"Georg Thiele" was allocated to Group 1 for the Norwegian portion of Operation Weserübung in April 1940. The group's task was to transport the 139th Mountain Infantry Regiment ("139. Gebirgsjäger Regiment") and the headquarters of the 3rd Mountain Division ("3. Gebirgs-Division") to seize Narvik. The ships began loading troops on 6 April and set sail the next day. The German destroyers reached the Ofotfjord on the morning of 9 April and Commodore Friedrich Bonte took his flagship "Wilhelm Heidkamp", "Georg Thiele" and "Z11 Bernd von Arnim" down the fjord to Narvik. A heavy snowstorm allowed "Thiele" and "von Arnim" to enter the harbor without challenge and tie up at a pier.