Chapter Four: Schlieffen Plan Mark II
Part VIII: Copenhagen Laughs
12th of November, 1939 to 11th of December, 1939
Hitler had learned from his Polish campaign. He needed a lot of men to hold a front; he could not merely push to Paris and hope the French wouldn't close in behind the Panzers. But he also was shown the effectiveness of a strong airforce. Many new plans were being built now, due to an initiative just before the invasion of Poland. The focus of factories to heavy industry meant these planes would be arriving soon. But Hitler didn't want to wait. He would use this time to show the Allies again the power of his armies. Importantly, he wanted to stop French and British ships inside the Baltic Sea, and to secure a port to strike at Norway and Sweden from. Hitler was completely ignoring his generals' recommendations to invade Denmark and France in 1940.
'Take a corps from Heeresgruppe Ost and send them over to the Denmark-German border north of Kiel!' Hitler ordered.
Guderian, newly appointed commander of the Heeresgruppe Ost (renamed and redeployed Heeresgruppe Polen, reserves in case of a sudden Soviet attack) stood up to Hitler. 'We cannot send over any men!' he cried.
Hitler sighed slowly. He would have to use some divisions fresh from training. He only had three. He devised a small plan, Fall Baden, named after Baden Baden, to destroy Denmark. It would take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, depending on the resistance of the Danish troops.
Although Hitler had learned to not be risky against medium to large armies, he doubted the power of Denmark to hold out against even a marine invasion by militia.
The eastern plan of Fall Baden looked rather risky in itself.
'You're going for a naval assault on a CITY? WITH A NON-MARINE DIVISION? ARE YOU CRAZY?' shouted Heinrici, commander of the forces assaulting Copenhagen. His face, originally bright red from anger, had now turned pale and white.
'Even with the airforce, this attack would never work!' he breathed slowly. He knew it was a death sentence for his men.
But Hitler would not listening, noting the power of the German airforce. This was more of an exercise for his bombers and multi-roles to gain experience, rather than to gain manpower and industry.
The western side of Fall Baden predicted almost no Danish resistance. This was again risky. Hitler knew he couldn't take out men from Heeresgruppe Ost, Heeresgruppe Nord or Heeresgruppe Sud (the army groups for Soviet defence, Belgium + Netherlands, and France respectively), and he was far too impatient to wait for more men. This would have to do.
The German navy wasn't very strong.
German intelligence suggested the Danish fleet had at most a few heavy cruisers, luckily.
A few ships had suffered light damage from submarines and ships in the Baltic Sea, but they were holding strong.
Hitler declared war at 21:00, on the 12th of November. Hopefully the Danish soldiers were tired - it was night after all - and not expecting a German bombing or attack.
German divisions were ordered to move to their designated locations. Under the cover of darkness, 8000 German soldiers advanced on the capital of Denmark, supported by naval shelling and immense air attacks. Although Copenhagen was already getting hit by German bombs, this did little to swerve the garrison from defending.
It didn't look so good for the Germans. Heinrici wanted to pull back and attack from under Copenhagen, but Hitler ordered him to keep attacking.
On the 15th of November, German divisions entered Southern Denmark.
The Battle of Copenhagen raged on. Still Hitler ordered Heinrici to attack, and still Heinrici requested to pull out.
Copenhagen was suffering daily and nightly bombings. But they had barely been hurt by the landings.
German newspapers reported of the Danish government publicly laughing at the German attack on their capital. The city was laughing at Germany. It could take down all of Poland but failed to capture a city with immense air support and constant naval strikes?
On the 21st of November, the climax of their mocking was reached. Heinrici had finally convinced Hitler to pull off the useless attack.
(I don't know why it says the divisions has no days left of supplies. When I hover over, it says the division is fully supplied)
Meanwhile, Germans in western Denmark were nearing their objectives. Finally some resistance was encountered.
Arhus was assaulted. The Danish fiercely resisted Germany. It was the 24th of November. Hitler ordered a preparation for another attack on Copenhagen.
This second attack came on the 27th of November. This time the bombing had done its job. Odense was taken by Germany an hour later. After a while, hard fighting in Arhus and Copenhagen ended in two defeats for Denmark. Tactical bombers were brought over from everywhere to strike at Copenhagen during the fight. It laughed no more.
As ships fleed from the port of Copenhagen, the Schlachtflotte managed to take down a submarine.
And the next day, Denmark knew its defence was over. von Neurath was sent to sign the surrender treaty.
Hitler had now learned he needed better trained units for amphibious operations. Norway and Sweden would have to be put off for a while. France looked all the more juicier with more and more aeroplanes being deployed.
