Hey guys, I was wondering if there were ever any plans for a full scale invasion to liberate Norway before the end of the war. There would have been the advantage of taking large amounts of iron ore away from Germany, causing a major setback in the development of hard water for the German atomic program, not to mention it would have significantly aided the Arctic Convoys heading to Russia. I can already think of some reasons why this was never carried out, just curious if any such plans existed at all.
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The was a North Norway plan by Churchill to be in Europe somewhere like and protect the sealanes.
I guess it would be a nightmare to supply and garrison an area that is under 24 hour light or darknes. Stalin did fear the possibility of British intervention in the Finnish war. Hence he invaded in Winter when the British were unable to project air an seaborne land power.
The taking of the whole of Norway would have been a massive distraction. The British had a superior Navy and the Lancaster bombers were quite able to take out the Tirpitz when it tried to flee via Tromso. (Great place to visit)
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Well British and commonwealth forces weren’t really big and strong enough for an operation the scale of this until well at least 1943. Since in 1941 they were tied up in North Africa and after the US joined, Japan was the large threat, since in just 6 months the Japanese managed to occupy the Philippines, Dutch East Indies, Singapore and other areas, which were vastly important to allied and british industry and shipping.
In 1942-mid 1943 they were busy in North Africa with operation Torch and then preparing for the invasion of Sicily after the axis were defeated in May 1943 in Tunisia.
Also their attention was fully drawn to the mediterranean and it was a much more important strategic region compared to only the Norwegian coast, since otherwise, had not such large scale resources been put to the Mediterranean, allied shipping there would’ve had to consider sailing all around the Cape of Good Hope, which takes weeks if not months longer, takes more fuel etc.
Also the september armistice of 1943 was hugely beneficial in morale boost for the allies having technically knocked out one of the 3 key axis nations for a moment.
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