Allies Liberated Norway

Alright heres one:
What if instead of Dieppe the Allies invaded Norway. Now the allies would be trying to invade Italy around this time.
So the Allies would want to capture a port like Oslo ASAP, and have the country liberated quickly so you could prepare for Overlord.
I am no General but I think this is how it probably would have gone down:
3-4 Armys,: 1 British, 1 Canadian, 1 or 2 American.
Large Air Support, Maybe parts of bomber Command 8th AF, fighter Command ect.
Large Navy for the Baltic: Subs would be nice they could pick off ships heading to Norway, and the allies would need to blockade some ports.
I would think the Allies would start 2 parts North and South and possibly some Airborne troops East of the City then take the Port and City of Bergin ASAP. That first strike may iinclude the Canadian 1st Army British 2nd Army, USA 101st Airborne. After this 1 or 2 US Armys come in and they begin to push. I would think, Inless the Germans massivly re-inforced Norway, that the allies could get the country by mid-late 43.
If all went to success the West allies would share a border with Finland. I have no clue what would happen there that would be a "What if" FInland may fight on 2 fronts or, they may see the west allies as, not too bad, and enter a cease fire with the allies, or they may just fight on, who knows.
After I would think the Allies would still need to ocupy Norway with: A Norweigen Army and possibly 6-5 allied divisions.
Anyone else got comments?

 

I think Chruchill was sorta fascinated by the thought of invasion in Norway around 1942. There was a plan for an operation of taking the North Norway in order to protect the supply route to Murmansk. Anyway, it never went far.

I think sending troops to Norway might be a bit useless ( unless other motives come up ) as there would be no straight contact to Germany to continue the attack.Except of course if the idea is to cut the German attack to Murmansk and perhaps create a second front wiht Finland.Of course there would be mostly German troops in Lapland as the Finnish alone could hold on for two fronts so wide apart for about 15 minutes, I think.

Interesting idea, anyway. Maybe others have different thoughts/strategy?

 

I just read that Germany took Norway with a force of 12,000 Soildiers, so how many would they ocupy Norway with??, Over 900 soildiers died at Dieppe, and almost 2000 prisioners were taken, I seem to think that If the Allies liberated Norway, and lets say there is 25,000 soildiers defending Norway, and lets say 10,000 come in after the invasion starts I cant see allied losses being to great and Allies would get.
-Norweigen Soildiers
-Make Stalin A little Happier
-Possibly force Finland into Nutality, or make Finland fight on 2 fronts
-Make it way safer to send supplies to West USSR
-Could cut off Norweigen ports delivering Steel, resources to the German army and divert them to the allies.
These are ones I can think of.
Any other opinions?

 

Well I do find this an interesting scenario, but doubt Stalin would be satisfied that this constitued a second front. But Brad I agree with your second post in that it would be mostly a battle to control airports and ports (which was Germany's original plan) which would basically give you control of the country, not the broad campaign you envisioned in your original post.

Which got me to thinking there could have been some real gains for a relatively small effort, mostly the security of the Murmansk convoys and forward air bases for the Bombing campaign, but in addition the Finnish question and bootling up the Baltic would be good as well as I believe Norway was a source for Heavy Water used in Atomic programs (Not sure if I read this or LeBeau said it to Col. Hogan in an episode of Hogan's Heroes! ).

Of course the lines of communication were much shorter for the Germans, then the Allies, I suspect fast ships could make a night run to Norway from Copenhagen? Which in the end would mean a fairly sizable Allied garrison to protect the bombers, that would have been better deployed in Western Europe, instead of languishing in Norway.

So I guess it would make sense earlier in the war (ie. 42 instead of North Africa), but not immediately (say a few months/a year) prior to the real invasion.

 

I think though that the country could have been taken by forces who would be sitting in England, and those troops would gain expierince for liberating France, and it would take away much of Germanys resources of steel. Ofcource Stalin would not be happy with just Norway but if a liberation did happen Germany probably would have had to aid Finland, and if Finland just decided a ceasefire rather then a 2 front war, that would close up a Soviet front.