Norway was occupied by the Wehrmacht in April 1940, as part of the "Operation Weserübung", like Denmark. All bigger cities were attacked at the same time. While the fighting continued, most war material fell into German hands. On the 5th of May, all of Southern and Central Norway were under German control. However, the king and the government had managed to flee from Oslo, taking the gold reserves with them, after a Norwegian battery (with Krupp Artillery!) had sunk the battleship Blücher and thus blocked the entry to the Harbor. Only in the North at Narvik, where Great Britain and France had landed Troops, the fights continue. In two sea battles, the Kriegsmarine lost ten destroyers. 24,500 Allied men stand against 4,600 mountain troopers and seamen under Generalmajor Eduard Dietl.
Originally however the Brits had planned to occupy the country in "Operation Wilfred" before the Germans could do so. As the consequence of this failure, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain had to step back and was replaced by a more considerable opponent of Adolf Nazi: Winston Churchill.
A certain Vidkun Quisling had hoped that the Nazis would make him new boss of Norway (for which the "Times" had made his name a new synonym for "traitor" in a headline of the 19th of April), but instead Adolf Nazi appointed Essen gauleiter Josef Terboven Reichskommissar of the country. On the 24th, he arrived in Oslo.
Although the Chances of the Allies in Narvik were quite good, they decided on May 24th to evacuate their troops. The Norwegians weren't told about this. Until June 9th, the Brits had left the country and the Norwegians capitulated.
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