Operation Weserubung 1940 - Solitaire

[warspite1]

Taking inspiration from tverse's excellent Carry out Operation Husky, I thought I would give this campaign a try. I've no idea if it will work out but this operation was so interesting its got to be worth a go I think - and I get to play with a certain battleship too [:)].

I've not worked out the rules of engagement exactly but I will be playing both sides and making historical decisions for each.

I hope this project is of interest.

[warspite1]

Operation Weserubung was the German invasion of Norway (Nord) and Denmark (Sud) in April 1940. The campaign is fascinating on many levels - not least of which was that Anglo-French forces were about to 'invade' Norway themselves but, quite by chance, were beaten to the punch by the Germans.

Quite what would have happened had the Allies have carried out their quite absurd 'plan' (and how this would have affected the Allies and the Germans relations with Norway and Sweden) is anyone's guess - and fortunately not something that needs to be considered here.

As it was we will never know because - reflecting the way that both sides went about waging war in those early years - the Germans were simply more efficient, professional and single minded (not to mention the country was run by a dictator to whom the usual rules of civilised behaviour didn't really apply) and so got there first.


Sadly the full map does not fit on one screen. Below is the southern area of operations (Denmark and southern Norway) at extreme zoom.

[Orm]

Now I am confused. What has Operation Husky got to do with Operation Weserübung? Other than that ships were involved. One could even think that Operation Merkur has more in common with Husky than Weserübung. [;)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Now I am confused. What has Operation Husky got to do with Operation Weserübung? Other than that ships were involved. One could even think that Operation Merkur has more in common with Husky than Weserübung. [;)]

warspite1

tverse's AAR was a mix of gaming AAR and historical explanation. I want to do something along those lines here.

[Orm]

Awesome. Both educational and entertaining. [:)]

[warspite1]

Why Norway and what makes Weserubung as a military operation so interesting?

The main reason for Adolf Hitler agreeing to intervene in Norway was to protect Germany's Iron Ore supplies that came from northern Sweden. During the winter months the Gulf of Bothnia was frozen and so the ore had to be railed from Gallivare to Narvik (Norway) in order to be shipped down the Norwegian coast to Germany.

Essentially Hitler did not trust the Norwegians to maintain their neutrality in the face of pressure from the Western Allies, and the 'Altmark' incident in February 1940 reinforced his fears.

Capturing Norway was also attractive to the German Navy as it would provide bases for both its surface fleet, but moreover its U-boat fleet (remember this was pre the conquest of France).

The campaign is interesting because it truly was a combined operation - air, sea and land - and was carried out right under the noses of the Royal Navy's Home Fleet. There was plenty - plenty - that could have gone wrong. While the Germans should be congratulated for a fine piece of military planning and execution, Norway, like much of the early war, was to find Lady Luck very much on the side of Adolf Hitler and the German armed forces.

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Although the Wehrmacht would make use of paratroopers, glider-borne units and air transport, the logistics of the operation meant that the navy was going to be asked to do the lion's share of the heavy lift, and undertake to crucial initial landing operations.

The Germans employed 11 Marinegruppen - 6 of which were earmarked for Norway.

Marine Gruppe 1
The 10 destroyers of MG1 had the furthest to travel - its destination was Narvik. The force was covered by the two 11-inch gunned battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

The ships departed from Wesermunde at 23:00hrs on 6 April, hence by the 8th April, when this scenario starts, they are well on their way to the target....


Note: I'm not sure why the game has these little islands in the middle of the North Sea. The German troops start the scenario on the islands - not the destroyers....

[Shadrach]

Interesting - will definitely be following this. I've actually been thinking of starting this myself, but am wary of the complexity of seaborne operations and the like, being a relative newbie.

I also read in the mods section, someone is working on an update of this, will see if I find it.
Edit, here: tm.asp?m=4389351

[Zorch]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 1
The 10 destroyers of MG1 had the furthest to travel - its destination was Narvik. The force was covered by the two 11-inch gunned battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

It would make Narvik more equal if HMS Warspite had to fight Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

[MikeJ19]

Warspite,

Cool, I look forward to watching you fight this battle. I hope you have fun. I know that I will enjoy learning more about this operation.

All the best!

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Well Marine Gruppe 1 looks pretty accurate, what about:

Marine Gruppe 2

Another key task force was MG2 as this force of one heavy cruiser and 4 destroyers was tasked with bringing two battalions of the 138th Gebirgsjager Regiment to Norway's second city, Trondheim in central Norway. My understanding is that only two battalions of the regiment went to Trondheim - the II Battalion was sent to Oslo. In the game, all three battalions are heading for Trondheim along with a detachment of the 83rd Gebrigspionier Battalion.

This task force left Cuxhaven at 23:00hrs on 6th April - and like MG1 - are well underway when this scenario begins.


Note: Again the infantry start on an island. I'll no doubt work out the significance of this as I read on.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Shadrach

Interesting - will definitely be following this. I've actually been thinking of starting this myself, but am wary of the complexity of seaborne operations and the like, being a relative newbie.

I also read in the mods section, someone is working on an update of this, will see if I find it.
Edit, here: tm.asp?m=4389351

warspite1

Thank-you. Sadly I'm a computer numpty so I don't understand all that. Hopefully if there is an official update someone will add this to the game for idiots like me.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Zorch

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 1
The 10 destroyers of MG1 had the furthest to travel - its destination was Narvik. The force was covered by the two 11-inch gunned battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

It would make Narvik more equal if HMS Warspite had to fight Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

warspite1

Equal for who? [;)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: MikeJ19

Warspite,

Cool, I look forward to watching you fight this battle. I hope you have fun. I know that I will enjoy learning more about this operation.

All the best!

warspite1

I hope so. This is yet another of those really interesting campaigns of WWII that have been largely overlooked in favour of another Bulge, D-Day, East Front game......

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 3

MG3 departed from Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhaven at 00:40hrs on 8th April.

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 4

Right this is slightly more confusing. I may have to change some of the wording here as I read on - but I think this is correct....

This formation left Wesermunde at 05:30hrs on the 8th April.

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 5

I think there were only two battalions from the 307th Regt. but all three are shown here. This must be to simplify things as if you recall from post 11, one of the mountain battalions of the 139th Regt. was sent to Oslo in real life. There also appears to be a pionier battalion(?) missing from this force.

This force left Kiel at 03:00 on the 8th April.

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 6

And so to the final task force - the smallest of the 6 concerned with Weserubung Nord.

This task force left Cuxhaven on the evening of the 7th April

Aha! So that is why I was a little confused with MG4 (post 16) - The units for MG6 are, for the purposes of this scenario, starting out with MG4. See below for the MG6 specific units.

[warspite1]

Order of Battle

Marine Gruppe 7 to 11

And so on to Weserubung Sud and the Danish end of the operation. I am not going to look at these ahead of their introduction in the game (but will provide detail at that time). Unlike the Norwegian Marinegruppen, the units allocated to the Danish end of the operation were barely called upon to fire a shot and so necessarily take a very small place in this story.

Instead I will continue with a look at the rest of the Order of Battle.

Luftwaffe

There are 51 squadrons showing on the air unit report. This is going to be more difficult than I'd hoped. I can't seem to get some of these units to tie up.....

....mmmm I'll have to do the same as with the Denmark-bound MG's and cover these as and when they come into play.

[sapper32]

This will be a great read im signed up, I played this scenario on TOAW III some years ago but cant realy remember much about it.