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The Namsos campaign, in Namsos, Norway, and vicinity took place between and Norway naval and military forces against Nazi Germany military, naval and air forces in April and early May 1940. It was one of the first occasions during the Second World War when British and French land forces fought the German Army.
There were several reasons for the German attack. Not least was a desire to secure the flow of iron ore from mines at Kiruna in the north of Sweden to Germany's war industries. The northern part of the Baltic Sea, called the Gulf of Bothnia, had a principal Swedish port called Luleå from where in the summer a quantity of ore was shipped. It was frozen in winter, so for several months each year the Swedes shipped most of their iron ore by rail through the ice-free port of Narvik in the far north of Norway. In a normal year, 80 percent of the iron ore was exported through Narvik. The only alternative in winter was a long rail journey to Oxelösund on the Baltic, south of Stockholm, which was not obstructed by ice. British information suggested that Oxelösund could ship only a fifth the amount Germany required. Without the Swedish iron ore shipments through Narvik, the German war industry could not have produced as many tanks, guns, submarines and other weapons.
The Admiralty was investigating the possibility of sending ships into the Baltic Sea in the spring of 1940 (Operation Catherine) to interdict German seaborne trade during the summer months. The operation would have been pointless if the Narvik route remained open. The Germans rightly suspected that the British were planning to mine the Norwegian coastal waters used by German ore ships. British plans were well advanced but the Germans got to Norway first.
It is at Trondheim that Norway becomes narrow, making it easier to block the Germans than further south. To turn the position, Germany would have to attack through Sweden, bringing that nation into the war on the Allied side. The retired Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, MP, repeatedly urged Churchill to seize Trondheim from the Germans, using obsolete battleships if necessary, and offered to lead the attack.
It was planned to force the entrance to Trondheimsfjord with battleships knocking out the Norwegian coastal forts at the entrance, recently captured by the Germans; an amphibious landing would take the city. It was also decided to land forces north and south of the fjord for a pincer attack on the city. The officers responsible for these decisions were the chiefs of staff of the armed forces, Sir Dudley Pound of the Royal Navy, General Sir Edmund Ironside of the British Army and Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
The chiefs of staff had second thoughts; the forcing of the narrows was reduced to a demonstration, with the main thrust being the two pincers. This eliminated the immediate use of the Trondheim airfields by the RAF. It also meant that the military forces would face German naval units in the fjord as well as Luftwaffe units in the air. Churchill was disappointed but faced the combined opposition of his naval advisers as well as the heads of the army and the RAF and had to back down. Keyes was apoplectic and this event, more than any, convinced him to join in an attack on the Government at the end of the Norwegian campaign.
Namsos, then a town of 3,615 people, was felt to be the logical spot to land the troops assigned to the northern pincer, because of its location and facilities. The harbour and approaches to Namsos are ice free all year. Because of the trade in lumber, by 1940 Namsos port was furnished with three good wharves (one of stone) with a depth alongside of and lengths from . This made it suitable for smaller warships and transports to dock and to land troops and supplies for the recapture of Trondheim. Namsos was on a branch line connecting to the Nordland Line. A gravel road led some south to Trondheim.
De Wiart made the decision, because of unopposed enemy air activity, to divert his large, slow and vulnerable troopships north to Lillesjona in Nesna, where they would be offloaded to destroyers for a fast run into Namsos. He arrived there on 16 April to supervise the trans-shipment but less than an hour into the process, German bombers arrived and the British naval commander ordered the destroyers to sail with the troops and equipment they had on board. , , , and got under way for Namsos carrying De Wiart with 36 officers and 1,208 other ranks. Though repeatedly attacked during their voyage, they arrived unscathed, if not rested, and got into Namsos about on 16 April.
De Wiart understood that speed was vital and that the force should reach Steinkjer, where the two roads south met, before the Germans got there from Trondheim. The naval commander, Admiral Geoffrey Layton, decided that taking his destroyers into Namsos was too risky. He would send troops and supplies in on the Polish transport MS Chrobry. Since most of the remaining troops at Lillesjona were aboard the , much time was wasted with further trans-shipping, and Chrobry, accompanied by got into Namsos just before sunrise on 17 April. In the rush to get away before the German bombers arrived, the soldiers landed without much of their kit but De Wiart got the troops dispersed before a reconnaissance aircraft arrived. De Wiart was not aware that the attack directly into Trondheimsfjord had been called off. Throughout his time at Namsos, he was left ignorant of what was happening elsewhere in Norway.
When De Wiart landed at Namsos on 15 April, the Germans had about 1,800 troops in the Trondheim area, some in the city and some along the railway to Sweden. Their possession of the Værnes airfield enabled them to fly extra troops in daily, and by 18 April, they had 3,500 men in the area, the next day 5,000. They were generally well equipped but lacked field artillery. Some German troops were diverted to Hegra, where an improvised force of 251 Norwegians was holding out in Hegra Fortress an old border fort. Hegra Fortress home page They began pushing up the fjord and patrols reached Verdal on 16 April.
The Verdal bridge was defended by about 80 Norwegian soldiers, armed with Krag-Jørgensen rifles and Colt M/29 heavy . When the Germans attacked on the morning of 21 April, the Norwegians were supported by a section of Royal Engineers who happened to be in the area. For an hour and a half, this force held the German attack off. The majority of the British forces were a little further back. The Germans landed forces at several points behind them to outflank them, spotted by the main British force. Fearing being cut off, the Norwegians and Royal Engineers withdrew. A battle developed. The advantage was with the Germans, who were equipped with snowshoes and skis, sledge-mounted heavy mortars, and light field guns. They possessed air support from an airfield 35 miles away and had supporting naval gunfire. There was no panic among the British and Norwegian forces, and they succeeded in countering the first moves of the Germans. Heavy fighting occurred around the small village of Vist. The initial attacks were repelled, but the Germans outflanked the British positions on skis through the deep snow.
The Luftwaffe attacked and destroyed the British forward base at Steinkjer on 21 April, causing the loss of much of their supplies and destroying 242 houses, leaving over 1,800 Norwegian civilians homeless.Steinkjer Encyclopedia: Steinkjer during World War II Although 80% of the town was destroyed in the attack, there were no deaths in the bombing.Steinkjer Encyclopedia: Bombing Sunday
The British felt the need to provide protection from submarine attack for their ships entering and leaving Namsos. Lacking air cover, the small, slow anti-submarine sloops and trawlers used were very vulnerable to air attack. On 30 April, the Sloop-of-war was sunk by Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers off Namsos. On 1 May, three British anti-submarine trawlers at the entrance to the Namsfjord, HMS Gaul, HMS St. Goran and HMS Aston Villa were destroyed by aircraft, the latter managing to make it back to Namsos, where she burned. HMT Arab evacuated the crew of St. Goran. From 28 April to 2 May, Arab endured 31 air attacks; her captain, Richard Stannard, received the Victoria Cross for his actions during those five days.
The Norwegian Army Air Service and Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service had no units in the vicinity. The only Allied aircraft present were during the first British landings. A brief patrol was mounted well offshore by Gloster Gladiators, operating from the aircraft carrier . They claimed three German aircraft shot down. Some eighteen Gladiators were flown off the Glorious and briefly operated from the frozen Lake Lesjaskogsvatnet at Lesjaskog, but these were too far south to help Namsos.
Rather than wait for the evening, Mountbatten took his ships in on 2 May, moving from fog bank to fog bank. This was a very dangerous enterprise on a rocky coast. Despite the fog, the ships were bombed. The ships' masts were sticking out above the fog, giving the German bombers an approximate target. When they reached Namsos, the fog lifted, revealing a burning town and swarms of German bombers. Since it would have been suicidal to enter in these conditions, the British ships ducked back into the fog and returned down the bay.
The next day, 3 May, the last possible for evacuation, dawned as foggy as before. Admiral John Cunningham, in command of naval forces in the area, screened the evacuation convoy with two cruisers and four destroyers at Kya Light and sent cruiser , five destroyers and three transports in. Mountbatten led in HMS Kelly at 26 knots as the sun was going down. When they rounded the last bend of the fjord, they saw Namsos on fire. Mountbatten at this point did not know if the Germans were in possession of the town. A burning anti-submarine trawler, HMS Aston Villa, lay just ahead. As he closed the wharves, Mountbatten could see that everything was ablaze. But De Wiart was there with 5,500 troops lined up in good order, waiting to get off.
Evacuation began at 10:30 p.m. Two of the transports were able to get alongside the damaged quay and embark troops. The destroyers took off the other men and ferried them to York and the third transport, before taking a last load themselves. Meanwhile, the rearguard was engaging the Germans to cover the evacuation. A tricky disengagement followed and a rush for the last ship, . There was no time to destroy supplies left on the wharves, so Afridi shelled the equipment as she pulled away from Namsos at 2:20 a.m, 4 May. At 4:30 am the rear of the British convoy was sighted by German reconnaissance aircraft and bombers soon followed. The force was attacked continuously until late afternoon.
During the third attack of the day, the French destroyer was hit in the forward magazine and exploded with 136 killed. The other destroyers turned back to pick up survivors who were being machine-gunned in the water. After the Afridi had picked up some of the French sailors and Allied soldiers, she was hit by two heavy bombs and capsized with the loss of a hundred men, including some of the rearguard and the wounded from the Bison. British anti-aircraft fire destroyed a number of German aircraft. The convoy reached Scapa Flow on 5 May, De Wiart's 60th birthday.
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