objectives and commander's intent, and the importance of initiative in military operations. From the British one learns the pitfalls of mirror imaging and that a lack of decisiveness can prove fatal in military operations. Lastly, from the Norwegians, one can see the importance of national defense for maintaining a nation's self-determination against outside belligerents.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 10, 2007
Accession Number
ADA470823

Entities

People

  • Mark A. Rice

Organizations

  • Naval War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Cyber
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Reconnaissance
  • Command And Control
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Operations
  • National Security
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • New York
  • North Sea
  • Prisoners Of War
  • Reconnaissance
  • Reconnaissance Aircraft
  • Sea Control
  • Second World War
  • War
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Space