KDF33 wrote: ↑15 Mar 2021, 07:14
Again, the Germans could have used the Lulea-Narvik railway.
No, they couldn't. Lulea was in
Sweden, a neutral country with a very powerful navy and a mobilized army.
Sweden allowed very limited food and medical supplies to pass along this railway when the 4,500 Germans under Dietl were stranded and starving in the woods, but
Sweden would not allow Germany to send military equipment and soldiers through its territory to attack Norway.
My question: what do you propose sending to Narvik?
I don't know, but the British had a lot of forces available to chose from, as you listed.
The "Allies" is effectively the United Kingdom at that point. Most of its trained divisions are engaged in France and about to evacuate, leaving behind almost all of their heavy equipment. Italy is about to declare war, thus threatening the Near East, and Germany will be able to directly threaten the homeland as soon as it finishes France off. Germany has overwhelming superiority on land. What logic is there in clinging to a remote part of Norway, thereby directly exposing British divisions to German field forces?
The Allies decided to abandon Narvik on May 24 in the OTL. Nevertheless, their 24,500 strong force easily brushed aside the 4,500 Germans under Dietl, to the point where Dietl was on the verge of retreating into
Sweden to be interned. What if Churchill had decided to stay? The Allies would have pushed Dietl all the way into
Sweden. Then what to do the Germans have in northern Norway? 3 battalions of mountaineers hiking through 150 km of mountains with zero infrastructure, not even a road or railroad. The British simply have to wait for them at the end of their hike (which took until June 13) and accept the surrender of these starving and exhausted men.
The British in all likelihood wouldn't even need to send reinforcements. They have 12 battalions when combined with the Norwegians and Poles. Germany cannot reach Narvik. In return, Britain gets a base in northern Norway which will make it more difficult for U-boats to escape into the Atlantic. Britain denies the winter shipment of iron ore out of Narvik (but secures iron ore shipments for itself). Britain can improve the port facilities and send crane ships to allow it to unload supplies and ease
Sweden's economic dependence on Nazi Germany. When Barbarossa happens, Germany is denied bases in northern Norway to interdict lend-lease convoys to Murmansk. And above all, Britain shows
Sweden and Finland that it can stop Germany on land, that it won't abandon them to be surrounded by Nazis and the Soviets, that they still have a link with the outside world and that Allied help is there for them. Norway's king and government can stay in Narvik and rally the people of Scandinavia against the Nazis. If
Sweden still refuses to stop shipping iron ore to Germany, then the British have a military base 100 km away from the mines ready to put an end to the shipments once and for all.