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90-727: When Nazi Germany attacked Norway on 9 April 1940, with only a small number of modern aircraft, the Norwegian Army Air Service and Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service were unable to mount a sustained defence. Following the defeat of the Norwegian forces, the King, key members of the government and military left Norway in June 1940 aboard HMS  Devonshire . After arriving in England, the Norwegian government-in-exile began

180-465: A German invasion of Norwegian territory. After the rapid occupation of Denmark, in which the Danish military was ordered to stand down as Denmark's government did not declare war with Germany, German envoys informed the governments of Denmark and Norway that Germany's forces had come to protect both countries against Anglo-French attacks. Significant differences in geography , location and climate between

270-417: A contract to acquire 14 NH90 helicopters, claiming that the supplier could not deliver and sustain the availability of combat capable aircraft that Norway required. All NH90 flight operations are discontinued, all acquired aircraft are planned to be returned to the manufacturer, and in due course Norway intends to acquire a new aircraft. On 14 March 2023, RNoAF announced a contract for six SH-60 Seahawk as

360-459: A full army corps , including a mountain division, an airborne division , a motorized rifle brigade and two infantry divisions. The target objectives of the force were the Norwegian capital, Oslo , and other population centres: Bergen , Narvik, Tromsø , Trondheim , Kristiansand and Stavanger . The plan also called for the swift capture of the Kings of Denmark and Norway in the hope of triggering

450-634: A legal sense to the Germans, leaving the Quisling government illegitimate. The Norwegian government-in-exile based in London remained, therefore, an Allied nation in the war. At 7:06 pm 5 Norwegian fighters were sent into battle to combat a wave of 70–80 enemy planes. German airborne troops landed at the Oslo airport Fornebu , Kristiansand airport Kjevik , and Sola Air Station – the latter constituting

540-609: A limited, last-minute alert. Late in the evening of 8 April 1940, Kampfgruppe 5 was spotted by the Norwegian guard vessel Pol III . Pol III was fired at; her captain Leif Welding-Olsen became the first Norwegian killed in action during the invasion. German ships then sailed up the Oslofjord leading to the Norwegian capital, reaching the Drøbak Narrows ( Drøbaksundet ). In the early morning of 9 April,

630-556: A little over 8,000. The operation's military headquarters was Hotel Esplanade in Hamburg, where orders were given to, among others, the air units involved in the invasion. Norway was important to Germany for two primary reasons: as a base for naval units, including U-boats, to weaken Allied shipping in the North Atlantic, and to secure shipments of iron ore from Sweden through the port of Narvik . The long northern coastline

720-507: A man lost overboard, was sunk by Kriegsmarine heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and two destroyers belonging to the German invasion fleet. On 9 April, the German invasion was under way, and the execution of Plan R 4 was promptly started. Strategically, Denmark's importance to Germany was as a staging area for operations in Norway. Considering its status as a minor nation bordering Germany, it

810-729: A part of the Operation Enduring Freedom . One of the missions was Operation Desert Lion . On 27–28 January, Norwegian F-16s bombed Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin Fighters in the Adi Ghar Mountains during the beginnings of Operation Mongoose . In 2004, four F-16s participated on NATO's Baltic Air Policing operation. Beginning from February 2006, eight Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s, joined by four Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16s, supported NATO International Security Assistance Force ground troops mostly in

900-532: A rapid surrender. On 21 February 1940, command of the operation was given to General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst . He had fought in Finland during the First World War and was familiar with Arctic warfare , but he would have command of only the ground forces, despite Hitler's desire to have a unified command. The final plan was codenamed "Operation Weserübung" on 27 January 1940. The ground forces would be

990-717: A replacement for the NH90 . The three first helicopters will be delivered in 2025. In April 2024 the Strategic Defense Plan announced the intention to acquire one extra C-130J Super Hercules and undisclosed number of helicopters to support the Army and special force. The plan also proposes increasing NASAMS's batteries to 6. As well as increasing the Army's air defense to 2 batteries. 2 batteries of layered air defenses with ballistic capacity will also be introduced (Patriot or new NASAMS with long-range missiles) The RNoAF

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1080-507: A unified force, renamed as the Royal Norwegian Air Force . The official declaration was made on 11 November 1944, although combined training operations were already taking place. In May 1942, the training camp was moved to a 430-acre (1.7 km) site at Muskoka Airport , about 79 miles (127 km) north of Toronto. Under the auspices of a Lend-Lease agreement, an additional order of 50 Fairchild PT-26/PT-26B Cornells

1170-488: Is organized in five Air Wings. These are divided into a total of one Control and Reporting Centre, nine flying squadrons as well as two ground based air defense units. The former distinctiontion between a Main Air Station ( hovedflystasjon ) and an Air Station ( flystasjon ) was replaced by a new distinction between an Air Force Station ( flystasjon ) and an Air Force Base ( Luftforsvarets base ). NOTE: Norway

1260-537: Is participating in three NATO programs giving them access to an Airbus A330 MRTT , 3 C-17 ’s and 5 RQ-4D Phoenixs . Previous aircraft flown included the Dassault Falcon 20 , F-16 Fighting Falcon , North American F-86K , Republic F-84G , F-104 Starfighter , Northrop F-5 , Lockheed T-33 , Fairchild PT-26 , Catalina PB5Y-A , Douglas C-47 , DHC-3 Otter , Noorduyn Norseman , Cessna O-1 , Bell UH-1B , Bell 47G , P-3 Orion , NHIndustries NH90 and

1350-1328: Is the air force of Norway . It was established as a separate arm of the Norwegian Armed Forces on 10 November 1944. The RNoAF's peacetime establishment is approximately 2,430 employees (officers, enlisted staff and civilians). 600 personnel also serve their draft period in the RNoAF. After mobilization , the RNoAF would consist of approximately 5,500 personnel. The infrastructure of the RNoAF includes seven airbases (at Ørland , Rygge , Andøya , Evenes , Bardufoss , Bodø , and Gardermoen ). It also has one control and reporting centre (in Sørreisa Municipality ) and three training centres: Værnes in Stjørdal Municipality (about 32.7 kilometres (20.3 mi) northeast of Trondheim ), Kjevik in Kristiansand Municipality , and at KNM Harald Haarfagre/ Madlaleiren in Stavanger Municipality . Military flights started on 1 June 1912. The first plane, HNoMS  Start ,

1440-690: The Malmbanan railway line from Narvik to Luleå in Sweden on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia . This would also allow Allied forces to occupy Swedish iron mines in Norrland. The plan received the support of both Chamberlain and Halifax. They were counting on the co-operation of Norway, which would alleviate some of the legal issues, but stern warnings issued to both Norway and Sweden by Germany resulted in strongly negative reactions in both countries. Planning for

1530-618: The 330 (Norwegian) Squadron in May 1941 they were stationed at Reykjavík , Iceland performing anti-submarine and convoy escort duties. The unequal situation led to the rapid defeat of the Norwegian air forces, even though seven Gladiators from the fighter wing ( Jagevingen ) defended Fornebu airport against the attacking German forces with some success—claiming two Bf 110 heavy fighters, two He 111 bombers and one Junkers Ju 52 transport. Jagevingen lost two Gladiators to ground strafing while they were rearming on Fornebu and one in

1620-849: The Anti-Aircraft Artillery was integrated into the Royal Norwegian Air Force. In 1999, Norway participated with six F-16s during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia . In October 2002, a tri-national force of 18 Norwegian, Danish , and Dutch F-16 fighter-bombers, with one Dutch Air Force KC-10 A tanker , flew to the Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan , to support the NATO ground forces in Afghanistan as

1710-750: The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan base in Moose Jaw , Saskatchewan on the NA Harvard . In 1943, the 30 surviving A-8 fighter trainers were sold back to the United States as P-36Gs. Initially, 36 Douglas DB-8A-5/A-33s (company numbers 715/750) on order from the United States were turned over in late 1940 for use as an advanced trainer. A decision to standardize on British types that would be used in operations led to arrangements being made later in 1941 for

1800-917: The Finnish Air Force , while most of the aircrew eventually ended up in "Little Norway". The Army and Navy air services established themselves in Britain under the command of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . Norwegian air and ground crews operated as part of the British Royal Air Force , in both wholly Norwegian squadrons and also in other squadrons and units such as RAF Ferry Command and RAF Bomber Command . In particular, Norwegian personnel operated two squadrons of Supermarine Spitfires : RAF 132 (Norwegian) Wing consisted of No. 331 (Norwegian) Squadron and RAF No. 332 (Norwegian) Squadron . Both planes and running costs were financed by

1890-606: The Kjeller aircraft factory, flight ready, but none combat ready. Some of the Kjeller aircraft had not been fitted with machine guns, and those that had been fitted still lacked gun sights . The ship with the last five 75A-6s that were bound for Norway was diverted to the United Kingdom, where they were taken over by Royal Air Force (RAF). All 19 Norwegian P-36s that were captured by the German invaders were later sold by

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1980-730: The Muskoka Airport terminal building to commemorate the Muskoka site. Army Navy 43°38′05.9″N 79°23′57.0″W  /  43.634972°N 79.399167°W  / 43.634972; -79.399167 Operation Weser%C3%BCbung Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups Finland Iceland Norway 1941 1942 1943 1944 1942 1943 1944 1945 Operation Weserübung ( German : Unternehmen Weserübung [ˈveːzɐˌʔyːbʊŋ] , transl.  Operation Weser Exercise , 9 April – 10 June 1940)

2070-549: The Norwegian Army Air Service (Hærens Flyvevaaben) and the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service (Marinens Flyvevaaben). In the late 1930s, as war seemed imminent, more modern aircraft were bought from abroad, including twelve Gloster Gladiator fighters from the UK, and six Heinkel He 115s from Germany . Considerable orders for aircraft were placed with United States companies during the months prior to

2160-557: The Port George VI Island Airport in the Toronto Islands on Lake Ontario. After construction of new facilities had started, other Norwegian military staff took over with Col. Oscar Klingenberg chosen to head the training schools and Georg Unger Vetlesen and Thor Solberg able to deal with US aircraft manufacturers handling the procurement orders for military equipment. The greatest need revolved around

2250-674: The Souda Air Base in Souda Bay on Crete . On 24 March 2011, F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force were assigned to the United States Africa Command during Operation Odyssey Dawn . On 25 March 2011, laser-guided bombs were launched from F-16s of the Royal Norwegian Air Force against Libyan tanks and during the night towards 26 March an airfield was bombed. Forces were also deployed to Operation Unified Protector on 26 March 2011. By July 2011,

2340-588: The Storstrøm Bridge as well as the fortress of Masnedø , the latter being the first recorded attack in the world made by paratroopers. At 04:20 local time, a reinforced battalion of German infantrymen from the 308th Regiment landed in Copenhagen harbour from the minelayer Hansestadt Danzig , quickly capturing the Danish garrison at the Citadel without encountering resistance. From the harbour,

2430-573: The USAAF took over the aircraft and used them under the designation P-36G. Also ordered prior to the invasion were 24 Northrop N-3PB float planes built in on Norwegian specifications for a patrol bomber . The order was made on 12 March 1940 in an effort to replace the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service's obsolete MF.11 biplane patrol aircraft. None of the type were delivered by 9 April and when they became operational with

2520-645: The Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland in November 1939 changed the strategic situation. Churchill again proposed his mining scheme but once again was denied. In December 1939, the United Kingdom and France began serious planning for sending aid to Finland. Their plan called for a force to land in Narvik, in northern Norway, the main port for Swedish iron ore exports and then to take control of

2610-473: The first opposed paratrooper attack in history ; coincidentally, among the Luftwaffe pilots landing at Kjevik was Reinhard Heydrich . Vidkun Quisling's radio-effected coup d'etat at 7:30 pm on 9 April was another first. At 8:30 pm the Norwegian destroyer Æger was attacked and sunk outside Stavanger by ten Junkers Ju 88 bombers, after it sank the German cargo ship MS  Roda . Roda

2700-853: The Allies evacuated from Åndalsnes on 1 May. Resistance in Southern Norway then came to an end. Hegra Fortress continued to resist German attacks until 5 May – it was of Allied propaganda importance, like Narvik. King Haakon VII , Crown Prince Olav , and the Cabinet Nygaardsvold left from Tromsø 7 June aboard the British cruiser HMS  Devonshire to represent Norway in exile. The King would return to Oslo on that exact date five years later. Crown Princess Märtha and children, denied asylum in her native Sweden, later left from Petsamo , Finland, to live in exile in

2790-489: The Atlantic were to be stopped for the submarines to aid in the operation. All available submarines, including some training boats, were used as part of Operation Hartmut in support of Operation Weserübung. Initially, the plan was to invade Norway and to gain control of Danish airfields by diplomatic means. However, Hitler issued a new directive on 1 March that called for the invasion of both Norway and Denmark. That came at

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2880-603: The British Isles were four German-made Heinkel He 115 seaplane bombers, six of which were bought before the war and two more were captured from the Germans during the Norwegian Campaign . One He 115 also escaped to Finland before the surrender of mainland Norway, as did three M.F. 11s ; landing on Lake Salmijärvi in Petsamo . A captured Arado Ar 196 originating from the German heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper

2970-530: The British decided to send an expeditionary force to Norway just as the Winter War was winding down. The force began boarding on 13 March, but it was recalled and the operation cancelled because of the end of the Winter War. Instead, the Chamberlain war ministry voted to proceed with the mining operation in Norwegian waters, followed by troop landings. On 5 April 1940, the long-planned Operation Wilfred

3060-580: The F-35 officially took over the Quick Reaction Alert mission, ending the F-16 fleet’s 42 year-long mission and making Norway the first country in the world to field a fighter fleet entirely composed of fifth-generation fighters . In December 2021, Romania expressed their interest to purchase 32 F-16As. The first three aircraft were delivered in November 2023. In June 2022, Norway terminated

3150-475: The German authorities to the Finnish Air Force , which was to use them to good effect during the Continuation War . The other order for P-36s was for 36 Hawk 75A-8 (with 1200 hp Wright R-1820 -95 Cyclone 9 engines), none of which were delivered in time for the invasion, but were delivered to " Little Norway " near Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There they were used for training Norwegian pilots until

3240-543: The German tanker Altmark in Norwegian waters. The crew of Cossack overpowered the tanker's crew and rescued British prisoners of war onboard the ship, whose presence Norwegian authorities had repeatedly ignored. Both the attack and the transportation of prisoners of war into Norwegian waters by Altmark violated Norway's neutrality. Hitler regarded the incident as a clear sign that the Allies were also willing to violate Norwegian neutrality, which made him become even more strongly committed to invading Norway. On 12 March,

3330-426: The Germans during the war. The rapid Danish capitulation resulted in the uniquely-lenient occupation of Denmark , particularly until the summer of 1943, and in postponing the arrest and deportation of Danish Jews until nearly all of them were warned and on their way to refuge in neutral Sweden . In the end, 477 Danish Jews were deported, and 70 of them lost their lives, out of a pre-war total of Jews and half-Jews at

3420-510: The Germans moved toward Amalienborg Palace to capture the Danish royal family. By the time the invasion forces arrived at the king's residence, the King's Royal Guard had been alerted and other reinforcements were on their way to the palace. The first German attack on Amalienborg was repulsed, giving Christian X and his ministers time to confer with the Danish Army chief General Prior . As

3510-572: The Germans recaptured Narvik, which was also now abandoned by civilians because of massive Luftwaffe bombing. Operation Weserübung did not include a military assault on neutral Sweden because there was no strategic reason. By holding Norway, the Danish straits and most of the shores of the Baltic Sea, the Third Reich encircled Sweden from the north, the west and the south. In the east, there

3600-707: The MAP (Military Aid Program). The expansion of the Air Force happened at a very rapid pace as the Cold War progressed. Throughout the Cold War the Norwegian Air Force was only one of two NATO air forces— Turkey being the other—with a responsibility for an area with a land border with the Soviet Union , and Norwegian fighter aircraft had on average 500–600 interceptions of Soviet aircraft each year. In 1959,

3690-433: The Norwegian F-16's had dropped close to 600 bombs, some 17% of the total bombs dropped at that time. It was Norwegian F-16s that on the night towards 26 April, bombed Gaddafi's headquarter in Tripoli. From September to December 2011, the Air Force contributed personnel and one P-3 Orion to Operation Ocean Shield . Operating from the Seychelles , the aircraft searched for pirates in the Somali Basin. In April 2016

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3780-724: The Royal Navy and the landing force of ten destroyers of the Kriegsmarine. Both parties lost two destroyers, but on 13 April a British attack by the battleship HMS  Warspite and a flotilla of destroyers succeeded in sinking the remaining eight German destroyers, which were trapped in Narvik because of lack of fuel. The towns Nybergsund, Elverum, Åndalsnes , Molde , Kristiansund N , Steinkjer , Namsos , Bodø , and Narvik were devastated by German bombing; some of them were tactically bombed, others terror-bombed. The main German land campaign advanced northward from Oslo with superior equipment; Norwegian soldiers with turn-of-the-century weapons, along with some British and French troops, stopped

3870-457: The United States of America." With his status of holding dual Norwegian and U.S. citizenship and his extensive contacts in the aviation industry, his instruction from the Norwegian Government-in-exile in London changed to a new directive: to set up a training camp and school for expatriate Norwegian airmen and soldiers in Canada. Balchen negotiated directly with Canadian government officials to obtain an agreement to use available airport facilities at

3960-433: The United States. The Norwegian Army in mainland Norway capitulated on 10 June 1940, two months after Wesertag. That made Norway the occupied country that had withstood a German invasion for the longest time before succumbing. Despite the surrender of the main Norwegian forces, the Royal Norwegian Navy and other armed forces continued fighting the Germans abroad and at home until the German capitulation on 8 May 1945. In

4050-426: The XXI Army Corps, including the 3rd Mountain Division and five infantry divisions; none of the latter had yet been tested in battle. The first phase would consist of three divisions for the assault, with the remainder to follow in the next wave. Three companies of fallschirmjagers would be used to seize airfields. The decision to also send the 2nd Mountain Division was made later. Almost all U-boat operations in

4140-433: The air, shot down by Future Experte Helmut Lent , injuring the sergeant pilot. After the withdrawal of allied forces, the Norwegian Government ceased fighting in Norway and evacuated to the United Kingdom on 10 June 1940. Only aircraft of the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service had the range to fly all the way from their last remaining bases in Northern Norway to the UK. Included amongst the Norwegian aircraft that reached

4230-449: The belief that it would repeat World War I . Therefore, the British began to consider naval blockades against Germany if war broke out. German industry was heavily dependent on the import of iron ore from Swedish mines in Norrland , and much of that ore was shipped through the Norwegian port of Narvik during the winter months. Control of the Norwegian coast would serve to tighten a potential blockade against Germany. In October 1939,

4320-405: The chief of the Kriegsmarine , Grand-Admiral Erich Raeder , discussed with Adolf Hitler the danger posed by potential Allied bases in Norway and the possibility of Germany pre-emptively seizing those location. The Kriegsmarine argued that a German occupation of Norway would allow control of the nearby seas and serve as a platform for staging submarine operations against the Allies. However,

4410-568: The country from Anglo-French attacks. The German ambassador demanded that Danish resistance cease immediately and that contact be made between Danish authorities and the German armed forces. If the demands were not met, the Luftwaffe would bomb the capital, Copenhagen . As the German demands were communicated, the first German advances had already been made, with forces landing on a regular commercial ferry in Gedser at 03:55 and moving north. German Fallschirmjäger (paratrooper) units had made unopposed landings and taken two airfields at Aalborg ,

4500-497: The discussions were ongoing, several formations of Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers roared over the city dropping leaflets headed, in Danish, OPROP! (proclamation). At 05:25, two squadrons of German Messerschmitt Bf 110s attacked Værløse airfield on Zealand and neutralised the Danish Army Air Service by strafing . Despite Danish anti-aircraft fire , the German fighters destroyed ten Danish aircraft and seriously damaged another fourteen, thereby wiping out half of

4590-442: The entire Army Air Service. Faced with the explicit threat of the Luftwaffe bombing the civilian population of Copenhagen, and with only General Prior in favour of fighting on, King Christian and the entire Danish government capitulated at approximately 06:00, in exchange for retaining political independence in domestic matters. The invasion of Denmark lasted less than six hours and was the shortest military campaign conducted by

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4680-438: The exiled Norwegian government. In the autumn of 1940, a Norwegian training centre known as "Little Norway" was established next to Toronto Island Airport , Canada. The Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) was established by a royal decree on 1 November 1944, thereby merging the Army and Navy air forces. No. 331 (Norwegian) Squadron defended London from 1941 and was the highest scoring fighter squadron in South England during

4770-505: The expedition continued, but the justification for it was removed after the Moscow Peace Treaty between Finland and the Soviet Union had been signed in March 1940 and ended the Winter War. Following a meeting with Vidkun Quisling from Norway on 14 December, Hitler turned his attention to Scandinavia. Convinced of the threat posed by the Allies to the iron ore supply, Hitler ordered the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht to begin preliminary planning for an invasion of Norway. The preliminary plan

4860-425: The far north, Norwegian, French and Polish troops, supported by the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force (RAF), fought against the Germans over the control of the Norwegian harbour Narvik, important for the year-round export of Swedish iron ore. The Germans were driven out of Narvik on 28 May, but the deteriorating situation on the European continent made the Allied troops withdraw in Operation Alphabet , and on 9 June,

4950-413: The flight training of Norwegian pilots to be carried out in RAF and RCAF schools. Consequently, the Model 8A-5s were declared surplus to Norwegian requirements and disposed of in sales abroad. With the Norwegian Navy and Army pilot training operating as individual courses, there were inevitable commonalities and for the benefit of efficiency, the Norwegian government-in-exile consolidated both services into

5040-489: The fortress (and the mistaken belief that mines had contributed to the sinking) delayed the rest of the naval invasion group long enough for the Royal Family , the Cabinet and members of Parliament to be evacuated, along with the national treasury . On their flight northward by special train, the court encountered the Battle of Midtskogen and bombs at Elverum and Nybergsund . As the Norwegian king and his legitimate government were not captured, Norway never surrendered in

5130-552: The ground, south of Gravenhurst; both on board died. The bodies were recovered from the dense undergrowth and a wing section was found, but no wreckage was recovered. Not long after, another Fairchild crashed for the same reason, but both occupants escaped by parachute. Fairchild aircraft were temporarily grounded, but after the cause of the accidents were determined and other aircraft repaired, Fairchilds were again in service. The FTL lost three N-3PBs in Canada in fatal crashes, two near Vancouver ( Jericho Beach and Patricia Bay ), when

5220-469: The gunners at Oscarsborg Fortress fired on the leading ship, Blücher , which had been illuminated by spotlights at about 04:15. Two of the fortress guns were 48-year-old German-made Krupp guns (nicknamed Moses and Aron ) of 280 mm (11 in) caliber. Within two hours, the badly damaged ship, unable to manoeuvre in the narrow fjord from multiple artillery and torpedo hits , sank with very heavy loss of life totalling 600–1,000 men. The threat from

5310-456: The harbour in Toronto was frozen, along with the aircraft involved in the ferry boat accident. Other training accidents included fatal crashes in the Curtiss P-36s, one near Toronto in April 1941, another near Port Credit in July 1941 and a final loss into Lake Ontario in January 1942. In all, 23 people at the Air Force training camp died in flying accidents, in addition to the seven who died of disease, car accidents or by drowning. In total during

5400-407: The insistence of the Luftwaffe to capture fighter bases and sites for air warning stations. The XXXI Corps , formed for the invasion of Denmark, consisted of two infantry divisions and the 11th motorized brigade. The entire operation would be supported by the X Air Corps, which consisted of some 1,000 aircraft of various types. In February, the Royal Navy destroyer HMS  Cossack boarded

5490-437: The invaders for a time before yielding; this was the first land combat between the British Army and the Wehrmacht in World War II. In land battles at Narvik, Norwegian and Allied forces under General Carl Gustav Fleischer achieved the first major tactical victory against the Wehrmacht in WWII. German forces then overpowered Norwegian troops at Gratangen. The King and his cabinet evacuated from Molde to Tromsø on 29 April, and

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5580-462: The invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940. The most important of the US orders were two orders for comparatively modern Curtiss P-36 Hawk monoplane fighters. The first was for 24 Hawk 75A-6 (with 1200 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1830-SC3-G Twin Wasp engines), 19 of which were delivered before the invasion. Of these 19, though, none were operational when the attack came. A number were still in their shipping crates in Oslo harbour, while others stood at

5670-537: The life of a patient, at the hospital in Bodø , was saved when necessary medical equipment was ferried halfway across Norway by an Air Force F-16 jet from Værnes Air Station , in a flight that took 25 minutes. On 29 March 2017, Norway signed a contract for five P-8As, to be delivered between 2022 and 2023. On 3 November 2017, RNoAF took delivery of the first F-35A Lightning II . In March 2021, RNoAF participated in Icelandic Air Policing with four F-35A Lightning II and 130 military personnel. On 6 January 2022,

5760-448: The loss of students and instructors. On 20 June 1941, while taking off, a Northrop N-3PB collided with the ferry Sam McBride in Port Race, Toronto Harbour, killing both the student pilot, Tron Harsvik, and instructor, Lt. Finn Strand Kjos. The Toronto Star newspaper wrote that it was "a matter of time before one of the Norwegian aircraft crashes in the city itself." This fear, along with it being impractical to have flight training in

5850-419: The open waters of the North Sea , where the Royal Navy could intercept them. Churchill assumed that Wilfred would provoke a German response and that the Allies would then implement Plan R 4 and occupy Norway. Though later implemented, Operation Wilfred was initially rejected by Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax for fear of an adverse reaction among neutral nations such as the United States. The start of

5940-400: The other branches of the Wehrmacht were not interested, and Hitler issued a directive stating that the main effort would be a land offensive through the Low Countries . Toward the end of November 1939, Winston Churchill , as a new member of the Chamberlain war ministry , proposed the mining of Norwegian waters in Operation Wilfred . This would force the ore transports to travel through

6030-460: The people's desire for more participatory democracy. The authorities must respect fundamental human rights such as political, economic and social rights. It is now vital that all parties do their utmost to foster peaceful dialogue on reforms". On 19 March 2011, the Norwegian government authorized the Royal Norwegian Air Force for deployment in Libya . Norway approved six F-16 fighters and personnel. The deployment started on 21 March and operated from

6120-435: The process of setting up a new base of operations. A decision was swiftly made to keep the existing Norwegian pilots that had escaped to the United Kingdom as an independent unit. Consequently, none were allowed to participate in the Battle of Britain . Arrangements were made to transfer Norwegian pilots to a North American headquarters. Various locations were considered, and a base around the Toronto Island Airport in Toronto

6210-412: The requirement for more combat pilots, necessitating placing orders in summer 1940 for 36 Fairchild PT-19s as a basic training aircraft. The first of the order began to arrive on 23 November 1940, being ferried in by American pilots. The initial batch of 10 PT-19s were supplemented by 26 PT-19As with a more powerful Ranger engine fitted. All of the series were retro-fitted in 1941 with canopies, converting

6300-456: The same place as the current civil aviation operations, precipitated a move to a new camp in Muskoka. At the new location, both ab-initio and advanced level training could take place, while advanced flight training continued at Island Airport. The first fatal accident in Muskoka, and the last one recorded by the FTL in Canada, took place August 1944 when a Fairchild PT-19 Cornell trainer with pilot and student aboard lost its wing and crashed into

6390-427: The southern provinces of Afghanistan. The air detachment is known as the 1st Netherlands-Norwegian European Participating Forces Expeditionary Air Wing (1 NLD/NOR EEAW). In 2011, a detachment of F-16s were sent to enforce the Libyan no-fly zone . In a statement, Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre condemned the violence against "peaceful protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen", saying the protests "are an expression of

6480-452: The trainers into a PT-26 standard. Other operational aircraft, 24 Northrop N-3PBs and 35 Curtiss Hawk 75-A8s already on order (only five of the original order of 19 P-36s were undelivered, and were sent to Canada along with a further order for 36 new aircraft) were utilized as advanced trainers. Air defence forces were divided between Army and Naval Air Corps, with both services retaining their own commanding officers. The "Little Norway" camp

6570-451: The training was transferred to a base at Gardermoen , near Oslo , concentrating on primary training with the remaining 74 Cornells. The final move of the air training operation was to Rygge , where flight training continued until the end of hostilities and into the postwar period, being wound up in 1952, when all military training was transferred back to new training units in Norway. During flight training, there were several accidents with

6660-535: The two nations made the actual military operations very dissimilar. The invasion fleet's nominal landing time, Weserzeit (Weser Time), was set to 05:15. By the spring of 1939, the British Admiralty began to view Scandinavia as a potential theatre of war in a future conflict with Nazi Germany . However, the British government was reluctant to engage in another land conflict on the continent in

6750-400: The war, over 2,500 Norwegian airmen of all categories (pilots, navigators and mechanics) were trained in the various bases of "Little Norway". In 1986 the city of Toronto established Little Norway Park where the people of Norway have erected a plaque "Little Norway: Lille Norge " to commemorate the site of the original camp. In 2007 the governments of Norway and Canada made a memorial inside

6840-587: The war. Up until 8 May 1945, 335 persons had lost their lives while taking part in the efforts of the RNoAF. After the war the Spitfire remained in service with the RNoAF into the fifties. In 1947, the Surveillance and Control Division acquired its first radar system, and around the same time the RNoAF got its first jet fighters in the form of de Havilland Vampires . In 1949 Norway co-founded NATO , and soon afterwards received American aircraft through

6930-531: Was also flown to Britain for testing. For the Norwegian Army Air Service aircraft the only option for escape was Finland, where the planes would be interned but at least not fall into the hands of the Germans. In all two Fokker C.V.s and one de Havilland Tiger Moth made it across the border and onto Finnish airfields just before the capitulation of mainland Norway. All navy and army aircraft that fled to Finland were pressed into service with

7020-675: Was also seen as a country that would have to fall at some point. Given Denmark's position on the Baltic Sea , the country was also crucial for the control of naval and shipping access to major German and Soviet harbours. At 04:00 on 9 April 1940, the German ambassador to Denmark, Cecil von Renthe-Fink , called the Danish Foreign Minister Peter Munch and requested a meeting with him. When the two men met 20 minutes later, Renthe-Fink declared that German troops were then moving in to occupy Denmark to protect

7110-517: Was an excellent place to launch U-boat operations into the North Atlantic to attack British commerce. Germany was dependent on iron ore from Sweden and was worried, with justification, that the Allies would attempt to disrupt those shipments, 90% of which originating from Narvik. The invasion of Norway was given to the XXI Army Corps under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst and consisted of the following main units: The initial invasion force

7200-541: Was bought with money donated by the public and piloted by Hans Dons , second in command of Norway's first submarine HNoMS Kobben (A-1). Until 1940 most of the aircraft belonging to the Navy and Army air forces were domestic designs or built under license agreements, the main bomber/scout aircraft of the Army air force being the Dutch-originated Fokker C.V . Before 1944, the Air Force were divided into

7290-496: Was carrying a clandestine cargo of anti-aircraft artillery and ammunition for the German invasion force. Bergen, Stavanger, Egersund , Kristiansand, Arendal , Horten , Trondheim and Narvik were attacked and occupied within 24 hours. Ineffective resistance by the Norwegian armoured coastal defence ships Norge and Eidsvold took place at Narvik. Both ships were torpedoed and sunk with great loss of life. On 10 April The First Battle of Narvik took place between five destroyers of

7380-595: Was chosen. Once the base was established, young Norwegians migrated to the site to enroll in the Royal Norwegian Air Forces (RNAF). In 1939, Bernt Balchen , a Norwegian aviator enlisted with the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service, made his way to the United States on a crucial mission to negotiate "matters pertaining to aircraft ordnance and ammunition with the question of the Norwegian Government's possible purchase of such materials in

7470-574: Was named Studie Nord and called for only one division of German troops carry out the invasion. Between 14 and 19 January, the Kriegsmarine developed an expanded version of this plan. It decided upon two key factors: surprise was essential to reduce the threat of Norwegian resistance (and Allied intervention), and faster German warships, rather than comparatively slow merchant ships, should be used as troop transports. That would allow all targets to be occupied simultaneously. The new plan called for

7560-621: Was officially opened on 10 November 1940, located in the bay area of Toronto , on the shores of Lake Ontario . Its first commander was Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen . Major Ole Reistad took over early 1941. The earliest considerations for Norwegian pilots were to have a separate air force operating out of England, but by late 1940, the Norwegian government-in-exile mandated that all the "Little Norway" student pilots were ultimately destined for Norwegian-staffed RAF squadrons. Although basic training took place in "Little Norway", by 1941, students selected as fighter pilots began to receive advance training at

7650-605: Was placed with the first deliveries being received by 1942. The training continued at Muskoka until February 1945, when the camp was moved to the air base at Winkleigh in Devon , England . After the move to England, the "Norwegian Training Base" as it was then known, was reconstituted under No. 23 Group RAF . The order for new Cornells was redirected to England, with many of the aircraft arriving by sea, still in their shipping crates. Additionally, nine Airspeed Oxfords and 27 Harvard advanced trainers were obtained. By 22 November 1945,

7740-484: Was put into action, and a Royal Navy squadron led by the battlecruiser HMS  Renown left Scapa Flow to mine Norwegian waters. The first German ships set sail for the invasion on 7 April 1940 at 3:00 a.m. The mine fields were laid in the Vestfjorden in the early morning of 8 April. Operation Wilfred was over, but later that day, the destroyer HMS  Glowworm , which detached on 7 April to search for

7830-416: Was reached. Soldiers were to travel unarmed and not be part of unit movements. A total of 2.14 million German soldiers, as well as more than 100,000 German military railway carriages, crossed Sweden until that traffic was suspended on 20 August 1943. Royal Norwegian Air Force The Royal Norwegian Air Force ( RNoAF ) ( Norwegian : Luftforsvaret , lit.   'The Air Defence')

7920-651: Was the Soviet Union, the successor of Sweden's and Finland's archenemy, Russia, on friendly terms with Hitler under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . A small number of Finnish volunteers helped the Norwegian Army against Germans in an ambulance unit. Swedish and Finnish trade was dependent on the Kriegsmarine , and Germany put pressure on neutral Sweden to permit transit of military goods and soldiers on leave . On 18 June 1940, an agreement

8010-406: Was the invasion of Denmark and Norway by Nazi Germany during World War II . It was the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign . In the early morning of 9 April 1940 ( Wesertag , "Weser Day"), German forces occupied Denmark and invaded Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned Anglo-French occupation of Norway known as Plan R 4 , which developed as a response to

8100-567: Was transported in several groups by ships of the Kriegsmarine : Shortly after noon on 8 April, the clandestine German troopship SS  Rio de Janeiro was sunk off Lillesand by the Polish submarine ORP  Orzeł , part of the Royal Navy's 2nd Submarine Flotilla. However, the news of the sinking reached the appropriate levels of officialdom in Oslo too late to do much more than trigger

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