- After
the quick victory over Poland, Germany and the Allies entered the so-called
phoney war. The Allies were waiting the inevitable attack in the western front,
but when the attack started, it started towards north, to Norway and to
Denmark.
- The reason for German attack towards this direction, was the need to secure U-boat bases closer to the Atlantic and also to provide easier access to the sea. Also the iron ore, which was important to the German war effort, was one of the main reasons for the attack. The iron ore was transported from the Swedish port Luleå, but that one frozen during the winter. The port of Narvik in Norway however, stayed open even during the winter.
- The attack started on 9th of April 1940. Even as the Allies tried to reinforce badly outnumbered Norwegians, they were too late. Norway was quickly and relatively easily defeated and submitted into German control. The campaign was truly over in 9th of June, when the Norwegian King Haakon fled to Great-Britain. Denmark had already surrendered during the first day of the attack, when it came clear, that their armed forces, were not sufficient to stop the Germans. Norway and Denmark remained occupied all through the war and there where still German troops in both of the countries, when Germany capitulated in 1945.
- Der Sieg Im Norden, The Victory In North, tells the story of this German campaign in pictures. In total, the book contains 179 pictures and additionally several small maps. The maps are not presented here, as due to the paper quality, there's really no way of getting a decent pictures from them. However, all of the pictures are made in digital format and along with the pictures, is the original picture text.
- Surprisingly, the picture texts are printed in three
languages: German, French and English. My guess is, that this book was intended
to be distributed in France and England too, after the war would be won.
Otherwise, I don't see much point of printing a picture texts, in a language
that the enemy uses? Most likely it's obvious without saying, that the picture
texts, are a product of it's own time and full of propaganda, aimed towards the
enemy and towards the own people.
- The book also contains a quite comprehensive introduction text, describing the German armed forces, that were reserved to the campaign. Also the decision which led to the attack, are explained. Along with the pictures, is also printed few sentences, which describe the events that took place in certain days. These text however are in German and are not translated here. The introduction text was written by the Günther Loise and Oberst (Colonel) Ritter von Xylander.
- A total of 32 thousand copies of this book was printed in 1941.
COPYRIGHT:
- 1941 by Volk und Reich Verlag G.mbH., Berlin W9. Entwurf des Einbandes und Schutzumschlages Erich Ecke. Druck von M. Müller & Sohn KG., Berlin. -
- To give a credit to those photographers, who took the pictures, I've included a list of the photographers, who are mentioned in the back of the book: List
- Move to: Thumbnails to see the pictures.
