Word: narvik
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...doubt in Scandinavian minds that the Allies would strike quickly in their behalf, any doubt in German minds that the Allies would strike hard, were swept away last week. In addition to Great Britain's ships and men at Narvik, Allied Expeditionary Forces swarmed into western fjords of Norway at six more points. Planes, warships and minesweepers cleared the way for troopships, out of which marched men of the West to avenge the people of the North. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill had promised that Allied troops will "use this summer to purge and cleanse the soil...
...Allied expedition at Gallipoli 25 years ago-turned into a blood bath by poor planning-Mr. Churchill this time took no chances on lack of preparation, manpower, support. Germany's initial invading forces outside the Oslo area could not be more than 15,000 men, scattered from Narvik to Stavanger, of which perhaps one-third were based on Trondheim. Observers in London estimated the Allied Expeditionary Force's first wave as at least three divisions (30-45,000), exclusive of naval and marine personnel. All these were reported landed in the Trondheim area. But if it was true...
...Narvik, after the battleship Warspite and attendant destroyers blasted the remaining Nazi warships to the bottom and silenced all German firing from the shore last fortnight, the British marines and sailors present did not at once follow-up their advantage. The German forces ashore, numbering some 2,500, returned to the town, retained their hold on the iron-ore railroad as far as the Swedish border. Reinforced with mountain artillery flown in, they even began spreading up & down the coast. Northward they encountered British land forces 15 miles away, at Gratangen. These troops were from the main Allied landing point...
...towns below Narvik in Norway's long, slender, north-central neck, Allied landings were made to command the road (but no rail) connections into Sweden and the northern terminus of the one road into Norway's waist...
...Allies succeed in pushing back the German Army in Norway and disrupting its communications across the Skagerrak, Germany will have urgent military need to send supplies and support through Sweden. Conversely, the Allies, if they succeed in taking Narvik, might be tempted to seize the Swedish iron-ore mines at Kiruna and Gällivare. Sweden did not think this likely but fear of it might give Germany another motive for invasion...