After the Battle of Poland, it is necessary for Germany to bring Norway into its sphere of influence, so as to achieve unimpeded access to the Atlantic Ocean and ensure the safety of German maritime transportation lines and land transportation of iron ore from Sweden to Germany. So, on the one hand, he quietly assembled troops on the French border, on the other hand, he issued a warning to Norway and was ready to start work.
However, Germany invaded Norway, which was tactically correct, but strategically wrong.
From a military point of view, in the process of dominating the world, Germany's capture of the coastal countries on the European continent is the first step of its overall occupation of Europe. Neutral Norway is located in the throat of Germany's only sea passage to and from the Atlantic Ocean. It has extremely high strategic value and is an area that Germany, Britain and France have been trying to control since the war.
The safety of the only sea passage affects the nerves of the Germans, but Norway does not seem to buy the warning from Germany; At the same time, in the eyes of Britain and France, Norway is the best place to contain Germany. To this end, the two sides began to "fight in secret". According to intelligence, Norway is planning a way to prevent Germany by deliberately letting the British and French Coalition forces "occupy".
What is not alarmist is that Britain and France, after careful consideration, decided to send an Anglo-French expeditionary force, with more than 20,000 troops escorted by the British Navy, to seize Narvik, Norway, and thus occupy the northern mining areas of Sweden. Thereby completely cutting off Germany's strategic material supply and guarding Germany's only sea passage according to risks.
Such "small moves" naturally aroused the vigilance of "moustache" and decided to strike first. This is the first time that Germany has used the joint operations of the three armed forces. In order to ensure the absolute victory of the campaign, the German high command coordinated and commanded all arms and organized 52 ships to participate in the landing operation, which was almost all the possessions of the German navy.
1940 On April 9, the Germans attacked Denmark and Norway respectively. The Danes surrendered quickly, but the Norwegians stubbornly resisted and fought fiercely with the Germans for two months with the help of the British and French expeditionary forces. In particular, the fighting between the two sides at sea became more intense, and eventually they failed because they were outnumbered. Germany occupied Norway.
Although Germany has completely solved the safety problem of the sea port and obtained an excellent starting point to dominate the whole of Europe, it is successful tactically; However, in this battle, Germany also lost 30 ships including 3 cruisers and 10 destroyers, leaving only 3 cruisers and 4 destroyers on German surface ships.
This deadly competition has completely turned the weak German navy into a "poor man". Before the real war came, the surface ships were exhausted, thus strategically losing the battle for sea control. We can only rely on submarines to implement the harassment tactics of "scratching each other's boots" and cannot completely block the British maritime traffic lines.
At present, the German navy can only rely on Deng Nici's submarine force.
In the battle of Norway, the German navy was completely defeated, and the submarine did not give play to its advantages, which was also an important reason for the fiasco. Deng Nici's 3 1 submarine attacked British warships and troop carriers 36 times, which can be said to be very brave, but it is puzzling that they never hit the target once.
It turns out that the rich underground iron ore deposits in Norwegian waters make the torpedo with magnetic detonator ineffective, and the poor accuracy of the torpedo leads to either miss the target or become a "dud", which attracts the attention of opponents and kills submarines. Six submarines sank to the bottom of the sea. Such a record, let Deng Nici and submarine officers and soldiers mood dropped to freezing point.
On June 22nd, 1940, the French surrendered, which revived Deng Nici and his submarine force. In their view, most of Europe now belongs to Germany, leaving only Britain across the English Channel. It was only a matter of time before Britain surrendered to the powerful German army. Of course, there are also things that make them more excited.
First, shorten the distance to the Atlantic Ocean and improve operational efficiency. The biggest advantage of France's surrender is that it has obtained all the French ports in the Bay of Biscay and can attack Britain from two main directions. Laurian, in particular, is only 200 nautical miles from the main channel of British merchant ships. Here, Deng Nici established the submarine front command.
Second, attach importance to the role of submarines and give priority to development. The ports of Laurian and Brest in the Bay of Biscay have been transformed into operational bases for German submarines. Since then, the number of shipyards has increased from 3 to 16, and the number of U boats produced has also increased from 4 to 25 per month. This speed of construction made Deng Nici and his men see the hope of victory.
What makes them more confident is that building a U-boat base here can shorten the voyage of 800 kilometers and shorten the time required for maintenance. This virtually doubled the combat effectiveness. In other words, Britain's maritime traffic lines are now at home and may be cut off at any time.
Churchill dragged America into the water.
France surrendered, and the Anglo-French allied forces withdrew from Dunkirk to Britain. The newly appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous speech: "We will never give up, we will fight to the end". But to win the war, we should not only shout slogans, but also rely on strength. The "strangulation war" of the Germans at sea put Britain in danger.
Churchill had a hunch that it was difficult to resist the magnificent German army on his own, and only with the help of the United States could Britain get out of the crisis. However, American isolationism is on the rise. Although Roosevelt was also trying to push the American troops into the war, he could not persuade the Americans to help the British.
Churchill, after all, is an old fox, and he can give aid without sending troops, while Americans who are "unprofitable and can't afford to get up early" are in the mood of making war money. How can they help selflessly? No way, Churchill persuaded Congress to exchange the 99-year lease of an American overseas base for 50 old American destroyers during World War I ... This is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.
First of all, Americans are satisfied with this business. Although some people in the United States questioned, why waste a lot of taxpayers' money to maintain the old destroyers during World War I? It is best to transfer it to the British, but "smart" Americans will not transfer it easily. Therefore, Roosevelt put forward the idea of changing the base into a warship, making military assistance possible without resistance.
Secondly, Churchill signed this agreement under the hat of "betraying the country" and got the destroyer of "saving lives", which is only good for Britain. Although those bases are of strategic value to the United States, they are only "leased", not sold, and Britain was forced to do so at a critical moment.
Of course, what really pleased Churchill was that Americans always claimed to be neutral and did not intervene in any war, but this paid military assistance actually turned the United States into a non-neutral country. Because support for any belligerent country shows that this country has stood on the side of the belligerent country.
Therefore, in the long run, Germany is bound to regard the United States as an opponent. As long as the American military aid aircraft carrier is attacked, it is impossible for Americans not to participate in the war, which is extremely beneficial to Britain. The Americans were dragged down by Churchill in this way, which shows Churchill's foresight and cunning.
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Reference: the whole history of World War II, Langteng Atlantic
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