1940 Norwegian Campaign books

[Uncle Joe]

There is a new one on the topic by "Geir Haarr". Jow does it differ from the also recent one by Henrik Lunde?

[pak]

There is a new one on the topic by "Geir Haarr". Jow does it differ from the also recent one by Henrik Lunde?

I'm working my way through Henrik O. Lunde's book now, and I am still waiting for Geir Haarr's. Delivery between July 31. and August 13. according to Amazon, so I have obviously not been able to review that one yet.....

[krichter33]

How is Lunde's book?

[Uncle Joe]

I´d say very good, though there are lots of typos (publisher´s screw ups) and poor maps. Plus sometimes I´d wish the author would be a bit more spefific than "heavy artillery fire" or "strong aerial support". I have been in contact with mr. Lunde for several weeks now. A very nice fellow!

[krichter33]

Thanks! I have to buy it. I've always been interested in that campaign.

[Uncle Joe]

Note: Lunde´s book´s page count is about 600, not 400 as the publisher´s site says or as even some reviews say. I just wonder how can someone supposedly reviewing a book miss nearly 200 pages...OTOH e.g. Stone´s review lists the correct count.

[pak]

I´d say very good, though there are lots of typos (publisher´s screw ups) and poor maps. Plus sometimes I´d wish the author would be a bit more spefific than "heavy artillery fire" or "strong aerial support".

I concur!

[Richard Hargreaves]

Not seen Lunde's book yet, but I have a review copy of Lunde's:

LONG before dawn on Tuesday April 9 1940, Halvdan Koht sat in the library of the gleaming Victoria Terrasse complex of government buildings.
It had been a sleepless night for the Norwegian Foreign Minister. Phone calls, telegrams, air raid sirens, conferences, all had kept the 66-year-old politician awake.
Now under candlelight thanks to a blackout, Koht listened to the “uncommonly cold” voice of the Carl Bräuer demanding his nation bend to the will of Berlin.
The Norwegian wasn’t always the best judge of character (he nominated Stalin for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945; thankfully, the committee chose otherwise).
But this morning Halvdan Koht captured the mood of his people perfectly. He quoted Hitler’s own words to the German minister. “A people who submissively give in to a violator does not deserve to live.”
“Then nothing can save you,” Bräuer rasped. “This means war.”
“The war has already started,” Koht icily responded.
It had. For as the two men talked, the cruiser Blücher was sinking barely a dozen miles to the south after being torpedoed by Norwegian coastal batteries in Oslofjord. It was the heaviest, but not the last, loss the German Navy suffered seizing
In the English-speaking world, the invasion of Norway has rather been eclipsed by the fall of France (and evacuation of Dunkirk especially) and events in the skies that same summer.
This year two serious studies of the Norwegian campaign are appearing. The first to land on our desks is Geirr Haarr’s The German Invasion of Norway April 1940 (Seaforth, £30 ISBN 978-1-84832-032-1).
Haarr has done an outstanding job of coralling most of the published and unpublished sources (principally Norwegian, English and German; historians are particularly fortunate that the German naval archives, unlike their Army and Luftwaffe counterparts, are pretty much intact).
The result is the definitive account of the invasion of the neutral Scandinavian nation – to a point.
It is worth explaining what Haarr’s book is not. It is not a complete account of the paratroop/airborne landings (although the operations around Fornebu airfield in Oslo. It is not an account of the fighting on land, such as the battles around Åndalsnes or the protracted clashes with German mountain troops around Narvik.
Nor even is it an account of all the fighting at sea: there’s no Allied withdrawal, nor Operation Juno, the sortie by the German battle-cruisers which did for HMS Glorious.
No, this is a very focused study, looking purely at the naval invasion – Operation Weserübung (Weser Exercise) – which effectively ended with the destruction of German destroyer forces at Narvik.
And to that end, Haarr’s book is unlikely to be surpassed. It is the most comprehensive accout of that first week of battle at sea. It is copiously and excellently illustrated; the publishers have on occasions mucked up images, especially digital ones, but not here.
The author provides excellent accounts of all the significant clashes at sea – Hipper vs Glowworm, the two battles for Narvik, the sinking of the Königsberg, tapping many sources not seen in English in the process – as well as some of the forgotten episodes of the campaign. A chapter is devoted to the sacrifices made by British submariners (Spearfish crippled the heavy cruiser Lützow, Triton wiped out much of Infanterie Regiments 340 and 345 by sinking two steamers, Thistle was sunk by U4, Sterlet sunk by anti-submarine escorts after she’d fatally wounded the gunnery ship Brummer).
Weserübung remains a baffling operation. As the German Naval Staff conceded at the time, the invasion of Norway “broke all the rules in the book of sea warfare”.
It was planned in six weeks, carried out in the face of a vastly superior naval force and was the first combined air-land-sea assault in history. It should have failed. It didn’t largely because, argues the author, it was a plan so radical, so unorthodox “far beyond the comprehension of British and Norwegian military and civilian authorities” of the day.

There's an excellent order of battle and series of appendices detailing losses, it's well annotated. With the caveat that it only deals with the first week or so of the invasion, strongly recommended.

[Uncle Joe]

Is Haarr´s book neutral in its tone? An important question for Lunde´s book is very neutral and very professional (no moralizing) in its tone.

[Richard Hargreaves]

Very much so. No passing judgment as far as I can tell, merely telling a straight, very detailed story.

[Andy H]

I have yet to read my copy of Haarr, but I can confirm Richards statement upon the OoB, and that the publication is well noted and well supported with B/W photgraphs throughout.

I'm hoping that the Norwegian military aspects both in terms of strategy/tactics and logistics are given air to breath, and that we dont get qucikly drawn into the obvious wider German v British struggle.

Regards