World War II - The Terrifying Weapon Germany Never Expected

The maneuver was brutal and unforeseen.  While the Allies were scratching their heads, strategizing how to penetrate Norway as  a gateway to the battle-scarred Finland, Adolf Hitler blindsided them, unleashing  a blitzkrieg invasion on Norway. On April 9, 1940, this neutral Nordic  country, already stretched thin with scant resources and manpower, was now in  the crosshairs of the unstoppable Wehrmacht. Yet, even in their darkest hour, as a  menacing fleet from the Kriegsmarine thundered towards

their ports, the  Norwegian defenders refused to hand over their motherland to Hitler’s clutches.  They had a trump card hidden up their sleeves. The German fleet, spearheaded by  the newly-minted cruiser Blücher, advanced towards Drøbak to kickstart  the invasion, unaware that deep within the nearby Oscarsborg Fortress, a weapon  from a bygone era waited to be unleashed. Back in 1901, a concealed torpedo battery was  placed within a cave near the fortress. This battery was engineered to unleas

h its  warheads stealthily beneath the waves. As the Blücher, with her  crew of almost 2000 sailors, stealthily navigated Norwegian waters,  anticipating a swift and crushing triumph, they unwittingly approached the  wrathful might of Nordic vengeance... In September 1939, a devastating blitzkrieg  ravaged Poland, igniting the fuse of World War 2 as Britain and France declared war. Yet, instead  of the anticipated immediate, large-scale combat, the Western Front sank into an eerie calm.  This pe

riod, later known as the Phoney War, saw the Allies and the Axis powers in a state  of preparation rather than active engagement. The Allies, primarily France, and Britain, haunted  by the nightmarish trench warfare of the Great War, were hesitant to launch a full-scale  offensive. They focused on reinforcing the Maginot Line, a towering series of fortifications  along the German border, mistakenly believed impenetrable. This reliance bred a dangerous  sense of security and a passive military st

ance. Underestimating Adolf Hitler’s  military prowess and ambition, the Allies clung to the hope that  a prolonged war would sap Germany’s strength. They failed to grasp the  speed and ferocity of Hitler’s tactics. At home, both the political brass  and the public in Britain and France, still nursing the scars of World War 1,  leaned towards diplomacy over military aggression. This widespread reluctance  to re-enter the bloodbath of conflict handed Hitler precious time to bolster his  forces, s

trategizing for the impending storm. This period of deceptive peace would come to a  head when Joseph Stalin, observing the Allies’ reluctance to confront Hitler, launched an  aggressive invasion of Finland in the Winter War. Stalin’s move exposed the Allies’ hesitancy  to engage in conflict, a weakness he exploited. Norway was caught in the eye of this storm,  clinging to neutrality to sidestep the carnage. Its stance, however, posed a strategic dilemma  for the Allies. Without Norwegian cooper

ation, assisting Finland became a near-impossible task, and concurrently, Germany benefited from  crucial iron imports via Norwegian ports. This precarious balance of power and  indecision set the stage for a dramatic escalation as Hitler’s ambitions  and the Allies’ caution collided, propelling the world deeper  into the throes of war. In a bid to choke the Wehrmacht’s supply lines,  Britain and France hatched a bold strategy: they sought permission to dispatch an  expeditionary force to Finlan

d via Norway, ostensibly for aid. However, their  true aim was far more audacious — to seize Norwegian mines and commandeer  the nation’s strategic resources. Before the conflict, France’s Lorraine mines  were Germany’s main iron source. But post-Poland invasion, Norway emerged as the Third Reich’s  top supplier. The Allies saw an opportunity: by controlling these supply lines, they could  starve Germany of critical war materials. The Norwegians, however, smelled a rat.  They rejected the Allied

proposition, suspecting an ulterior motive to capture their  industrial heartlands. In response, the Allies issued a stark public warning, threatening  to seize the mines by force if necessary. While Norway reacted with measured calm  to these threats, Adolf Hitler perceived them as a dire provocation. Particularly  after the Altmark incident, where Britain brazenly flouted Norwegian neutrality, Hitler  resolved to strike preemptively. On April 9, 1940, Operation Weserübung was unleashed as  Ge

rman forces invaded Denmark and Norway. This operation, a decisive thrust in the Norwegian  campaign, aimed to capture Oslo by air and sea, targeting King Haakon VII and his government.  Despite warnings of the impending assault, such as the sinking of the German troopship  SS Rio de Janeiro by the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł and the encounter of the Norwegian  guard vessel Pol III with a German force, Norway’s defenses remained unprepared. Thus, as German boots landed on Scandinavian  soil, the

Phoney War’s era of hesitancy and feigned peace crumbled, thrusting Europe  into a new chapter of brutal confrontation. Bound by the Treaty of Versailles’ iron grip,  Germany’s naval might was significantly curtailed following the horrors of World War One. This  treaty drastically limited the size and power of the German fleet, leaving it a shadow of its  former self. The remaining vessels were restricted in size, firepower, and overall capabilities,  symbolizing a nation’s clipped wings. Howeve

r, the mid-1930s witnessed the  Nazi Party rise to power and brazenly flout the treaty’s constraints. This act  of defiance heralded the Kriegsmarine’s audacious revival. A cornerstone of  this resurgence was the construction of the Admiral Hipper class – a series of  state-of-the-art cruisers that represented the fleet’s spearhead and Germany’s  relentless drive for European dominance. The Admiral Hipper, the first behemoth of this  new era, was soon overshadowed by the birth of an even more ga

rgantuan warship. Launched in  1936, this colossus measured over 660 feet in length and 70 feet in breadth – a floating  fortress armed to the teeth. The Blücher, as she was christened, was a harbinger  of destruction equipped with two 53.3 cm torpedo launchers at her stern and  four additional deck-mounted launchers. Her daunting armament included eight 20.3 cm  SK L/60 guns, complemented by a battery of 32 anti-aircraft guns for skyward defense. The  Blücher boasted the capacity to house three

Arado Ar 196 seaplanes, a catapult, and a crew  exceeding 1,300 sailors. Named in honor of Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian general  who was instrumental in Napoleon’s downfall at Waterloo, she embodied Germany’s rekindled  military aspirations and thirst for supremacy. Powered by a trio of steam turbines and  fed by 12 high-pressure, oil-fired boilers, the Blücher surged through the waves at  an impressive 32 knots. As the vanguard of Operation Weserübung, her mission was as  bold a

s it was critical – the capture of Oslo, the heart of Norway. Laden, with a contingent of  over a thousand men, including crack troops from the 163rd Infantry Division, was a floating  fortress poised to deploy her lethal cargo onto Oslo’s shores. Accompanied by her sister’s  heavy cruiser, Lützow, the light cruiser Emden, and a protective fleet of escorts, the Blücher  sailed with a relentless determination. In the dead of night on April 8, 1940, as  she navigated the tight, snaking path of the

Drøbak Narrows – Oslo’s maritime chokepoint  – an uncanny stillness blanketed the waters. At Oscarsborg Fortress, Norway’s first line  of defense, Commander Birger Eriksen stood watch. His garrison, a mix of inexperienced  troops and incomplete naval mine defenses, seemed ill-equipped for the impending German  onslaught. Suddenly, a dire warning from the patrol boat Pol III pierced the quiet – unknown  vessels lurked nearby. Although the Pol III would fall victim to a German torpedo, its final

act  was to rouse Oscarsborg Fortress into readiness. Eriksen plunged the fortress into darkness,  transforming it into a spectral guardian in the night. The German flotilla, under strict  instructions to only return fire if engaged, advanced silently past the fortress.  However, the Norwegian defenders, unshackled by such directives, braced for a clash. The Drøbak Narrows, a natural bottleneck for naval  access to Oslo, were defended by the Oscarsborg Fortress. This aging military bastion, prim

arily  used for training coastal artillery servicemen, was underestimated by Nazi intelligence  as a benign relic – a costly mistake. Hidden from the prying eyes  of Kriegsmarine intelligence, the fortress, operational since  1901, harbored a clandestine ace: a torpedo battery nestled within a nearby cave.  These torpedoes, relics from Austria-Hungary about 40 years old, were poised for a  surprise that would defy their antiquity. This submerged arsenal comprised three torpedo  tunnels, capable

of unleashing up to six torpedoes without reloading, with nine torpedoes  at the ready. Each packed a 220-pound TNT punch, their targets observable from three  strategic bunkers above the battery. By April 1940, the usual commander of this  torpedo battery was on sick leave, leaving retired Kommandørkaptein Andreas Anderssen, familiar  with these aging weapons since 1909, to step in. Oberst Birger Eriksen, tasked with  vigilance against enemy ships, was taken aback to spot an unidentifiable  for

eign fleet breaching the southern defenses. Despite Europe’s simmering tensions,  64-year-old Eriksen lacked explicit orders for such a scenario. Norway’s neutrality was  tenuous, teetering towards the Allies. As the enigmatic flotilla advanced,  a Norwegian patrol boat’s warning of additional nearby ships was abruptly  cut short by a torpedo strike. Eriksen, sensing an imminent attack, rallied his  fortress’s troops – a mix of officers, non-commissioned personnel, and green recruits,  the latte

r conscripted merely a week prior. With all navigational beacons extinguished,  Oscarsborg Fortress melded into the night, an invisible sentinel. Kommandørkaptein Andersen was swiftly ferried across the  fjord to the torpedo battery. As the imposing fleet loomed just  outside the fortress, Eriksen, grasping the gravity of the situation,  discarded caution and commanded an offensive on the flagship. Faced  with his subordinates’ hesitation, citing Norway’s fragile neutrality, Eriksen  declared: (

QUOTE) “Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed. Fire!” – a moment  of resolve that would resonate through history. Surprise Attack The initial volleys from Oscarsborg  Fortress’s guns missed Blücher, but their roar was a clarion call to the  Germans, heralding the onset of battle. As the Kriegsmarine fleet penetrated  deeper into the Drøbak Narrows at 4:00am, Blücher inadvertently sailed into the  fortress’s searchlights, revealing her to the Norwegian defenders. The fortress’s

  guns thundered to life, with the first shell striking the cruiser’s port side, crippling its  leading range finder. The second shell struck a more devastating blow, penetrating Blücher’s  aircraft hangar and igniting her seaplanes. Despite the onslaught, Blücher pressed forward  through the tempest of enemy fire. Simultaneously, the fortress’s guns turned their fury on the  accompanying vessels. Blücher, attempting to retaliate, found her efforts futile; her guns,  aimed too high, could not re

ach their targets. Meanwhile, a catastrophic fire raged through  Blücher, reaching a cache of explosives destined for the Oslo invasion. Confusion  reigned among the Kriegsmarine forces, still uncertain of the attack’s  origin in the pitch-black night. Then, in a decisive moment, Kommandørkaptein  Andersen unleashed a lethal underwater salvo of three torpedoes, tearing a gaping wound  in Blücher’s side. The torpedoes found their mark in the ship’s boiler room, extinguishing  most of her power an

d flooding her interiors. As Blücher was engulfed by the ensuing  chaos, her crew scrambled amidst the inferno, struggling to grasp the magnitude of the  catastrophe. The once-mighty cruiser, now crippled and immobile, was  consumed by uncontrollable flames, a stark symbol of the fierce resistance  that awaited the German invaders. Crippled by a devastating second  torpedo strike, the cruiser Blücher, now with her engines annihilated, lay  anchored near the Askholmene islets, just north of Oscar

sborg Fortress’ lethal  range. Engulfed in flames from stem to stern, she became a nightmarish inferno on water. In  a desperate, albeit futile, effort to prevent onboard torpedoes from exacerbating the blaze,  her crew launched them aimlessly toward the shore. At 5:30am, the already dire situation  escalated when the flames reached a midship ammunition hold for the  10.5 cm Flak guns. The resulting explosion tore a massive hole in the  Blücher’s side. Bulkheads collapsed, boiler rooms were comp

romised, and fuel  bunkers erupted, sealing her tragic fate. By 6:22am, the once formidable cruiser yielded  to the Oslofjord’s icy depths. She capsized onto her port side, slowly flipping upside down.  In her final moments, she plunged bow-first into the dark abyss, her propellers the last  visible sign before disappearing beneath the waves. Following her descent, a sinister oil sheen  surfaced, trapping nearly two thousand sailors and soldiers in an oily pool. The oil, catching  fire, claimed

hundreds of German lives. Amid this chaos, Obergefreiter Günther Morgalla,  a survivor, recounted a harrowing memory. As he swam towards the freezing shore,  surrounded by his struggling comrades, the air was pierced by the haunting sound of  the national anthem of Germany, followed by a sea shanty titled “That can’t shake a sailor” – a  somber backdrop to an unfolding maritime tragedy. The aftermath of the Blücher’s sinking was both  devastating and chaotic. Up to 800 German lives were lost in

this maritime disaster. Of  the approximately 1,400 who survived, 550, drenched and shivering, were  captured by the Norwegian Royal Guards led by Kaptein A. J. T. Petersson.  Meanwhile, around 1,200 survivors managed to reach the shores of Frogn, near Drøbak,  where they encountered Norwegian guards. In the face of this scene, the Norwegian guards  prioritized humanitarian aid, focusing on assisting the wounded rather than the immediate  detention of the enemy. This act of compassion in the mid

st of war resulted in approximately 1,000  Germans, including high-ranking officers like Generalmajor Erwin Engelbrecht and Admiral Oskar  Kummetz, being gathered at a nearby farm. There, they were held under light guard  and, notably, left uninterrogated. As the day turned to evening, the  Norwegian soldiers withdrew from the site, inadvertently leaving the Germans  unattended. Seizing this unexpected opportunity, Engelbrecht and Kummetz  discreetly made their way to Oslo, reaching the Hotel Co

ntinental by  10:00pm. Their arrival in Oslo was a pyrrhic achievement, as the bulk of their force  was scattered, captured, or lost to the sea. The Royal Norwegian Navy Hospital at  Åsgården summer hotel in Åsgårdstrand became a makeshift sanctuary for many of  the wounded, both German and Norwegian, a somber reminder of the  conflict’s toll on human life. The sinking of the Blücher significantly  disrupted the German strategy for a swift and overwhelming surprise attack on Norway.  The Kriegsm

arine, stunned by the unforeseen resistance at Oscarsborg Fortress, grappled  with uncertainty about the source of the damage – unsure if it was solely from the  fortress or from hidden mines. This confusion led them to postpone the remainder of their  naval invasion, inadvertently allowing crucial time for the evacuation of Norway’s Royal  Family, Cabinet, and Parliament members. Germany’s initial invasion plan hinged  on rapidly seizing key Norwegian cities by sea and capturing King Haakon VII

and the  Norwegian Cabinet. The Nazi leadership believed that detaining these figures would lead to a  quick capitulation of Norwegian forces. However, Oberst Birger Eriksen and his men at Oscarsborg  Fortress dramatically derailed this scheme, affording precious time for the Norwegian military  to mobilize and the royal family to evade capture. During their escape, the royal court witnessed the Battle of Midtskogen and endured the  bombardments of Elverum and Nybergsund. The defenders at Midts

kogen, comprised of a  blend of professional soldiers and volunteers, including 20-30 Royal Guardsmen from the  1st Guard Company and recruits from the Terningmoen military camp, were now  better positioned to mount a defense, thanks largely to the delay  caused by Blücher’s sinking. Armed primarily with Krag–Jørgensen bolt-action  rifles and two Colt M/29 machine guns, these Norwegian defenders faced a German  force of about 100-120 paratroopers. Under Hauptmann Eberhard Spiller, these invaders

  boasted superior training and firepower, including modern submachine guns  and grenades. Yet, the resistance they encountered was bolstered by the critical  time afforded by Blücher’s unexpected demise. The Norwegian defensive strategy at Midtskogen  entailed establishing roadblocks at Midtskogen and Sagstuen to halt the German convoy’s  advance. The plan was to force the German troops to proceed on foot through deep snow, then  retreat to a fortified position at Sagstuen for a final stand. Th

e blockade at Midtskogen was  hastily constructed using civilian vehicles, stretching over 100 meters due  to the heavy traffic in the area. However, when the German forces arrived at this  blockade around 2:00am, they unexpectedly found themselves further west than the Norwegians had  anticipated. This miscalculation disrupted the Norwegian defense plan, and they soon came under  intense fire from the well-armed German troops. The situation intensified dramatically when a  nearby barn, set abla

ze by German illumination rounds, lit up the night, revealing  the Norwegian positions. Until then, the Norwegians had relied on the cover of darkness  for concealment. Compounding their predicament, they discovered their machine guns were  inoperable, having frozen in the cold. In this chaos and under relentless  fire, the Norwegians restored one machine gun to working order, providing  critical cover fire for their retreat. The skirmish at Midtskogen drew to a  close around 3:00am, with both s

ides withdrawing from the immediate area. The  Norwegian forces regrouped at Sagstuen, their numbers bolstered by reinforcements from  the Norwegian Military Academy. The German forces, recognizing the futility of their raid and  suffering severe injuries, retreated back to Oslo. Despite the fierce battle, casualties were  relatively light on both sides. Crucially, the German withdrawal bought precious  time for the Norwegian Cabinet and royal family. This respite allowed for the  completion of

the Elverum Authorization, which bestowed temporary absolute authority  on the Cabinet, as the Parliament could no longer convene under normal circumstances.  Furthermore, this delay enabled the royal family and key government officials to distance  themselves from the invading forces further. Though minor in scale, the Battle  of Midtskogen played a significant role in boosting Norwegian morale and came to  symbolize the nation’s determined resistance against the German invasion, an emblem of 

defiance in the face of overwhelming odds. Had Oberst Birger Eriksen not taken his defiant  stand during the Battle of the Drøbak Narrows, the likely outcome would have been a swift collapse of  Norwegian defenses, leading to the capture of the royal family and Parliament members. This scenario  would have left the British Royal Navy with little opportunity to mount an effective response  before the completion of the German invasion. Despite the valiant efforts of the men at  Oscarsborg Fortress

and other courageous Norwegian defenders who resisted the Germans  at great cost, the overwhelming force of the German war machine proved unstoppable, both  from within and without Norway’s borders. As the Royal family sought refuge in exile,  Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian military officer, and Nazi sympathizer, attempted to capitalize  on the chaos. He broadcasted a radio address aiming to usurp power and establish a pro-Nazi  government in Norway amid the ongoing invasion. Key Norwegian ports

and strategic locations,  including Bergen, Stavanger, Egersund, Kristiansand, Arendal, Horten, and Trondheim,  fell to the Germans within a mere 24 hours. The Norwegian armored coastal defense ships Norge  and Eidsvold, stationed at the port of Narvik in a bid to defend it, were quickly outmatched  and sunk by the superior German naval forces. The speed and intensity of the German invasion  rapidly overwhelmed Norway’s defensive efforts. The Norwegian Air Force, significantly  outgunned, deploy

ed merely five fighter planes in a desperate attempt to counter the  onslaught of more than 80 German warplanes. This rapid sequence of events underscored the sheer scale and efficiency of  the German military operation, highlighting the daunting challenge Norway and  its allies faced in the early days of World War 2. The German military, showcasing their tactical  prowess, executed the first successful paratrooper assault in history. Airborne troops landed at  Fornebu Airport in Oslo, the Krist

iansand Airport in Kjevik, and the Sola Air Station, marking a  significant advancement in military strategy. Amidst this turmoil, King Haakon VII faced  immense pressure to appoint Quisling as head of the government, supposedly to ensure a  smooth transition of power. However, King Haakon, steadfast in his principles, vehemently rejected  this proposal. He declared to his advisors that he would rather abdicate than betray his country  by appointing a government led by a Nazi ally. This bold sta

nce was unanimously supported  by the members of his government, who encouraged Norwegians to persist in their  resistance against the German occupation. Hitler, faced with a lack of popular support  for Quisling, established a puppet government. Quisling served as Prime Minister, jointly  overseeing the state administration with German civilian administrator Josef Terboven. However,  following the war’s conclusion in May 1945, Norwegian loyalists swiftly deposed Quisling,  arresting him and his

cohorts for treason. The Battle of Drøbak Sound was a severe  blow to the German invasion plans. It resulted in the loss of approximately  800 lives, many of whom were elite soldiers tasked with the critical mission  of capturing Oslo’s key government figures. Remarkably, the Norwegian defenders at Oscarsborg  Fortress, equipped with outdated weapons and composed mainly of recruits fresh from basic  training, did not suffer any fatalities. This striking victory underscored their defense’s  effe

ctiveness and the fortress’s crucial role. Blücher, a symbol of German naval might, was  brought to a standstill by this seemingly unassuming fortress. Today, the wreckage of  the once-proud Kriegsmarine cruiser rests at the bottom of the Oslofjord. In 2016, 75  years after its sinking, the site was declared an official war memorial, safeguarding it from  potential looters and preserving it as a lasting reminder of the fortress’s remarkable  stand against overwhelming odds.