page_title: Arctic naval operations of World War II
section_title: 1940 - Invasion of Norway
hierarchical_section_title: Arctic naval operations of World War II / 1940 - Invasion of Norway
caption_attribution_description: Title: Norwegen, deutsche Kriegsschiffe&#160; Extra information: Norwegen.- deutsche Kriegsschiffe in einem Hafen (Luftaufnahme); PK Staffel Nord Additional information: Deutsch: Der Hafen ist Narvik Hafen. Das Gebäude mit dem hohen Kamin steht wo sich heute Fagernesveien 1 befindet. English: The harbour is Narvik Harbour. The building with the tall chimney is where Fagerveien 1 is today. The closest destroyer is the Diether von Roeder, the one further back is Wolfgang Zenker. Between Diether von Roeder and Wolfgang Zenker is the Norwegian patrol boat Kelt. Behind Wolfgang Zenker is the Norwegian patrol boat Senja and behind Senja is the Norwegian patrol boat Michael Sars. Source: (in norwegian) (1999) Fjellkrigen 1940: Lapphaugen - Bjørnfjell, Trondheim&#58; &#32;Nord-Hålogaland regiment, p.&#160;68 ISBN&#58; 8299541204.&#32; For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Factual corrections and alternative descriptions are encouraged separately from the original description. Additionally errors can be reported at this page to inform the Bundesarchiv. Alemannisch&#160;| Boarisch&#160;| беларуская&#160;| беларуская (тарашкевіца)‎&#160;| català&#160;| čeština&#160;| Deutsch&#160;| English&#160;| Esperanto&#160;| español&#160;| suomi&#160;| français&#160;| हिन्दी&#160;| hrvatski&#160;| magyar&#160;| italiano&#160;| 한국어&#160;| македонски&#160;| Plattdüütsch&#160;| polski&#160;| português&#160;| română&#160;| русский&#160;| sicilianu&#160;| slovenčina&#160;| slovenščina&#160;| svenska&#160;| українська&#160;| 中文&#160;| 中文（简体）‎&#160;| 中文（繁體）‎&#160;| +/− Original historic description:
context_page_description: The Arctic Circle defining the "midnight sun" encompasses the Atlantic Ocean from the northern edge of Iceland to the Bering Strait in the Pacific Ocean. Military activity in this area between 1939 and 1945 is often considered part of the Battle of the Atlantic or of the European Theatre of World War II. Pre-war navigation focused on fishing and the international ore-trade from Narvik and Petsamo. Soviet settlements along the coast and rivers of the Barents Sea and Kara Sea relied upon summer coastal shipping for supplies from railheads at Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. The Soviet Union extended the Northern Sea Route past the Taymyr Peninsula to the Bering Strait in 1935.
  The Winter War of 1939-1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union opened the northern flank of the eastern front of World War II. Arctic naval presence was initially dominated by the Soviet Northern Fleet of a few destroyers with larger numbers of submarines, minesweepers, and torpedo cutters supported by icebreakers. The success of the German invasion of Norway provided the Kriegsmarine with naval bases from which capital ships might challenge units of the British Royal Navy Home Fleet.
context_section_description: April 1940: Operation Weserübung included an invasion of Narvik by troops embarked aboard ten Kriegsmarine destroyers.  Covering battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau briefly engaged HMS Renown; and subsequent battles of Narvik involved Norwegian coastal defence ships Eidsvold and Norge, U-boats, and units of the Royal Navy.
  4 May 1940: The Polish destroyer Grom was sunk off Narvik by a KG 100 bomber.
  21 May 1940: HMS Effingham was scuttled after grounding on a shallow pinnacle off Narvik.
  4 June 1940: Operation Alphabet troopships Monarch of Bermuda, Batory, Sobieski, Franconia, Lancastria, Georgic, Oronsay, Ormonde, Arandora Star, Royal Ulsterman, Ulster Prince, Ulster Monarch and Duchess of York began evacuation of 24,600 Allied soldiers from Narvik.
  8 June 1940: With some of the longest range naval gunnery hits ever documented, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escorting destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent during Operation Juno.
  9 July 1940: Raider Komet sailed north from Bergen and waited near Novaya Zemlya until 13 August 1940 for ice conditions to allow passage through the Matochkin Strait into the Kara Sea.  Komet proceeded east with the assistance of three Soviet icebreakers to enter the Pacific Ocean through the Bering Strait on 5 September 1940.  Soviet submarine Shch-423 made a similar trip from Murmansk to Vladivostok from 5 August to 17 October.
  25 July 1940: Admiral Hipper sailed for a two-week Arctic patrol.
  15 August 1940: Army transport USAT American Legion departed Petsamo for New York City carrying American nationals from Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands.  American Legion also carried Princess Märtha of Sweden with her children, and a Bofors 40 mm gun manufactured in Sweden which became the prototype for American manufacture of the primary United States Navy anti-aircraft gun of World War II.
  25 August 1940: HMS Norfolk and HMAS Australia sailed for a five-day patrol to Bear Island.
  16 October 1940: HMS Furious launched an airstrike against the Tromsø seaplane base.
  4 March 1941: HMS Edinburgh and Nigeria covered the Operation Claymore raid on Lofoten.
  11 April 1941: HNoMS Mansfield destroyed the Øksfjord fish oil factory.
  7 May 1941: Destroyers HMS Somali, Bedouin, Eskimo and HMAS Nestor captured code documents aboard the German weather ship München near Jan Mayen while covered by cruisers HMS Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham.  HMS Nigeria made a similar capture of the weather ship Lauenburg on 28 June.
caption: Destroyers Diether von Roeder and Wolfgang Zenker landing troops at Narvik.
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