Battle of Narvik

The battles of Narvik is a naval Bataille beginning of the Second world war. It takes place in two times, the April 10th and 13rd 1940, which sometimes makes speak about the battles of Narvik, distinguishing the first battle and the second battle from Narvik.

A task force composed of the 13th half-brigade of Foreign legion, in majority made up of old republican Spanish, battalions of Alpine hunters and battalions of hunters Polish (autonomous brigade of the hunters of Podhale) there was committed.

Unfolding

The German countryside in Norway starts as of the first days of April 1940. Narvik is the last strategic target for the Germans after to have quickly conquered the south of the country. They arrive at Narvik with 10 destroyers and summarily sweep the coastguards facing the entry of the fjord.

They only respite had not once moored little with the port of Narvik since on April 10th, 5 English destroyers make their appearance at the entry of the fjord. They transform the port into true cemetery for boats. However the German fleet manages to push back them but shows serious damage.

Three days later, the allies send this time 8 destroyers and 1 battleship to dislodge German forwarding. In inferiority, the Germans move back and ruin their last ships in the fjord to save the sailors survivors. Those take refuge in the snow-covered mountains which border Narvik leaving the city to the hands of the allies.

A few days later, the Allies receive reinforcements and count from now on 24500 men. The Germans are 5 times fewer. But the latter, trained in the conditions of the Arctic, will resist until the departure of the allied troops requisitioned for the battle of France. They will thus take again the town of Narvik until the Soviet invasion of 1944.

Stakes

Narvik is a Norwegian port by which the Fer coming from Sweden forwards. In winter, it is the only free port of the ices by which the Germans can embark the Fer coming from Sweden. However 50% of the iron imports of the Germany are coming from Narvik. The the United Kingdom imports him also, to a total value of 10% of its total consumption.

The objective for the Germans is thus to make safe this line of provisioning and to deprive the English of them. For the Allies it is a question of cutting it.

Context

The Nazi Germany invaded the Norway in 1940 in order to make safe the transport of Swedish iron. The Allies as for them had already thought of occupying the Norway in order to counter the German aimings without deciding. Belligerents: 24500 soldiers combined against 5600 German soldiers

Anecdotes

Raymond Bourgoin, soldier French at the time of the battle of Narvik, managed to film a good part of the operations of Alliés at the time of the battle. Unfortunately, an unfortunate accident made fall its apparatus to water and made disappear forever these priceless images.

Continuation and context

Sources

Conference of Joseph Parello with ENS Ulm. Spanish Republicans in France free and fighting (1940-1945): a facet of the contemporary French history.

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