Hochseeflotte
The German Battlefleet of the Second World War
German soldiers running through a burning village in Norway
After the swift defeat of Poland in September 1939, the Heer reorganised her forces. Most of the divisions that saw action in Poland were to stay there as occupation forces, guarding the new border with the Soviet Union. They had seen their share of combat for the moment, and until proper garrison forces could be gathered, these troops would have to supervise the newy conquered territory. Other formations were redeployed to the West, primarily the armoured and mountaineer formations. The latter marched off to the major port of Kiel. New formations of infantry were still being formed en masse to bolster the Wehrmacht, primarily the Oberkommando der Westfront received additional soldiers. Some formations were deployed behind the line as a strategic reserve, for the moment.
Rapid redeployment of Wehrmacht formations following the fall of Poland
The estimation was made that in order to succesfully defeat France, even more divisions were needed. Thus, the planned Fall Gelb was shelved until after the winter. This would give the Heer time to expand her ranks and flesh out the plan for the operations. In the mean time, the Luftwaffe had her hands full dealing with British strategic bombing operations against our industry in Northwest Germany. The local AA defences were clearly unable to stop the airstrikes without help from the Messerschmitts.
However, this does not mean nothing will happen in the mean time. During the operations in Poland, it quickly became obvious that the Danish government was not going to stop any warring nation from passing the Kattegat into the Baltic. While Germany wouldn't suffer much from a potential blockade around Kopenhagen, after all she had the Kiel canal available to her, a blockade would prevent Allied fleets from operating in the Baltic. Since the Danish government refused to negiotiate a diplomatic solution to this problem, military action was neccesary.
And so it came that on October 12th, a joined plan by Heer and Kriegsmarine was presented: Operation Weserübung.
While the Schlachtflotte blocks off access to the Skagerrack to prevent any Allied intervention, infantry divisions will cross the Danish border, neutralise Danish defences and seize the capital of Kopenhagen. This will ensue only fleets neutral or friendly to Germany will be able to enter and leave the Baltic.
swift and deciscive, Operation Weserübung was designed to last no more than a few hours.
The Mediterranean front
In the summer of 1939, part of the Kriegsmarine had been involved in extensive multi-national excercises with the Italian Regia Marina in the Meditteranean. It had not been forgotten how much headaces the Goeben and Breslau had caused Allied High Command during the Great War, and it was estimated that with this much larger German fleet and the Italian navy on her side, the Allies could be presented with some serious problems. In addition to this, the German Mittelmeerflotte provided the Regia Marina with sorely needed additional transport capacity between mainland Italy and Libya. Although Italy was not yet officially involved in the war, negotiations regarding her entry into the conflict were well underway.
During a redeployment action by the Mittelmeerflotte, they were attacked by a French battleship and some escorts. The engagement lasted only an hour or two and was fought in bad weather, preventing a large scale battle from developing. While the battlecruisers Gneisenau and Moltke took some damage, the only fleet to lose ships was the French.
First contact with the Marine National proves that neither fleet is afraid to take the fight to the enemy.
The last months of 1939 passed in relative peace. The Luftwaffe and RAF occasionally clashed in the skies over Germany and the Soviet Union launched an attack on Finland, where the Red Army ran into a nasty surprise as the Finnish Defence Forces put up a valiant defence of their homeland. According to observers, Red Army generals launch wave after wave of soldiers against the dug in Finnish defenders, leading to heavy casualties. If this is all the Red Army can muster after Stalin purged the officer corps back in 1937, we won't even need to fight bolshewism for it to collapse in upon itself.
That valiant defence however, did not prevent the Soviets from encircling 3 Finnish divisions, including the legendary general Paavo Talvela.
During the first week of 1940, various new infantry-divisions were deployed, both in the east and in the west. Troops on the Dutch border were put on high alert after rumours of Dutch negiotiations to join the Allies came through. Wether the rumours were true or not, for the moment the Dutch government stayed neutral. An untimely involvement of her army in the war could pose a threat to the major Kriegsmarine naval base at Wilhelmshafen an should be avoided at all cost.
During Christmas, several Royal Navy and Marine National fleets were sighted around the Skagerack. The threat of Allied fleets in the Baltic sea was now imminent and could no longer be ignored. Therefore, the order was given to secure the Danish and Norwegian-controlled entrance to the sea by force.
As soon as the declaration of war was proclaimed, German infantry pushed across the Danish border and the fleet set sail. In the Norwegian Trench, elements of the Norwegian fleet were encountered and destroyed by our battleships. In respons to the German invasion of Denmark and Norway, the Dutch government declared war and officially joined the Allies.
The pride of the Norwegian fleet was sunk in the first encounter with our fleet
In the freezing winter, 3 Gebirgsjäger divisions landed south of the Norwegian capital of Oslo and stormed the suburbs of the city under cover of the big guns of the Schlachtflotte. Fighting was heavy and lasted for several days, but eventually German infantry seized the city. In the mean time, the French airforce had been engaging Luftwaffe fighters over Metz almost daily. Every encounter resulting in more French than German wrecks littering the region. The fact that the French were willing to deploy ther airforce so aggressively however, was worrying.
Finally, after 9 days of heavy fighting, the Norwegian defenders were driven from their entrenched positions around the government seat in Oslo. The Gebirgsjäger paraded through the city, victorious. 600 of our elite soldiers had fallen in battle, but the Norwegians lost a staggering 1922 men defending their capital. On February 17th 1940, the Norwegian government fled to England and the army put down their weapons, overwhelmed by the attack and exhausted from the continuous fighting.
The mountaineer divisions in Oslo were now diverted south, re-embarked ships and stormed the Danish Island of Zealand. After several days of heavy fighting and severe bombardment by dive bombers, the Danish garrison gave in and surrendered the city.
Another government that realises the futility of continuing resistance
After a lightning campaign, the infantry formations re-organise in Oslo and Kopenhagen before returning to mainland Germany. Here, they will retake their positions in the Order of Battle for the upcoming West campaign.