Transcription
When we think of the beginning of the Second World War, most would point to the outbreak of hostilities between Germany and Poland in September 1939, and that would be correct. But when does a World War become a world war? The state of affairs after the fall of Poland resembled more of a traditional conflict: Britain and France versus Germany. To me, there was a moment when the conflict truly went from just a normal war to a World War. This moment was April 1940, the invasion of Norway.
Between the outbreak of war on the 1st of September 1939 and the invasion of Norway in the first weeks of April the following year, the two sides understandably sat there and didn't do much. The horrors of the First World War were well within everyone's memories, and many saw no need to go about killing millions of Europeans again for little or no gain. Poland, the point of the war, had already fallen, and Chamberlain was rightly thinking about pursuing some form of peace with Germany. Hitler felt the exact same way, and many peace offers were sent Britain's way. If they had accepted, history could perhaps have been very different.
One man who had other ideas, though, was the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. Regarded by both Parliament and the King alike as an unstable warmonger, he was doing his best to live up to the name. Germany was heavily reliant on the iron ore from Sweden and Norway for their war effort, and within three weeks of hostilities breaking out, Winston was already suggesting that Britain breach Norwegian neutrality off the coast of Norway. There is a passage between the islands just off the shore called the Leads, which prevented the British from imposing a total naval blockade. In World War One, it took until September 1918 to persuade the Norwegians to let them lay mines here when Germany was clearly already dead and buried. Now Churchill wanted to breach neutrality, whether they liked it or not, right off the bat.
I brought to the notice of the cabinet the importance of stopping the Norwegian transport of Swedish ore from Narvik, I suggested we laid a minefield across the three-mile limit. All through the coming weeks, he kept insisting on not only placing mines but fully occupying the north of Norway and even Northern Sweden too. He waved away criticism in a memorandum in December with the quote, "Small nations must not tie our hands when we are fighting for their rights and freedom." When the Winter War broke out, Churchill had his opportunity, and he managed to win around many to his plan of intervening in Scandinavia. Now they had the pretext to do so. Initially, they weren't going to invade to secure the iron ore; they were simply stepping in like the good guys to stop communism. Admiral Orthon, a Frenchman involved with the planning of these operations, frankly admitted, "No one really hoped to stop the Soviet Army and save Finland. The idea was to use the pretext of such an operation to lay our hands on Swedish iron ore and deny it to the Germans." Fear of Communism was running high, especially in Sweden, and many feared that once Stalin inevitably destroyed Finland, he would simply come right across the Swedish border and beyond in search of warm-water ports, which the Soviets so desperately needed.
However sketchy Churchill's pretext sounded, it may actually have worked at the time. The Allies tried their hand; Chamberlain could take the pressure no more from those coming around to Churchill's idea, and on the 22nd of December, the Foreign Office simply sent the Scandinavian governments a communication telling them that the Allies proposed to stop the supply of iron ore. Stockholm at this time was the spy capital of Europe, and so the message almost immediately fell into German hands. They may as well have just phoned Hitler and told him the plans themselves. Chief of the General Staff Edmund Ironside wrote in his diary on the 2nd of January, "A long day, actually eight and a half hours in conferences and meetings. You cannot make a war like that." The cabinet meeting to consider the Scandinavian show became a debating morning. Winston was all out to start at once without much thinking of the consequences. "I think that the main argument against this project of Churchill's is that it may, I think it will, accelerate any contemplated German action in Scandinavia. We are not ready for this till the middle of March." The man who had rushed the Brits into the Gallipoli disaster in World War One was now clearly at it again. At this time in the war, he didn't get his way immediately, as everyone saw him for what he was. He was kept around as he was always enthusiastic and ready to get in there; no one doubted his drive or work ethic, but he lived up to his name as a bulldog and was a total loose guy.
It was becoming obvious that Churchill would, however, actually get his way. The Norwegian King Haakon pleaded to his nephew, George VI of England, begging him to use his influence to stop the plan. The Norwegians preferred the British historically anyway, being a more liberal country and being major trading partners. He simply couldn't understand why the Brits were being so belligerent toward his nation, which had done nothing but want to stay out of the war, like they had in the Great War. Around this time, in mid-January, Churchill was urging immediate action. By now, the whole world basically knew what the Brits were up to. This wasn't Germany, where decisions were made by one man with the input of his closest advisors; this was parliamentary Britain, and people talked; things were a total mess. And Hitler simply took this information and made his own, continuously updated plans, ready to preempt the Brits if they followed through. The fact that Germany now had a contingency plan was obvious, and Halifax now suggested that they simply wait until Germany acted first, so they could "escape the odium of being the first to take such a step."
The temperature continued to rise, and on the 19th of February, King Gustav of Sweden publicly reaffirmed his nation's neutrality. He said it was the nation's duty to stay out of a war between the great powers, and it was now an open secret that the British were coming. The Swedish press openly talked about it day in and day out; everyone knew what was coming, just not when. Then abruptly, Britain's cover was gone. Due to mounting international pressure, Stalin negotiated a somewhat reasonable peace with Finland, and the Winter War ended. There was no longer the pretext needed to invade, but now they were in too deep; things were already in motion, and the men were already at the port, ready to embark and begin the plan at a moment's notice. Over in Germany, things were the same; Hitler was ready to act as soon as he knew the British would, and the men were at their staging areas just inland from major ports like Kiel on the Baltic Coast, ready to overrun Denmark and Norway much faster than the Brits could dream of doing, given their close proximity. Chamberlain expanded the whole operation as to not spook Germany into invading first, and he was supported by his usual crowd, but as always, he was opposed by Churchill. All had now fallen to the ground because such cumbersome are our processes that we were too late. "Whether the Germans have some plan of their own which will open upon us, I cannot tell. It would seem to be astonishing if they had not," said Churchill by late March. Churchill had caused such a stir that a motion of no confidence was seeming likely, soon to oust Chamberlain. Eventually, he gave way and put the plan into action on April 5th.
On the 2nd of September 1939, Hitler had declared that Norwegian neutrality was inviolable. Now events have changed dramatically, however, and he knew full well of what the British were up to, and now it was time to move. The British were beginning to lay the mines in the Norwegian fjords, and the government protested vigorously. When the King was awakened on the morning of the 9th of April and told that Norway was at war, he quite rightly asked, "With whom?" It truly was a confusing situation for poor Norway. The British just set off to get in there, doing it the Churchill way, after all, to him this was just a way to "open up the war." The Germans, however, had amassed the realistic number of aircraft, boats, and men needed to actually complete the objective, and both sides set off at about the same time. There was only going to be one winner, as the German invasion fleets set off for the Norwegian ports. Denmark lasted just hours, and Norway itself fell in two months. The importance of Scandinavia for the iron ore was huge, and Hitler had scored a huge victory. But in the long run, Churchill got what he wanted; he had indeed opened up the war, just as he had wanted, and now the fate was sealed. He had made Hitler seem like a conqueror on the world stage, despite this being his own plan. He had thrown Chamberlain under the bus for the failure of his own idea that he had pushed him into, and he became prime minister himself as a result. No one else had the will to take command, and it was always going to be Winston. But Britain was now at the mercy of a madman. Now all he had to do was wait; he was well aware the Americans would eventually join the war, and with them involved, it was only ever a matter of time.
Churchill was on payroll to keep the war going by shadowy groups in the City of London, and there was never any question of surrender as long as he could keep the British people's morale up. Churchill's Norway diversion turned the Second World War into an actual World War. His plan of "opening up the war" ended up costing millions of soldiers and innocent civilians alike their lives in an increasingly confusing war, where many, especially the Americans later on, weren't sure what they were actually fighting for. If you felt his plan was worth it considering the Allies won in the end, that's your prerogative. There's something about those piles of dead civilians that doesn't sit right with me. Thank you very much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the two videos this week, despite their shorter size. I've been ill, so I thought it's better to put out something rather than nothing. I'm basically better now; my throat doesn't really hurt, so it's back to the regular schedule next week, as well as the next episode of the hit series on the weekend. As always, a special thank you to my patrons. If you want to support the channel, join our Discord or our weekly Hearts of Iron 4 games, please click the link in the description to sign up for as little as two dollars a month. It helps immensely. Thank you to Lobster, to you, Darwin, Sigma, Emperor Titus, Luke, David Murphy, Chechen, Natsok, Anton Berglund, Levi e Lanza, Friendly Brian Bushek, Firefly Enterprise, and Henry Unruh.