Kriegsmarine Task Force Norway 1940 : The Weserübung amphibious invasion fleet (Fleet)

Fully illustrated throughout, this is the first book to focus on the Kriegsmarine’s role in the invasion of Norway, Germany’s only major amphibious landing of the war. The invasion of Denmark and Norway saw the Kriegsmarine’s most extensive deployment of focused naval power of the entire war. Although truly a combined services invasion, the Kriegsmarine was the only means by which to make multiple coordinated landings on a hostile and frequently inhospitable coastline that stretched for over 2,500km. Yet as Kreigsmarine historian Lawrence Paterson explains, this was a feat undertaken by a navy not designed for such operations. He examines the extensive preparations needed to assemble a dedicated task force to land large army formations, while also providing covering fire for landings, minesweeping support, escorts capable of engaging major warships, anti-submarine patrols and – perhaps most importantly – supply of beachheads that were remarkably isolated from each other. The task force’s purpose was complex and interwoven; an amphibious operation on a scale that the German military had never before undertaken, and never would be capable of again. Superbly illustrated throughout with maps, diagrams, archive photos – some previously unpublished – and original artwork, this is the story of the Kriegsmarine’s most ambitious single operation, and its pyrrhic victory.