• Vncredleader
    ·
    3 years ago

    I don't disagree necessarily, but don't diss Norway and Denmark's resistances. Norway put up one hell of a fight against the Kriegsmarine despite being outmatched. I don't have the time and its been too long to summarize from Craig Symonds' work but here is a surprisingly good Imgur post on the fighting put up in Narvik even before the British arrived.

    https://imgur.com/gallery/VyJMU1x

    As this was happening the Wilhelm Heidkamp had trained her torpedo tubes on the Eidsvold; when Gerlach left the ship he fired a red flare, a pre-agreed signal with the flotilla that the Norwegians were going to fight. Eidsvold immediately fired up her engines and with surprising speed rushed towards the Wilhelm Heidkamp and readied the port battery of 5.9-inch guns to fire. Startled and fearing being rammed, especially with 200 extra hands onboard, the destroyer unleashed four torpedos at point-blank range. Two of them went straight through the side of the old ship and hit the magazine, blowing the Eidsvold in half before she could even fire her guns. By 04:37 it had sunk, taking 175 of the 183-man crew with it, including Willoch.

    Gotta respect that