The Battle of Narvik in WWII

[ombugge]

This post from a few days ago was about the problems experienced in Narvik today:

Arctic News

Surprisingly there are not a lot of ships at anchor waiting for cargo at Narvik:

Less well known is the importance of Narvik in WWII and the fact that the Battle of Narvik in May 1940 was the first win against the Germans for the allied forces:

The Allies now focused their efforts on Narvik alone, launching an assault on the town on 12 May. Under sustained pressure from British, French and Polish forces, Narvik fell on the 28th, the Germans withdrawing east towards the Swedish frontier.

It didn’t become a turning point in the war, but is credited as the most important event in the battle for Norway in 1940:

With German armies sweeping through France, the victory at Narvik was irrelevant. Given that Allied forces were crumbling in the west, keeping more than 24,000 troops in Norway would have been ridiculous. And so, once more, the decision was taken to evacuate.

But it was credited as an important factor in saving Brittain from a German invasion in WWII:

How the battle for Norway in 1940 saved Britain