must be ready,’ Jodl noted in his diary.17
The 55-year-old General der Infanterie Nicolaus von Falkenhorst (right) (1885–1968), C-in-C of XXI Army Corps, was chosen to lead Operation Weserübung. (Author’s collection)
Jodl suggested giving responsibility for the planning to one of the corps commanders with experience from Poland and an established staff. The Führer agreed, and the 55-year-old General der Infanterie Nicolaus von Falkenhorst, C-in-C of XXI Army Corps, was called to Berlin at midday on 21 February. Von Falkenhorst had been a staff officer during the brief German intervention on the ‘white’ side in Finland in 1918 and was one of the very few German generals with some experience in overseas operations. Hitler told the general that a similar expedition was being considered as a pre-emptive strike to forestall British intervention in Norway to secure the supply of iron ore and other produce from Scandinavia. British forces in Norway would change the whole strategic situation, and the northern flank had to be secured prior to opening the campaign in the West. In addition, the German Navy needed freedom to operate in the North Sea and unhindered access to the Atlantic. Britain was already preparing landings in Norway, Hitler said, and had, according to reliable sources, reached an agreement with the Norwegian government to this effect. The recent Altmark episode demonstrated this beyond all doubt.
Stressing the need for absolute secrecy, Hitler invited von Falkenhorst to leave for a while, to think through how he would occupy Norway, and to come back in the afternoon. Somewhat shaken, von Falkenhorst went into a bookshop, bought a Bädeker tourist guide to Norway and sat down to find out how to conquer the country he had barely been aware of a few hours earlier. Returning at 5pm with some ideas and sketches, von Falkenhorst realised that his whole career was at stake. His ideas were to Hitler’s liking, though, and the Führer decided he was the right man for the job. Von Falkenhorst was ordered to gather members of his staff and to start preparations immediately. Jodl noted in his diary that von Falkenhorst ‘accepted with enthusiasm’.18
Generaloberst Walter von Brauchitsch, C-in-C of the German Army was less enthusiastic. He called von Falkenhorst to his office and told him in no uncertain language that he disapproved of Hitler’s decision and saw the whole operation as ‘unnecessary’. Besides, he had not been consulted and the Führer was ‘doing all of this only with the advice of Raeder’. It probably did not help von Brauchitsch’s opinion of the operation that von Falkenhorst was to report directly to the OKW and not to him – an unprecedented break with procedure. Generaloberst Halder, the army Chief of Staff, also expressed discontent with the operation and the fact that army command was largely kept out of the planning.19
Meanwhile, Krancke’s group had produced a workable base-plan for the invasion. Spending a day reading this and other material available from Norway, von Falkenhorst and his staff took up work in some discreet back-offices of the OKW building in Berlin on Monday 26 February. Initially, only some fifteen officers were directly involved. To maintain secrecy there were no secretaries, which meant work from seven in the morning until late at night, seven days a week. Kapitän Krancke remained a member of the group, representing the Kriegsmarine. Oberst Robert Knauss from the Luftwaffe and Major Strecker from Abwehr handled liaison with their respective services and Oberst Walter Warlimont, deputy chief of the Operations Office, would secure a close connection to the OKW – although he did not become involved in the details of the planning. Hitler, on the other hand, kept a keen interest in the operation and influenced the planning on several occasions.20
The knowledge of Norwegian infrastructure, administration and armed forces was at best meagre and outdated. An invasion had been so far off the table that methodical intelligence had hardly been gathered. Maps were scarce and it was often necessary to rely on travel guides and tourist brochures. The embassy in Oslo had sent a fair amount of information regarding military installations, ports and harbours over the past years, but it was found to be unsystematic with limited verification. An intense programme of intelligence gathering was initiated under Major Pruck of the OKW, partly involving the embassy. In addition, a discreet search was initiated for merchant sailors and business people who had been to Norway as well as those who had been there as part of the children’s aid programmes after WWI. On the day of the invasion, the German commanders would have a surprising amount of detailed information available to them, a credit to the efforts of the German intelligence. There were significant gaps, though, and in many cases the information was available centrally, but had not reached the operational end in time.
Concerning the Norwegian Army, von Falkenhorst’s intelligence officer, Hauptmann Egelhaaf, could provide only a sketchy picture. Public sources indicated the existence of six army divisions, but details of mobilisation and deployment in case of an emergency were not available. Egelhaaf reckoned that centralised depots, inexperienced officers and an inadequate number of NCOs would slow the mobilisation process down and concluded that ‘The Norwegian Army cannot offer sustained opposition against an attack from the major powers.’ Oberst Erich Buschenhagen, Chief of Staff for XXI Corps, agreed, provided the attack came as a surprise, applying ‘all means at hand’. The Norwegian Navy and Air Force were for all practical purposes disregarded at this stage, as were the coastal forts.21
In late February, less than two weeks after the Altmark episode, German naval attaché Korvettenkapitän Richard Schreiber made a visit to the Norwegian Admiral Staff, accompanied by his colleague, air attaché Hauptmann Eberhart Spiller. The Germans asked to meet the head of Naval Intelligence, Kaptein Erik Steen, and told him that they had secure information from Berlin regarding an imminent British action against Norway. This would certainly draw Norway into the war, and the Norwegians would have to make a choice in due course on which side they would join. The warning was clear and would not have been made without instructions from Berlin. Steen made a report of the meeting to the Admiral Staff and commanding admiral. The report was forwarded to the Norwegian Foreign Office, but apparently not to the commanding general or the Ministry of Defence.
On 4 March, Schreiber was back at the Admiral Staff again. This time he informed Steen that he had been called to Berlin to give an update on the general situation in Norway. In particular, he had been asked to comment on whether the country would oppose British forces occupying parts of the Norwegian coast and now asked for Steen’s advice on what to say. A somewhat perplexed Steen referred to the prime minister’s speech in January, where he clearly said that Norway would defend itself as best it could against any intruder.
Schreiber and Spiller went to Berlin a few days later. In separate meetings, they were asked to give their view of the general situation in Norway, the attitudes of the military and civilian administration and in particular their views on what opposition the Norwegians would put up against an invasion, German or Allied. They were both of the opinion that resistance against Allied intruders would be symbolic at best, as the Altmark episode had demonstrated. How a German invader would be met was more uncertain, but also in this case they apparently both assumed that opposition would be limited. It is unlikely that Spiller and Schreiber were given the full details of Operation Weserübung, but both returned to Norway with instructions to report as much as they could find on the Norwegian armed forces, airfields and harbours. Neither could travel freely in Norway, and the information they provided was mostly taken from public sources and largely limited to the Oslo area, adding little to the information from the professional intelligence officers.22
In the afternoon of 29 February, von Falkenhorst and his staff met with Hitler and presented their first sketch of Operation Weserübung. The Führer liked what he heard and, on head of OKW, Generalmajor Wilhelm Keitel’s recommendation, approved the overall concept. He gave a few instructions and asked to be updated every other day. Jodl proposed to have Weserübung developed independently from Operation Gelb, the campaign in the West, and this was accepted even if the two operations needed
