It is difficult to say which countries in World War II resisted fascism the most heroically, because there are several alternative answers. But if there is any country that resists the least aggressively and surrenders the fastest, the answer is only one country, Denmark. The whole period of resistance added up to less than five hours, and then Denmark surrendered to Germany. So how exactly did Germany invade Denmark? Why did Denmark surrender so quickly?
First, the ambitions of the British
Denmark is a small country on the coast of the Baltic Sea, with a small population of more than three million people at that time, and is basically an unknown presence in Europe.
However, because Denmark is located between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, it is a major point of sea traffic, especially the division of the German coastline in two, so Germany has always been a headache.
Germany's situation was not optimistic at this time, and after the victory in the Polish Campaign in 1939, Britain's attitude towards Germany became tougher.
Although it is said that When Germany attacked Poland, Britain and its ally France only gave verbal assistance to Poland, this does not mean that Britain sat idly by, in fact, the British Minister of the Navy at that time advocated being tough on Germany.
Churchill, the old British manatee, knew in his heart that if he sent troops to fight Germany in Western Europe, it was estimated that there would be no good fruit to eat, and if he did not get it right, he would repeat the mistakes of the First World War. Given the terrible lessons of the First World War, it was clear that it was not cost-effective to go to the Western European continent and fight with the Germans, so the British planned to deal with the Germans in a different way.
The solution was simple, that is, to use its strength, the powerful British Royal Navy, to launch a blockade tactic against Germany, to ensure that it could starve the Germans, especially to cut off the Germans' access to iron ore.
Germany is scarce in resources, and many of the resources required by its industry are greatly dependent on imports, of which the acquisition of iron ore is even more necessary, because there is not enough concentrate iron ore in Germany. at
Before the war, Germany mainly imported iron ore from Lorraine in France, and since the Polish campaign, France has no longer exported iron ore to Germany, so now Germany has turned to importing iron ore from Sweden in order to meet its own production needs.
However, because the Swedish port cannot be used because it is frozen in winter, iron ore must be transported to Norway in winter, and then used Norway's unfrozen port Narvik to be transshiped to Germany.
The British' plan was clear, using their powerful navy to blockade Narvik in Norway, and even sending an army to invade Norway. After the British took control of Norway, troops would enter Sweden from Norway and take control of it, thereby cutting off Germany's iron ore supply.
Of course, Churchill also suggested laying mines in Norwegian waters, forcing the transport fleet to go deeper into the North Sea, and then the Royal Navy could easily intercept them. Of course, this plan was rejected by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain for fear of triggering a negative reaction from neutral countries such as the United States. However, the operation against Norway was still secretly deployed, and the news reached Hitler in Berlin, Germany.
Second, Hitler's countermeasures
Hitler was horrified to learn of this news, because it meant that what he feared most was that Germany would be blocked by the British Royal Navy from shipping routes.
As a veteran of the First World War, Hitler knew exactly what would happen if Germany was blockaded by the British, and how miserable Germany had been in the cabbage winter of that year, but he still remembered it (when Germany was once blockaded by the British in World War I to live on cabbage).
And once it is blockaded, then Germany will not say that it will fight with Britain and France, and whether it can eat enough is a problem.
Although the British planned to use the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union as a pretext, and that the "semi-peaceful" plan to enter Sweden was suspended because of Sweden's refusal, Hitler did not think that the British would easily abandon their plans.
Norway's traitors, in particular, and Norwegian Defense Minister Giessling reported to Hitler that Norway might ally with Britain. Therefore, Hitler, in order to prevent trouble, ordered the Wehrmacht command at the end of December 1939 to plan an offensive against Norway
(Oberkommandoder Wehrmacht, abbreviated OKW, replaced Germany's Reich War Ministry with the aim of directing and supervising the German Armed Forces.) Of course, all this must be done carefully, and it is absolutely impossible to leak even a little wind to the British.
In response to this goal, the German War Navy came up with an attack plan, believing that a surprise attack could reduce Norwegian resistance, and in order to speed up the attack, the warships of the German War Navy should be used instead of ordinary merchant ships to transport troops.
And given Denmark's geographical location in the Baltic Sea, especially its control of the german navy's main shipping lanes, the German war navy also intended to occupy Denmark in order to extend the german navy's coastal defense range and launch more rapid attack operations.
Of course, if king Christian X of Denmark could be quickly captured, progress would have been faster.
This plan was approved by Hitler at the end of January 1940, and the plan to attack Denmark and Norway was carried out in an orderly manner.
The Destroyer HMS Cossack of the British Royal Navy, who violated Norway on 16 February, boarded the German transport ship Altermark, which also violated Norway's neutrality, and released some 300 British prisoners of war, which Hitler regarded as a clear signal of Britain's intention to violate Norwegian neutrality, thus strengthening his determination to invade.
By the end of the Soviet-Finnish Winter War in March 1940, Britain had finally made up its mind to invade Norway and troops had begun to gather. Now Britain and Germany were fighting for speed, and Hitler decided to move faster than the British, with Denmark as his first target.
Denmark, which was rapidly defeated
At 4 a.m. on 9 April 1940, the German Ambassador to Denmark, Cecil von Trøn Fink, contacted the Danish Foreign Secretary Peter Munch by telephone and asked for a meeting between the two.
Twenty minutes later Munch arrived at the German embassy, and Cecil told him directly that the Germans would then occupy Denmark to avoid British and French attacks on Denmark, and demanded that Denmark accept Germany's "protection" unconditionally.
The Danish foreign minister did not bother to say much, and rushed back to report to King Christian X. But what he didn't know was that at this very moment the German Army had already started operations.
At this time, Denmark had only 14,000 officers and soldiers, and they were distributed in various positions throughout Denmark, and they were unable to resist Germany.
At 4:20, the German Army's 21st Army had already started operations. At this point the Danish army was simply unable to organize decent resistance.
Although at 4:50 the two sides engaged in the first exchange of fire at Lundtorvjeg in the south of Jutland,
An anti-tank platoon of the Danish Army also destroyed two German armored vehicles and three motorcycles with 20 mm guns and light machine guns, but this resistance was quickly crushed by the Germans. A bicycle platoon 1.5 kilometers away was instantly defeated by the Germans, one person was killed, one-third of the soldiers were captured, and the rest fled.
At about 5 o'clock, the Germans also carried out the first airborne operation. 96 German paratroopers raided the area of the Staustrom Bridge, intending to capture the bridge connecting the Danish islands of Zealand with Falster and the fortress on Mastin Island. The German paratroopers, who thought there would be a fierce battle, found such an important place, only three Danes guarded it, and the Germans took control of it effortlessly.
The Germans, who were in charge of attacking the Danish capital, sailed into the port of Copenhagen in the Hanstadt Danzig mine-laying boat, escorted by an icebreaker and two patrol boats.
The Danish soldiers in charge of the defense did not resist at all, and let a German infantry battalion land in their capital, and the Germans easily captured the Danish army headquarters.
After capturing the Danish command, the Germans began attacking the Amalienborg Palace, where the Danish king lived, with the intention of capturing the Danish king Christian X.
At this time, King Christian X of Denmark and his officials were nervously negotiating with the Germans, and the loyal troops of King Christian X also blocked the German attack -- in fact, the Germans made a few shots and then stopped advancing.
Christian X feared the Germans, especially after the Germans began bombing Copenhagen and dropping leaflets to intimidate them.
Christian X eventually surrendered to Germany at 8:34 and ordered Danish troops everywhere to stop their resistance to the Germans.
epilogue
The Danish campaign launched by the Germans went exceptionally well, because the Danish resistance did not end even for five hours, and almost the next morning the Danes woke up to find that their country had been occupied by the Germans.
Throughout the battle, the Germans lost a total of 20 people with dead wounds, including a paratrooper who accidentally hung on a tree while parachuting and broke his leg, and an infantryman who unfortunately fell into the water and nearly drowned. Denmark, the loser, also suffered minor losses, including only 26 civilian defense personnel killed and 23 wounded.
And because Denmark surrendered so quickly and with little resistance, it instead obtained more permissive conditions of surrender than other German-occupied countries did not have—Denmark retained almost all of its right to manage its own internal affairs. The Danish army was also released after being disarmed and did not enter the German prisoner-of-war camp, which is also a fortunate luck in Denmark's misfortune.
Reference: DenmarkandNorway1940: Hitler'sboldestoperation.》
《GatheringStorm1933–39.》