The Norwegian campaign involved the attempt by Allied forces to defend northern Norway coupled with the resistance of the Norwegian military to the country's invasion by Nazi Germany in World War II.
The Battle of Narvik saw Norway's toughest fight in World War II; nearly 7,500 Norwegian soldiers participated in the battle, along with British, French and Polish troops. The reconquest of Narvik was the first time the Third Reich war machine had to be removed from a captured city.
Vidkun Quisling in 1942. His name would become synonymous with "traitor".
German dead are brought ashore for burial after the Altmark Incident.
General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst planned and led the German invasion and conquest of Norway
German occupation of Norway
The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the capitulation of German forces in Europe on 8 May 1945. Throughout this period, a pro-German government named Den nasjonale regjering ruled Norway, while the Norwegian king Haakon VII and the prewar government escaped to London, where they formed a government in exile. Civil rule was effectively assumed by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, which acted in collaboration with the pro-German puppet government. This period of military occupation is, in Norway, referred to as the "war years", "occupation period" or simply "the war".
German officers in front of the National Theatre in Oslo, 1940
German infantry attacking through a burning Norwegian village, April 1940
King Haakon and crown prince Olav seeking refuge as the German Luftwaffe bombs in Molde, April 1940
German troops enter Oslo, May 1940. In the background is the Victoria Terrasse, which later became the headquarters of the Gestapo.
