Men and material moved from Nazi-Occupied Norway?

[BuddaBell123]

During the Nazi-Occupation of Norway from 1940 to 1945 around 350,000-400,000 men were stationed there to defend Norway's large amount of different resources from fish oil to coal. From at least 1942 till the end of the war they were stationed there to prepare for what they believed was a Western Allied invasion of Norway thanks mostly to the false information sent to the German intelligence and the many Commando Raids on Norway. As the war turned against the Axis the need for men and material, especially on the Eastern Front would have benefited much from reinforcements sent from Nazi-Occupied Norway. What I want to know is was there any men and material (aircraft, tanks, trucks) sent to the rest of Nazi-Occupied Europe from Norway?

[phylo_roadking]

Well- on the day of the German surrender in 1945, there were STILL c. 385,000 German troops in Norway...!

The sheer size of the garrison remaining intact in Norway was a major concern...for the British The Americans had their weird blind spot about the "Alpine Redoubt"...but the British were concerned the Flensburg Government would try to decamp to Norway and carry on the fight there....

SO much so that the last Bomber Command Heavy Force operation of the war was mounted to prevent this - a massed mining of the Skaggerak by the Heavy Force's Lancasters...while the very last Bomber Command operation of the war was a seven-squadron operation flown by the Fast Night Striking Force's (aka the Light Night Striking Force) Mosquitos against the port of Kiel to likewise prevent this - but this was turned back in the air when the Germans surrendered.

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

The number of modern tanks in Norway increased from January to March 1945.



In addition to the above tanks, the German garrison in Norway had a total of three Somua S35 and 50 Hotchkiss H38, of which two were command tanks.

[phylo_roadking]

Christian - how many Pz IVs??? As in...the ones that Paddy Blair-Mayne started dynamiting on his arrival after the Surrender?

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

Neither the 15 January 1945 report, nor the 15 March 1945 report, list any Pz Kpfw IVs in Norway.

There are 32 Pz Kpfw IVs listed in Denmark in January (five L/43 and 27 L/48, the latter including two undergoing maintenance), and four Pz Kpfw IVs listed in Denmark in March (all L/43, one of which was undergoing maintenance). This matches the total of 32 Pz Kpfw IVs listed on 15 December, 30 December, and 15 January for Denmark and Norway combined.

If there were any Pz Kpfw IVs in Norway at the end of the war, they must therefore have arrived after 15 March. They didn't come from Denmark, however, as 233. Reserve-Panzer-Division gave the majority of their Pz Kpfw IVs to Panzer-Division Holstein.

[phylo_roadking]

IIRC the 1st SAS squadron - including Blair-Mayne and Roy Farran (of Winged Dagger fame) as part of the SAS Brigade landed at Stavanger-Sola on the 15th of May to take over responsibility for disarming the Kristiansand area from the very thin numbers of British 1st Airborne Division already there - all part of Operation DOOMSDAY...

Apparently Mayne, viewing the stockpiles of surrendered equipment, set to to render it unuseable...in his normal way with copious amounts of gelignite! He began with PzIVs...but before he could continue on to the PzIIIs the Norwegians politely requested of the British that he be removed from Norwegian soil! He had already blotted his copybook in a diplomatic way by sending out men of the 1st SAS squadron to deal with a harassment problem between local Norwegian police and offduty SAS troopers; unfortunately they dealt with the problem with their fists!

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

As I don't have any numbers after 15 March 1945 I can't disprove it. Until I see some kind of reliable evidence than Pz Kpfw IVs were transferred to Norway, I will consider it unlikely.

[stril]

Some info added. Posted by Simon O. http://www.kystfort.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=55&t=2781
Regards
Stril

[Simon Orchard]

There were no Pz.IV in Norway after the 25 Pz.Div. left in 1943. Any tanks blown up in Kistiansand were almost certainly ex-French Somua S-35 or Hotchkiss H-38\9.

The most capable armoured fighting vehicles the Germans had in Norway by 1945 were 14 Stug.IIIg, 10 belonging to Pz.Brig.Norwegen and located to the North of Oslo and 4 belonging to the 14 LW Feld Division at Bodø.


with regard to the numbers in Norway by the end of the war. The actualk figure is about 350 000, though this includes ALL Germans including civilians, women, children, RAD, OT, polizei etc. etc. The actual strength of the army was about 195 000, though out of these the number of combat troops was relatively small. Furthermore, they were poorly equipped, coming well down the priority list for new equipment, the only truly combat effective and experienced units left in Norway at the end were the 6 and 7 Gebirgs Division, the forming 9 Gebirgs Division and a couple of brigade sized units, all the rest were undersized and under equipped static coastal defence divisions.

From mid 1943 onwards, first AOK Norwegen, then 20 Gebirgs Armee after it pulled out of Finland were stripped of most of it's best troops. Off the top of my head here's some of the units sent to the continent. (also there were many 'comb outs' of men from units being sent to reinforce other units outside of Norway).

from AOK Norwegen
25 Pz.Div. left aug.\sept.43
181 Inf.Div. Sept 43
269 Inf.Div. Oct.44
560 Volks Gren.Div. Oct.44
199 Inf.Div. Mar.45

From 20 Geb.Armee
163 Inf.Div. Dec.44, sent to Eastern front
169 Inf.Div. Dec.44, sent to Eastern front
2 Geb.Div. Dec.44, sent to Western front
6 SS-Geb.Div. 'Nord', Dec.44, sent to Western front

[RandJS]

Hi,
Material info: In 1945, 28 cm ammo was transferred to supply Scheer and Lutzow covering the retreat from the East.
Regards,
Rand