Norway 1940

The German attack on April 9, 1940 came as a surprise to the small, unprepared armed forces of Norway. Kersaudy ( De Gaulle ) describes how King Haakon VII, the 70-year-old monarch, rallied the country to resist the invader while the British and French organized an expeditionary force. In London, meanwhile, opposition to Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's leadership escalated precipitiously after the Germans invaded Belgium and the Netherlands; stepping down, he was replaced by Winston Churchill, who decided that British troops were needed to defend England from an expected cross-Channel invasion. By June 9 the last Allied troops had been withdrawn from their ineffectual beachheads in Norway. What influence did this brief campaign have on subsequent developments in World War II? For Germany it meant air and naval bases closer to England; for England it meant the emergence of Churchill as war leader. This workmanlike account of one of the war's peripheral campaigns is of limited appeal. Photos. (Oct.)