[BroJoeK]

"It looks to me like the Allies are going to impinge on Norwegian neutrality, and are daring the Germans to occupy Norway in response."

Question: did Hitler wait until he had definite news of British designs on Norway?
Or did he just assume (correctly), they would develop such plans and so launched his own preemptive invasion?

Or, to put it another way: suppose for sake of argument the Brits had never planned to invade Norway. Would Hitler have invaded Denmark & Norway anyway?
Considering the many potential uses Norwegian territories represented, I suspect he would have.

[henkster]

This is only my take on the situation:

I think Hitler would have left Norway alone if Britain had left Norway alone. As long as Hitler can get Germany’s iron ore through neutral Norwegian waters, he will probably leave Norway well enough alone. But once the British showed they would enter Norwegian waters to go get the Altmark, and when they made noises about “helping” Finland by way of Narvik, they definitely touched a nerve. As the war progressed, Hitler’s military decisions were more and more guided by natural resource considerations. He knew full well the German armaments industry depended on a continuous supply of Swedish ore.

Once the British started messing around with those supplies, it was really a foregone conclusion that Hitler would authorize any means necessary to secure them.

He didn’t have to “know” the British were going to mine Norwegian waters. He “knew” anyway. If that answers the question.

[CougarGA7]

I have to agree with henkster on this one. In the grand scheme of things it was more beneficial to Hitler to maintain a neutral Norway. The neutral country with its neutral coastline in which to ship Swedish iron from the port of Narvik during the winter months.

The British, however, were showing signs that they were not going to always respect a neutral waterway when it would benefit the Germans. This can be seen with the Altmark as well as the seizure of German coal being shipped to Italy which forced the Germans to continue those shipments only through land routes.

With the prospect of the neutral waters of Norway no longer meaning anything coupled with the talk of supporting Finland by sending units through Norway and Sweden it is easy to see how Hitler may at the very least have speculated that an Allied move on Norway was at the very least in the works (and he would have been correct). In this case, the British were a day late and a dollar short, but it will provide the location of the first armed clash between British and German soldiers. This will take place at Lillehammer.