Nordic countries in World War II

The Nordic countries were involved in the second world war in different ways. This article provides an overview of World War II in the Nordic countries with an emphasis on military studies of the threats and military movements of the major powers.

Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Iceland were neutral countries. Finland was invaded by Soviet union and fought the winter war (1939-1940), then joined Germany in the attack on Soviet union and finally pushed the German troops out of Finland. Denmark was occupied in one swift German operation that also included the invasion of Norway. The Norwegian campaign halted the German advance and allowed the Norwegian government to escape and establish an exile administration in Britain where Norway joined Britain against Germany. Sweden remained formally neutral, but cooperated with both Germany and the Allies as well as offering a safe haven for Norwegians and Danes. Following the German attack on Norway and Denmark, Britain occupied Faroe Islands and Iceland. Iceland and the other islands were under British or American occupation, as was Greenland.

The Nordic region became critical in 1940 when the Allies planned to cripple the German war economic by reducing its supply of Swedish iron ore. This involved an invasion of Norway ostensibly in support of Finland in its war against the Soviet Union. The Germans wanted to protect their iron supplies and take over Norway to get access for attacks on trans-Atlantic shipments to Britain and (after 1941) trans-Artic shipments to the USSR. Its plans involved battled with the British navy, invasions of Denmark and Norway, submarine attacks on Iceland and diplomatic deals with the USSR, Finland and Sweden.

By far the greatest military activity was involved in the two wars between Finland and the Soviet Union. Otherwise, the main military and naval operations were against Norway in 1940, as well as the Battle of the Atlantic with German attacks on transatlantic Allied shipping and on Allied convoys headed to the Soviet Union and Allied anti-submarine operations. Historian Earl Ziemke states that Germany's "Northern Theater":

faced east into the Soviet Union on a 700-mile-long front, and west on a 1300-mile sea frontier. Hitler regarded this theater as the keystone of his empire, and after 1941, maintained in it two armies totaling over a half million men.

See also

• List of military operations in the Nordic countries during World War II

Further reading

• Andenæs, Johs, O. Riste, and M. Skodvin, eds. Norway and the Second World War (Oslo: Johan Grundt, 1966)
• Bayer, James A. The Scandinavian Flank As History, 1939-1940 (1984)
• Bohme, Klaus-Richard. he Defense Policies of the Nordic Countries, 1918-1939 (1979) ISBN 9780891260738 Search this book on .
• Butler, J. R. M. History of Second World War: Grand strategy, volume 2: September 1939-June 1941 (1957) pp 91-150, 389-415, 465-86. online free
• Dear, Ian. The Oxford Companion to World War II (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995)
• Derry, T.K. The Campaign in Norway (London: HMSO, 1952), official British history
• Derry, T.K. A history of Scandinavia : Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland (1979) pp 328-55.online free,
• Edwards, Robert. The Winter War: Russia’s Invasion of Finland, 1939-1940 (New York: Pegasus Books, 2008); published in UK as White Death: Russia’s War on Finland 1939–40
• Ekman, Stig, Klas Åmark and John Toler, eds. Sweden’s Relations with Nazism, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust: A Survey of Research (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International, 2003)
• Ekman, Stig and Nils Edling, eds. War Experience, Self Image and National Identity: The Second World War as Myth and History. (Södertälje: The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation, 1997.)
• Elting, John R. Battles for Scandinavia (Time-Life Books 1981)
• Engle, Eloise; Paananen, Lauri The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish Conflict, 1939–40 (1973)
• Haarr, Geirr. The Gathering Storm: Naval War in Northern Europe, September 1939 to April 1940 (2013)
• Haarr, Geirr. German Invasion of Norway: April 1940 (vol 1 2012); The Battle for Norway, April–June 1940 (vol 2 2010).
• Jakobson, Max. The Diplomacy of the Winter War: An Account of the Russo-Finnish War, 1939–1940. (1961).
• Krosby, H. Peter. "The United States and the Nordic Countries, 1940-1945." Revue Internationale d'Histoire Militaire Ancienne (1982), Issue 53, pp 125-148.
• Lunde, Henrik. Finland's War of Choice: The Troubled German-Finnish Coalition in World War II (2011).
• Mann, Chris. British Policy and Strategy Towards Norway, 1941-45 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012)
• Nenye, Vesa et al. Finland at War: The Winter War 1939–40 (2015) excerpt
• Nenye, Vesa et al. Finland at War: The Continuation and Lapland Wars 1941–45 (2016) excerpt
• Miller, James. The North Atlantic Front: Orkney, Shetland, Faroe and Iceland at War (2004) online
• Nissen, Henrik S. ed. Scandinavia during the Second World War (Nordic Series, number 9.) (University of Minnesota Press and Universitetsforlaget, Oslo. 1983), 407pp
• Petrow, Richard. The Bitter Years; The Invasion and Occupation of Denmark and Norway, April 1940-May 1945 (1974)
• Riste, Olav et al. Norway and the Second World War (1996)
• Sander, Gordon F. The Hundred Day Winter War: Finland's Gallant Stand against the Soviet Army. (2013) online review
• Stenius, Henrik, Mirja Österberg and Johan Östling, eds, Nordic Narratives of the Second World War: National Historiographies Revisited (Lund, 2011)
• Upton, Anthony F. (1974). Finland 1939–1940 (University of Delaware Press, Newark: part of series The Politics and Strategy of the Second World War) ISBN 0-87413-156-1 Search this book on .
• Van Dyke, Carl (1997). The Soviet Invasion of Finland, 1939-40. Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 0-7146-4314-9 Search this book on ..
• Vehvilainen, Olli. "Scandinavian Campaigns." in A Companion to World War II (2012) ed. by Thomas W. Zeiler : vol 1 pp 208–21.
• Vehviläinen, Finland In The Second World War: Between Germany and Russia (2002) excerpt and text search
• Ziemke, Earl F. "The German Northern Theater of Operations, 1940-1945" (Department of the Army Pamphlet No. 20-271, Dec 15, 1959) online free; 373pp

Historiography

• Krosby, H. Peter. "The United States and the Nordic Countries, 1940-1945." Revue Internationale d'Histoire Militaire Ancienne (1982), Issue 53, pp 125-148.
• Phillips, Jason C. "The Forgotten Footnote of the Second World War: An Examination of the Historiography of Scandinavia during World War II." (2013). online
• Stenius, H., Österberg, M. and Östling, J., eds. Nordic Narratives of the Second World War: National Historiographies Revisited (Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2011). excerpt
• Vehviläinen, Olli. "Chapter 13: Scandinavian Campaigns" in Thomas W. Zeiler and Daniel M. DuBois, eds (2012). A Companion to World War II. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 208–21.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) Search this book on , reviews the major studies in several languages.

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