At this time, the German carrier-based forces were blocked by Norwegian warships and shore guns outside the port of Oslo and were still unable to dock. In order to quickly occupy Oslo, according to the order of the superiors, the airborne troops landed in Forneb formed several parade formations of 1,500 people, tied ribbons on their heads, and under the cover of the aviation troops, they drove along the main streets into the center of Oslo in the posture of ancient conquerors.

The Germans expected that the Norwegian army would be intimidated by this bravado and would not put up any resistance, so the order included the words: "If possible, accomplish this mission by peaceful means." It must be presented with a polite but firm gesture.

All resistance should be resolved in the most appropriate way. The arrogance of the German airborne troops surprised an American journalist who lived in the downtown area of Oslo. He wrote: "It was an incredibly small force, which could be completed in six or seven minutes, and it consisted of only two incomplete battalions. ”

The British advance fleet did not have time to transport the marines ashore because of the battle with the German High Seas Fleet, and the Norwegian army was still stationed in the original capital of Norway.

The bet placed by the Germans was won, and the Norwegian government was not prepared for anything due to the sudden appearance of the Airborne Forces in the capital. At the same time, the actions of the German army were coordinated by the "Fifth Column" of the fascist organization headed by Gisling, who not only provided the German army with information on the defense of cities, ports, and airports, the deployment of troops, and military facilities before the war, but also bribed the relevant personnel in key departments, disturbed the morale of the army, and carried out subversive and sabotage activities.

And when the Germans marched into Oslo, the Ghislings seized the radio station. False orders were issued ordering the fortresses and ships to surrender to the Germans. Thus, the German Airborne Forces bloodlessly occupied the city of 300,000 people. It was the first capital in the world to be occupied by the Airborne Forces. Immediately afterwards, the airborne troops attacked the port from behind and took control of the Oslo Harbor Fortress, allowing more than 2,000 German landing troops to quickly land.

Exercise Wiesel Commando 3 was tasked with capturing Sola Airport near Stavanger, an important port city in Norway. The task of capturing the airfield was also completed in two steps: parachute landing and plane landing. 110 Junkers-52 aircraft of the 7th Group of the 1st Special Mission Bombing Aviation Regiment, carrying paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Regiment of the Airborne Forces, first took off from Stadder, Germany, to carry out the task of parachuting into the occupation of the Sola airfield in Stavanger.

Over the western sea, the 110 planes crashed into the rain. The squadron leader of the 7th Squadron was Captain Carpenter, and his subordinates were only trained in single-aircraft instrument flights. No formation instrument flight training was conducted. I have never actually flown at sea. They didn't even have life jackets with them, and if they collided in the clouds, they would never want to fly again.

The clouds engulfed the entire squadron, albeit in close proximity. But they still can't see each other clearly. The nearest plane also looks like a shadow. Carpenter was counting on a sunny sky over the Norwegian coast. If you land in the valleys of Norway with such poor visibility, you will be suicidal. He decided to continue flying and comforted his men by saying:

"The weather will be better in 1 hour and the clouds will dissipate very quickly. ”

Soon one by one, planes emerged from the clouds. The squadron regrouped with 1 aircraft less. I learned later. The plane got on the wrong route and landed in Denmark. The remaining 39 planes continued to fly north against the sea. By 9:20 a.m., the fleet approached Stavanger. The formation then drilled out of the valley at a height of just over 10 meters, then turned north, flew over rolling hills, and finally reached the Sola airfield.

The paratroopers were already ready, hanging the forced parachute line on the steel cable, and the hatches on both sides of the plane were wide open, waiting for the signal to parachute. Kaskit ascended the plane to 120 meters, then closed the throttle and glided down. Although it was dangerous to glide over the 120 meters where the enemy was in high demand, he believed that the parachute jump had to be carried out at a low speed so as not to spread out too much when the troops landed.

As the parachute signal sounded, the paratroopers quickly jumped out, and in just a few seconds 12 people from each plane had jumped out, all of them parachuting with weapons with their weapons. After completing the mission, the transport plane increased the throttle, lowered the altitude again, and flew to the dead end of the anti-aircraft gun to return home.

More than 600 paratroopers fell to the ground, and the commander, Captain Brandeis, was under heavy Norwegian machine-gun fire before he could assemble his troops. At this time, most of the Messerschmitt-110 fighters responsible for cover and support had already returned, but fortunately, 2 lost fighters were flying and looking for them, and then they came to Stavanger and immediately entered the battle to provide aviation fire support to the German airborne troops that were landing.

The main support points of the Norwegian army were two strong pillboxes next to the airfield. The paratroopers threw grenades into the gun holes of the pillboxes and took only half an hour to capture the airfield, then dismantling the barbed wire fence set up on the runway. In this way, the Sola airfield in Stavanger was made available to airlift troops.

Ten minutes later, the 1st and 2nd battalions of the 193rd Infantry Regiment landed at the airfield. After landing, the troops struck north from the airfield, and after crushing the sporadic resistance of the Norwegians, they resolutely occupied Stavanger.

At the same time, the German landing forces at Christiansund and Bergen, without resistance, went ashore and occupied the two ports.

While the Airborne Forces and Naval Landing Forces were attacking from the air and sea, German bomber units carried out deterrent sorties in the Norwegian cities of Christiansund, Egersund, Stavanger and Bergen, and attacked the Cheler airfield in Oslo, the batteries on the islands of the Oslo Fjord, and the anti-aircraft artillery positions of the Holmenke Union. The Norwegians could not withstand such strong military pressure, and by the evening of 9 April, most of the Norwegian positions were in the hands of the German airborne troops. The command post of the German commander Volkenhorst was then transferred to Norway.

On the first day of the battle, the Germans captured important cities in Norway and Denmark with a small number of paratroopers and infantry units. On the second and third days, in order to strengthen the forces of the airborne lands and ports that had already been occupied, Junkers-52 transport planes and B-29s constantly transported troops and supplies through the air. At this point, the first phase of the German invasion ended.

The second phase of the German operation was to advance northwards before the British moved, linking up the isolated airborne and landing fields occupied in Norway and advancing rapidly into the Norwegian interior in order to take full control of the country.

On 11 April, Germany sent 120 Junkers to the northern Norwegian port of Narvik to reinforce the German forces that had landed two days earlier. The transport planes landed on Lake Hartwig, 16 kilometres north of the port, where they froze, bringing in a mountain howitzer battalion to support the troops occupying the beachhead.

…… (To be continued.) )u