During Operation Weserubung, why didn't Britain and France blockade Germany and Denmark? How were the Germans able to move several hundred thousand men across the North Atlantic when they were completely navally outmatched? Why could Britain not simply blockade Oslo the moment German troops landed there?
I apologise if there's an obvious answer to this question.
Bhump
Didn't they try and then got the fleets involved curb stomped by the Luftwaffe?
If it was that easy for Germany, why didn't the Luftwaffe bomb the fleet in the English Channel in July 1940?
I'm thinking of Narvik. It was there where the first battle took place.
The British bombarded Narvik and German destroyers already there took a battery but the advantage was lost. The British army commander didn't make a direct assault on the town. They had no skis, no proper maps of Norway, and no heavy guns. There was little they could do when they ran into the well-equipped Germans. German control of the Norwegian air fields ended being decisive.
Chassed by the Luftwaffe, the Norwegian campaign rammed home the lesson that sea power without air power could no longer win battles.
If it was that easy for Germany, why didn't the Luftwaffe bomb the fleet in the English Channel in July 1940?
EXACTLY
Operation Sea-lion would have worked had they dropped 1000's of men by parachute
while bombing and fighting in the air, and sending the Sharnhorst, Prinz Eugen & Bismark to the Channel.
Even if they last the main ships, the submarines and dive-bombers should have overwhelmed the British
Could had the germans build an oil pipe between england and france to fuel their army?
The Allies did it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto
Wrong Wrong Wrong.
I dont know where you guys are even getting the assumption that Luftwaffe managed to defeat the Royal Navy at Norway.
The Luftwaffe managed to repell the allied landing forces at Bergen and southern Norway, not the Royal Navy. In fact the Royal Navy only lost one destroyer to the Luftwaffe, HMS Gurkha, and to destroy it, the Luftwaffe deployed nearly 100 bombers/ divebombers, and had to single it out from the rest of its task force. The Royal Navy took very insignificant amount of casualties from the Luftwaffe because German planes lacked the equiptment for Air-to-Ship combat and German pilots lacked the training and experience, and German air command lacked proper doctrine. That's why both Dunkirk and Crete was a failure for the Luftwaffe to engage the Royal Navy.
The British, despite their preparations, were slow to respond to the German invasion, the Germans managed to capture Norway before the allies arrived. Once the Royal Navy arrived, the Kriegsmarine got absolutely devastated regardless of Luftwaffe cover. The most significant loss of the Royal Navy was the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious, which was sunk not by the Luftwaffe, but by two German battleships, who themselves had to be decommissioned for a long time after. Again, the Luftwaffe managed to defeat the allied army landing in southern Norway (and failed to defeat the army landing at Narvik).
Britain was attempting to blockade Norway from Germany, that doesnt mean they have to recklessly position their fleet right by German waters where they are vulnerable to sudden attacks (they would mine the water instead). Britains blockade of Germany in ww2 wasnt a complete ring around Europe, it was by cutting off tradelanes. This blockade could be set up as far as South America, the Carribean, and the African Cape, so that they could blockade all imports to Europe and still remain safe.
>In fact the Royal Navy only lost one destroyer to the Luftwaffe
Sorry I dont know why I wrote "only", I meant to write "one of". The Luftwaffe sank a few destroyers of the British fleet, such as HMS Afridi.
My bad.
The Luftwaffe however only managed to sink one french destroyer, Bison, again at a heavy committment. Luftewaffe losses were 100-200 aircrafts.
Britain was trying to bait Germany into the invasion by landing mines on the Norwegian territorial waters.
They didn't know that Germany had found out about their plans to occupy the Norwegian and Swedish mines and were on their way to land just as the British fleet was returning home.
So they couldn't immediately intercept and Germany got enough troops across.
Why couldn't Britain retroactively blockade Norwegian ports to starve the German garrisons out?
Britain couldn't blockade southern Norway without getting blasted by the Luftwaffe, which meant that Germany could supply themselves by rail.
And look at the whole drama around hunting the Tirpitz, Britain's power projection wasn't that strong. They'd take heavy losses if they tried to brute force like that.
Thank you. Why could Britain blockade the channel but not get blasted out of the water? Or the Mediterranean?
British air power which was not present in Norway but it was over the English Channel and North-Africa.
I see. So in effect, Britain couldn't stop the Luftwaffe from blasting the Royal navy in the North Sea without their own air support to defend them?
anti aircraft wasn't very good
>what is the battle of britain?
>what is the north sea?
German planes had very short-range and had to be close to their intended targets.
Too close to costal artillery