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127-775: When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Norway followed a policy of neutrality , as it had done during the First World War , hoping to stay out of the war once again engulfing Europe. So Norway was at peace in April 1940 when it was suddenly attacked by naval, air and military forces from Nazi Germany . Unlike in the First World War, the Norwegian military was only partially mobilised, with

254-607: A Neutrality Pact in April 1941, and Japan adopted the doctrine of Nanshin-ron , promoted by the Navy, which took its focus southward and eventually led to war with the United States and the Western Allies. In Europe, Germany and Italy were becoming more aggressive. In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria , again provoking little response from other European powers. Encouraged, Hitler began pressing German claims on

381-578: A cautious French probe into the Saarland . The Western Allies also began a naval blockade of Germany , which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort. Germany responded by ordering U-boat warfare against Allied merchant and warships, which would later escalate into the Battle of the Atlantic . On 8 September, German troops reached the suburbs of Warsaw . The Polish counter-offensive to

508-529: A peerage but was appointed to the Order of Merit on 3 September 1943, four years after the outbreak of the war. Pound suffered from hip degeneration, which kept him from sleeping, causing him to doze off at meetings. In July 1943 Pound's wife died; by this time it was clear that his health was declining. He had sustained one stroke and the second, during the Quebec Conference the following month,

635-524: A pretext to initiate the invasion. The first German attack of the war came against the Polish defences at Westerplatte . The United Kingdom responded with an ultimatum for Germany to cease military operations, and on 3 September, after the ultimatum was ignored, Britain and France declared war on Germany. During the Phoney War period, the alliance provided no direct military support to Poland, outside of

762-781: A pretext to worsen relations. On 29 August, Hitler demanded that a Polish plenipotentiary immediately travel to Berlin to negotiate the handover of Danzig , and to allow a plebiscite in the Polish Corridor in which the German minority would vote on secession. The Poles refused to comply with the German demands, and on the night of 30–31 August in a confrontational meeting with the British ambassador Nevile Henderson , Ribbentrop declared that Germany considered its claims rejected. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as

889-475: A secret protocol that defined German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (western Poland and Lithuania for Germany; eastern Poland , Finland, Estonia , Latvia and Bessarabia for the Soviet Union), and raised the question of continuing Polish independence. The pact neutralised the possibility of Soviet opposition to a campaign against Poland and assured that Germany would not have to face the prospect of

1016-774: A similar pact and rejected ceding part of its territory to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and was subsequently expelled from the League of Nations for this crime of aggression. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority, Soviet military success during the Winter War was modest, and the Finno-Soviet war ended in March 1940 with some Finnish concessions of territory . In June 1940,

1143-492: A threat from heavy German surface ships, led to its destruction by submarines and aircraft. His health failed in 1943 and he resigned, dying shortly thereafter. Born the son of Alfred John Pound, an Eton -educated barrister , by his marriage to Elizabeth Pickman Rogers, an American from Boston , Pound's maternal grandfather was Richard Saltonstall Rogers , but was also descended on his mother's side from Dudley Leavitt Pickman , an early Salem, Massachusetts , merchant. He

1270-531: A two-front war, as it had in World War   I. Immediately afterwards, Hitler ordered the attack to proceed on 26 August, but upon hearing that the United Kingdom had concluded a formal mutual assistance pact with Poland and that Italy would maintain neutrality, he decided to delay it. In response to British requests for direct negotiations to avoid war, Germany made demands on Poland, which served as

1397-588: Is at Trondheim that Norway becomes narrow, making it easier to block the Germans than further south. To turn the position, Germany would have to attack through Sweden, bringing that nation into the war on the Allied side. The retired Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes , MP , repeatedly urged Churchill to seize Trondheim from the Germans, using obsolete battleships if necessary, and offered to lead

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1524-604: The Anglo-German Naval Agreement and the German–Polish declaration of non-aggression . The situation became a crisis in late August as German troops continued to mobilise against the Polish border. On 23 August the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany, after tripartite negotiations for a military alliance between France, the United Kingdom, and Soviet Union had stalled. This pact had

1651-641: The Baltic Sea in the spring of 1940 ( Operation Catherine ) to interdict German seaborne trade during the summer months. The operation would have been pointless if the Narvik route remained open. The Germans rightly suspected that the British were planning to mine the Norwegian coastal waters used by German ore ships. British plans were well advanced but the Germans got to Norway first. Narvik, Trondheim , Oslo , Bergen and other Norwegian towns were seized on

1778-530: The Baltic Sea , called the Gulf of Bothnia , had a principal Swedish port called Luleå from where in the summer a quantity of ore was shipped. It was frozen in winter, so for several months each year the Swedes shipped most of their iron ore by rail through the ice-free port of Narvik in the far north of Norway. In a normal year, 80 percent of the iron ore was exported through Narvik. The only alternative in winter

1905-689: The British Empire , with fighting in the Balkans , Mediterranean, and Middle East , the aerial Battle of Britain and the Blitz , and naval Battle of the Atlantic . Through a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany took control of much of continental Europe and formed the Axis alliance with Italy , Japan , and other countries. In June 1941, Germany led the European Axis in an invasion of

2032-696: The English Channel undetected in February 1942, and criticised for ordering the dispersal of Arctic Convoy PQ 17 in July 1942, in which 35 merchant ships were left without protection, leading to 24 of the 35 merchant ships being sunk with the loss of 153 men. By March 1942 he was no longer Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff and accepted the need for a deputy first sea lord, with Admiral Sir Charles Kennedy-Purvis installed as such in July 1942. Pound refused

2159-581: The German Revolution of 1918–1919 , and a democratic government, later known as the Weimar Republic , was created. The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and hardline opponents on both the political right and left. Italy, as an Entente ally, had made some post-war territorial gains; however, Italian nationalists were angered that the promises made by the United Kingdom and France to secure Italian entrance into

2286-853: The German invasion of Poland and the United Kingdom and France 's declaration of war on Germany two days later on 3 September 1939. Dates for the beginning of the Pacific War include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or the earlier Japanese invasion of Manchuria , on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor , who stated that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously, and

2413-576: The Italian mainland , and Allied offensives in the Pacific—cost the Axis powers their initiative and forced them into strategic retreat on all fronts. In 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France at Normandy , while the Soviet Union regained its territorial losses and pushed Germany and its allies westward. At the same time, Japan suffered reversals in mainland Asia, while the Allies crippled

2540-553: The Japanese Navy and captured key islands . The war in Europe concluded with the liberation of German-occupied territories ; the invasion of Germany by the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, culminating in the fall of Berlin to Soviet troops; Hitler's suicide ; and the German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945 . Following the refusal of Japan to surrender on the terms of the Potsdam Declaration ,

2667-695: The League of Nations as a force to preserve peace. Both Italy and Ethiopia were member nations, but the League did little when the former clearly violated Article X of the League's Covenant . The United Kingdom and France supported imposing sanctions on Italy for the invasion, but the sanctions were not fully enforced and failed to end the Italian invasion. Italy subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria . When civil war broke out in Spain, Hitler and Mussolini lent military support to

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2794-506: The Luftwaffe . De Wiart made the decision, because of unopposed enemy air activity, to divert his large, slow and vulnerable troopships 100 mi (160 km) north to Lillesjona in Nesna , where they would be offloaded to destroyers for a fast run into Namsos. He arrived there on 16 April to supervise the trans-shipment but less than an hour into the process, German bombers arrived and

2921-579: The Namsfjord, HMS Gaul , HMS St. Goran and HMS Aston Villa were destroyed by aircraft, the latter managing to make it back to Namsos, where she burned. HMT Arab evacuated the crew of St. Goran . From 28 April to 2 May, Arab endured 31 air attacks; her captain, Richard Stannard , received the Victoria Cross for his actions during those five days. The Norwegian Army Air Service and Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service had no units in

3048-731: The Nationalist rebels , led by General Francisco Franco . Italy supported the Nationalists to a greater extent than the Nazis: Mussolini sent more than 70,000 ground troops, 6,000 aviation personnel, and 720 aircraft to Spain. The Soviet Union supported the existing government of the Spanish Republic . More than 30,000 foreign volunteers, known as the International Brigades , also fought against

3175-726: The Navy's D.C.B. Section . Pound was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 Birthday Honours and given command of the battlecruiser HMS  Repulse in October 1920 before becoming director of the planning division at the Admiralty in June 1923. He became a Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King on 1 January 1925. Following Roger Keyes ' appointment as commander-in-chief of

3302-599: The Order of the Bath . On 16 January 1933 Pound was promoted to full admiral he became Chief of Staff of the Mediterranean Fleet . In March 1936, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet. On 20 May 1937 Pound was appointed as a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order . In the 1939 New Year Honours, Pound advanced to the rank of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of

3429-690: The Rome–Berlin Axis . A month later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact , which Italy joined the following year. The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) allies and new regional warlords . In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Empire of Japan , which had long sought influence in China as

3556-721: The Royal Navy , General Sir Edmund Ironside of the British Army and Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall of the Royal Air Force (RAF). The chiefs of staff had second thoughts; the forcing of the narrows was reduced to a demonstration, with the main thrust being the two pincers. This eliminated the immediate use of the Trondheim airfields by the RAF. It also meant that the military forces would face German naval units in

3683-735: The Royal Norwegian Navy and the coastal artillery being set up with skeleton crews. The Norwegian Army activated only a few battalions in North Norway (amongst others the Alta Battalion ) as a precaution in connection with the Soviet Winter War against Finland . Although the Norwegian Government had carried out a hurried modernisation of the military in the second half of the 1930s,

3810-553: The Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies and the Axis powers . Nearly all the world's countries —including all the great powers —participated, with many investing all available economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities in pursuit of total war , blurring the distinction between military and civilian resources. Tanks and aircraft played major roles , with

3937-535: The Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union, massing forces on the Soviet border. Hitler believed that the United Kingdom's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or later. On 31 July 1940, Hitler decided that

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4064-598: The Stresa Front in April 1935 in order to contain Germany, a key step towards military globalisation ; however, that June, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior restrictions. The Soviet Union, concerned by Germany's goals of capturing vast areas of Eastern Europe , drafted a treaty of mutual assistance with France. Before taking effect, though, the Franco-Soviet pact

4191-523: The Sudetenland , an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly ethnic German population. Soon the United Kingdom and France followed the appeasement policy of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and conceded this territory to Germany in the Munich Agreement , which was made against the wishes of the Czechoslovak government, in exchange for a promise of no further territorial demands. Soon afterwards, Germany and Italy forced Czechoslovakia to cede additional territory to Hungary, and Poland annexed

4318-428: The Tanggu Truce was signed in 1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese aggression in Manchuria , and Chahar and Suiyuan . After the 1936 Xi'an Incident , the Kuomintang and CCP forces agreed on a ceasefire to present a united front to oppose Japan. The Second Italo-Ethiopian War was a brief colonial war that began in October 1935 and ended in May 1936. The war began with

4445-466: The Trans-Olza region of Czechoslovakia. Although all of Germany's stated demands had been satisfied by the agreement, privately Hitler was furious that British interference had prevented him from seizing all of Czechoslovakia in one operation. In subsequent speeches Hitler attacked British and Jewish "war-mongers" and in January 1939 secretly ordered a major build-up of the German navy to challenge British naval supremacy. In March 1939, Germany invaded

4572-506: The Treaty of Craiova . The loss of one-third of Romania's 1939 territory caused a coup against King Carol II, turning Romania into a fascist dictatorship under Marshal Ion Antonescu , with a course set towards the Axis in the hopes of a German guarantee. Meanwhile, German-Soviet political relations and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war. In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden , which

4699-401: The United Kingdom and France to declare war on Germany. Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , in which they had agreed on " spheres of influence " in Eastern Europe. In 1940, the Soviets annexed the Baltic states and parts of Finland and Romania . After the fall of France in June 1940, the war continued mainly between Germany and

4826-426: The Wehrmacht rapidly advanced to the Channel and cut off the Allied forces in Belgium, trapping the bulk of the Allied armies in a cauldron on the Franco-Belgian border near Lille. The United Kingdom was able to evacuate a significant number of Allied troops from the continent by early June, although they had to abandon almost all their equipment. On 10 June, Italy invaded France , declaring war on both France and

4953-451: The aftermath of World War I and the rise of fascism in Europe and militarism in Japan . Key events leading up to the war included Japan's invasion of Manchuria , the Spanish Civil War , the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War , and Germany's annexations of Austria and the Sudetenland . World War II is generally considered to have begun on 1 September 1939, when Nazi Germany , under Adolf Hitler , invaded Poland , prompting

5080-404: The reunification of East and West Germany to take place and resolved most post–World War   II issues. No formal peace treaty between Japan and the Soviet Union was ever signed, although the state of war between the two countries was terminated by the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 , which also restored full diplomatic relations between them. World War I had radically altered

5207-409: The Allies were attempting to cut off . Denmark capitulated after six hours , and despite Allied support , Norway was conquered within two months. British discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the resignation of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain , who was replaced by Winston Churchill on 10   May 1940. On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France . To circumvent

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5334-400: The Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union . In early June 1940, the Italian Regia Aeronautica attacked and besieged Malta , a British possession. From late summer to early autumn, Italy conquered British Somaliland and made an incursion into British-held Egypt . In October, Italy attacked Greece , but the attack

5461-559: The Bath . Pound became First Sea Lord in June 1939 and was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 31 July 1939. His health was doubtful even then, but other experienced admirals were in even poorer health. He also became First and Principal Naval Aide-de-Camp to the King in October 1941. There are sharply divided opinions of Pound as First Sea Lord during the early years of the Second World War . His admirals and captains at sea accused him of "back seat driving" and he had some clashes with Charles Forbes and John Tovey , commanders of

5588-421: The Blitz , but largely ended in May 1941 after failing to significantly disrupt the British war effort. Using newly captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy , using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic . The British Home Fleet scored a significant victory on 27   May 1941 by sinking the German battleship Bismarck . In November 1939,

5715-450: The British naval commander ordered the destroyers to sail with the troops and equipment they had on board. HMS  Afridi , Nubian , Matabele , Mashona and Sikh got under way for Namsos carrying De Wiart with 36 officers and 1,208 other ranks. Though repeatedly attacked during their voyage, they arrived unscathed, if not rested, and got into Namsos about 9:00 p.m. on 16 April. De Wiart showed considerable vigour in managing

5842-405: The European Axis declaring war on the US. Japan conquered much of coastal China and Southeast Asia , but its advances in the Pacific were halted in mid-1942 after its defeat in the naval Battle of Midway ; Germany and Italy were defeated in North Africa and at Stalingrad in the Soviet Union. Key setbacks in 1943—including German defeats on the Eastern Front, the Allied invasions of Sicily and

5969-410: The French possessions of Syria and Lebanon , assisted by the Free French . With the situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union made preparations for war. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with Germany, and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia , the two powers signed

6096-417: The Germans had about 1,800 troops in the Trondheim area, some in the city and some along the railway to Sweden. Their possession of the Værnes airfield enabled them to fly extra troops in daily, and by 18 April, they had 3,500 men in the area, the next day 5,000. They were generally well equipped but lacked field artillery. Some German troops were diverted to Hegra , where an improvised force of 251 Norwegians

6223-426: The Germans, and the last large operational unit of the Polish Army surrendered on 6   October . Despite the military defeat, Poland never surrendered; instead, it formed the Polish government-in-exile and a clandestine state apparatus remained in occupied Poland. A significant part of Polish military personnel evacuated to Romania and Latvia; many of them later fought against the Axis in other theatres of

6350-404: The Home Fleet. Winston Churchill , with whom he worked from September 1939, worked with him closely on naval strategies such that he was referred to as "Churchill's anchor". He has also been described as a "cunning old badger" who had used guile to frustrate Churchill's Operation Catherine , a scheme to send a battle fleet into the Baltic, early in the war. Critically, Pound was at the helm of

6477-478: The Mediterranean Fleet in May 1925, Pound became his chief of staff . Pound was promoted to rear admiral on 1 March 1926 and became Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff in April 1927. He went on to be Commander of the Battle Cruiser Squadron in May 1929 and, having been promoted to vice admiral on 15 May 1930, he became Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel in August 1932. In the King's Birthday Honours 1930, Pound advanced to rank of Knight Commander of

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6604-450: The Nationalists. Both Germany and the Soviet Union used this proxy war as an opportunity to test in combat their most advanced weapons and tactics. The Nationalists won the civil war in April 1939; Franco, now dictator, remained officially neutral during World War   II but generally favoured the Axis . His greatest collaboration with Germany was the sending of volunteers to fight on the Eastern Front . In July 1937, Japan captured

6731-425: The Royal Navy on the day of the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse on 10 December 1941 off the coast of Kuantan , Malaysia by the Japanese Air Force. Perhaps Pound's greatest achievement was his defeat of the German U-boats and the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic but he has been blamed for the Channel Dash when the Navy allowed the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau to slip into

6858-452: The Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out of commission after a carrier attack at Taranto , and neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape Matapan . Italian defeats prompted Germany to deploy an expeditionary force to North Africa; at the end of March 1941, Rommel 's Afrika Korps launched an offensive which drove back Commonwealth forces. In less than a month, Axis forces advanced to western Egypt and besieged

6985-423: The Soviet Union occupied the entire territories of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as the Romanian regions of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region . In August 1940, Hitler imposed the Second Vienna Award on Romania which led to the transfer of Northern Transylvania to Hungary. In September 1940, Bulgaria demanded Southern Dobruja from Romania with German and Italian support, leading to

7112-421: The Soviet Union , opening the Eastern Front and initially making large territorial gains. Japan aimed to dominate East Asia and the Asia-Pacific , and by 1937 was at war with the Republic of China . In December 1941, Japan attacked American and British territories in Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific , including Pearl Harbor in Hawaii , which resulted in the US and the UK declaring war against Japan, and

7239-418: The Soviet Union and Mongolia . The Japanese doctrine of Hokushin-ron , which emphasised Japan's expansion northward, was favoured by the Imperial Army during this time. This policy would prove difficult to maintain in light of the Japanese defeat at Khalkin Gol in 1939, the ongoing Second Sino-Japanese War and ally Nazi Germany pursuing neutrality with the Soviets. Japan and the Soviet Union eventually signed

7366-575: The Soviet Union should be eliminated and aimed for the conquest of Ukraine , the Baltic states and Byelorussia . However, other senior German officials like Ribbentrop saw an opportunity to create a Euro-Asian bloc against the British Empire by inviting the Soviet Union into the Tripartite Pact. In November 1940, negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would join the pact. The Soviets showed some interest but asked for concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered unacceptable. On 18 December 1940, Hitler issued

7493-403: The Training Squadron. Promoted to sub-lieutenant on 29 August 1896, he joined the destroyer HMS  Opossum in October 1897 and the battleship HMS  Magnificent in January 1898. Promoted to lieutenant on 29 August 1898, he joined the torpedo school HMS  Vernon in September 1899 and qualified as a torpedo specialist in December 1901. He served as a torpedo officer in

7620-402: The US dropped the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August. Faced with an imminent invasion of the Japanese archipelago , the possibility of further atomic bombings, and the Soviet declaration of war against Japan and its invasion of Manchuria , Japan announced its unconditional surrender on 15 August and signed a surrender document on 2 September 1945 , marking

7747-424: The United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence ; when Italy conquered Albania in April 1939, the same guarantee was extended to the Kingdoms of Romania and Greece . Shortly after the Franco - British pledge to Poland, Germany and Italy formalised their own alliance with the Pact of Steel . Hitler accused the United Kingdom and Poland of trying to "encircle" Germany and renounced

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7874-489: The United Kingdom attacked on 3   July in an attempt to prevent its seizure by Germany. The air Battle of Britain began in early July with Luftwaffe attacks on shipping and harbours . The German campaign for air superiority started in August but its failure to defeat RAF Fighter Command forced the indefinite postponement of the proposed German invasion of Britain . The German strategic bombing offensive intensified with night attacks on London and other cities in

8001-401: The United Kingdom. The Germans turned south against the weakened French army, and Paris fell to them on 14   June. Eight days later France signed an armistice with Germany ; it was divided into German and Italian occupation zones , and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime , which, though officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet, which

8128-473: The United States was assisting China and the Western Allies, and had amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased . In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases . Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in

8255-434: The Yellow River ; this manoeuvre bought time for the Chinese to prepare their defences at Wuhan , but the city was taken by October. Japanese military victories did not bring about the collapse of Chinese resistance that Japan had hoped to achieve; instead, the Chinese government relocated inland to Chongqing and continued the war. In the mid-to-late 1930s, Japanese forces in Manchukuo had sporadic border clashes with

8382-565: The area. For an hour and a half, this force held the German attack off. The majority of the British forces were a little further back. The Germans landed forces at several points behind them to outflank them, spotted by the main British force. Fearing being cut off, the Norwegians and Royal Engineers withdrew. A battle developed. The advantage was with the Germans, who were equipped with snowshoes and skis, sledge-mounted heavy mortars , and light field guns. They possessed air support from an airfield 35 miles away and had supporting naval gunfire . There

8509-455: The armed forces were disorganised. Effects of the wide-ranging budget reductions carried out during the pacifist policies of the late 1920s and early 1930s were still apparent. In 1940, the Norwegian armed forces were among the weakest in Europe. There were several reasons for the German attack. Not least was a desire to secure the flow of iron ore from mines at Kiruna in the north of Sweden to Germany's war industries. The northern part of

8636-435: The attack. It was planned to force the entrance to Trondheimsfjord with battleships knocking out the Norwegian coastal forts at the entrance, recently captured by the Germans; an amphibious landing would take the city. It was also decided to land forces north and south of the fjord for a pincer attack on the city. The officers responsible for these decisions were the chiefs of staff of the armed forces, Sir Dudley Pound of

8763-458: The battleship HMS  Colossus in May 1915. He led her at the Battle of Jutland with notable success, contributing to the sinking of the German cruiser Wiesbaden . He returned to the Admiralty in July 1917 to become assistant director of plans and then director of the operations division (home) and was closely involved in the planning for the Zeebrugge Raid . He also planned the use of radio remote controlled vessels that were developed by

8890-428: The battleship HMS  Superb in the Home Fleet in May 1911. He joined the staff of the Royal Naval War College in early 1913 and then transferred to the battleship HMS  St Vincent in the Home Fleet in April 1914. Pound served throughout the First World War. After being promoted to captain on 31 December 1914, he became an Additional Naval Assistant to the First Sea Lord before being given command of

9017-407: The campaign. The British felt the need to provide protection from submarine attack for their ships entering and leaving Namsos. Lacking air cover, the small, slow anti-submarine sloops and trawlers used were very vulnerable to air attack. On 30 April, the sloop HMS  Bittern was sunk by Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers off Namsos. On 1 May, three British anti-submarine trawlers at the entrance to

9144-566: The capital Nanking in December 1937. After the fall of Nanking, tens or hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants were murdered by the Japanese . In March 1938, Nationalist Chinese forces won their first major victory at Taierzhuang , but then the city of Xuzhou was taken by the Japanese in May. In June 1938, Chinese forces stalled the Japanese advance by flooding

9271-485: The command of Lord Louis Mountbatten . A larger naval force followed at a distance to protect them against attack by German warships. They were bombed on 1 May as they crossed the North Sea . That evening, they encountered thick fog 40 miles short of their rendezvous point at Kya Lighthouse, which was 40 miles by sea from Namsos. Plans to evacuate that night had to be cancelled. Meanwhile, German troops were closing in on

9398-403: The conflict well into 1941. In December 1940, Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an " arsenal of democracy " and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of military and humanitarian aid to support the British war effort; Lend-Lease was later extended to the other Allies, including the Soviet Union after it

9525-526: The creation of a " New Roman Empire ". Adolf Hitler , after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923, eventually became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933 when Paul von Hindenburg and the Reichstag appointed him. Following Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler proclaimed himself Führer of Germany and abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of

9652-733: The cruiser HMS  Grafton on the Pacific Station before transferring to the battleship HMS  King Edward VII in the Atlantic Fleet in January 1905 and then to the battleship HMS  Queen in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1907. Pound joined the staff at the Ordnance Department of the Admiralty in January 1909 and then, having been promoted to commander on 30 June 1909, he transferred to

9779-525: The directive to prepare for an invasion of the Soviet Union. Dudley Pound Admiral of the Fleet Sir Alfred Dudley Pickman Rogers Pound , GCB , OM , GCVO (29 August 1877 – 21 October 1943) was a British senior officer of the Royal Navy . He served in the First World War as a battleship commander, taking part in the Battle of Jutland with notable success, contributing to

9906-484: The disembarkation (no casualties) and was replaced by the French cruiser  Montcalm  (1935) . About 6,000 Allied troops were put ashore. The French troops, for the most part, were not used in the short campaign because of a lack of supplies. Towards the end, they were engaged somewhat as the Allied troops fell back on Namsos, preparatory to evacuation. By 21 April, British forces had advanced quickly as far south as

10033-757: The dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and Russian Empires. To prevent a future world war, the League of Nations was established in 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference . The organisation's primary goals were to prevent armed conflict through collective security, military, and naval disarmament , as well as settling international disputes through peaceful negotiations and arbitration. Despite strong pacifist sentiment after World War   I , irredentist and revanchist nationalism had emerged in several European states. These sentiments were especially marked in Germany because of

10160-662: The end of May completed the German conquest of the Balkans. Partisan warfare subsequently broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia , which continued until the end of the war. In the Middle East in May, Commonwealth forces quashed an uprising in Iraq which had been supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria . Between June and July, British-led forces invaded and occupied

10287-511: The end of the war. World War II changed the political alignment and social structure of the world, and it set the foundation of international relations for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century. The United Nations was established to foster international cooperation and prevent conflicts, with the victorious great powers—China, France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the US—becoming

10414-497: The first day of the campaign in a surprise attack. Elements of the Norwegian army fought the Germans north of Oslo. The British and French prime ministers and their military advisers were of one mind in deciding to retake Trondheim, link up with the Norwegians and block a German advance north. This would enable the Allies to cut much of Germany's iron ore supply route. A bonus would be air and naval bases in northern Norway. It

10541-575: The first step of what its government saw as the country's right to rule Asia , staged the Mukden incident as a pretext to invade Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo . China appealed to the League of Nations to stop the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai , Rehe and Hebei , until

10668-458: The fjord as well as Luftwaffe units in the air. Churchill was disappointed but faced the combined opposition of his naval advisers as well as the heads of the army and the RAF and had to back down. Keyes was apoplectic and this event, more than any, convinced him to join in an attack on the Government at the end of the Norwegian campaign . Namsos, then a town of 3,615 people, was felt to be

10795-618: The fog lifted, revealing a burning town and swarms of German bombers. Since it would have been suicidal to enter in these conditions, the British ships ducked back into the fog and returned down the bay. The next day, 3 May, the last possible for evacuation, dawned as foggy as before. Admiral John Cunningham , in command of naval forces in the area, screened the evacuation convoy with two cruisers and four destroyers at Kya Light and sent cruiser HMS  York , five destroyers and three transports in. Mountbatten led in HMS Kelly at 26 knots as

10922-864: The former Chinese imperial capital of Peking after instigating the Marco Polo Bridge incident , which culminated in the Japanese campaign to invade all of China. The Soviets quickly signed a non-aggression pact with China to lend materiel support, effectively ending China's prior cooperation with Germany . From September to November, the Japanese attacked Taiyuan , engaged the Kuomintang Army around Xinkou , and fought Communist forces in Pingxingguan . Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek deployed his best army to defend Shanghai , but after three months of fighting, Shanghai fell. The Japanese continued to push Chinese forces back, capturing

11049-508: The hamlet of Verdal , where road and railway bridges crossed the River Inna, a few miles inland from Trondheimsfjord. This was about halfway between Trondheim and Namsos, some miles down the fjord. They spotted a German gunboat, two armed trawlers and a destroyer in the fjord, on their flanks, well able to land troops behind them and direct fire at them, to which they lacked the means to respond. When De Wiart landed at Namsos on 15 April,

11176-475: The hills outside town which soon attracted German aircraft. The commander, Lieutenant-General Sir Adrian Carton De Wiart , V.C., flew in the next day and his Short Sunderland flying boat was strafed by German aircraft as it landed. His aide was wounded and had to return to Britain. De Wiart was an energetic and competent commander who inspired his troops by his bravery during air attacks but no Allied aircraft were available over Namsos to provide protection against

11303-525: The invasion of the Ethiopian Empire (also known as Abyssinia ) by the armed forces of the Kingdom of Italy ( Regno d'Italia ), which was launched from Italian Somaliland and Eritrea . The war resulted in the military occupation of Ethiopia and its annexation into the newly created colony of Italian East Africa ( Africa Orientale Italiana , or AOI); in addition it exposed the weakness of

11430-464: The landing and dispersal of troops and supplies, getting them into the hills during the five hours of darkness in Namsos in late April. German air reconnaissance crews failed to spot that landings had occurred the previous night. He wasted no time in setting up a headquarters in Namsos and sent out guards to the long bridge over Namsosfjord, essential to one of the two roads south and moved others to occupy

11557-682: The latter enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and delivery of the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in 70 to 85 million deaths , more than half being civilians. Millions died in genocides , including the Holocaust of European Jews, as well as from massacres, starvation, and disease. Following the Allied powers' victory, Germany , Austria , Japan , and Korea were occupied, and war crimes tribunals were conducted against German and Japanese leaders . The causes of World War II included unresolved tensions in

11684-484: The logical spot to land the troops assigned to the northern pincer, because of its location and facilities. The harbour and approaches to Namsos are ice free all year. Because of the trade in lumber, by 1940 Namsos port was furnished with three good wharves (one of stone) with a depth alongside of 18–30 ft (5.5–9.1 m) and lengths from 320–770 ft (98–235 m). This made it suitable for smaller warships and transports to dock and to land troops and supplies for

11811-502: The permanent members of its security council . The Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers , setting the stage for the Cold War . In the wake of European devastation, the influence of its great powers waned, triggering the decolonisation of Africa and Asia . Most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery and expansion . World War II began in Europe on 1 September 1939 with

11938-589: The political European map with the defeat of the Central Powers —including Austria-Hungary , Germany , Bulgaria , and the Ottoman Empire —and the 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia , which led to the founding of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, the victorious Allies of World War I , such as France, Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Greece, gained territory, and new nation-states were created out of

12065-599: The port of Tobruk . By late March 1941, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact ; however, the Yugoslav government was overthrown two days later by pro-British nationalists. Germany and Italy responded with simultaneous invasions of both Yugoslavia and Greece , commencing on 6 April 1941; both nations were forced to surrender within the month. The airborne invasion of the Greek island of Crete at

12192-454: The rearguard in the hills outside Namsos, and the convoy ships were vulnerable to air attack if the fog lifted in daylight. Rather than wait for the evening, Mountbatten took his ships in on 2 May, moving from fog bank to fog bank. This was a very dangerous enterprise on a rocky coast. Despite the fog, the ships were bombed. The ships' masts were sticking out above the fog, giving the German bombers an approximate target. When they reached Namsos,

12319-625: The recapture of Trondheim . Namsos was on a branch line connecting to the Nordland Line . A gravel road led some 130 mi (210 km) south to Trondheim. Captain Frank Pegram of the cruiser HMS  Glasgow , accompanied by the cruiser HMS  Sheffield and ten destroyers, landed a small party of Royal Marines in Namsos on 14 April 1940. The landing party was under the command of Captain Edds and took up blocking positions in

12446-722: The remainder of Czechoslovakia and subsequently split it into the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and a pro-German client state , the Slovak Republic . Hitler also delivered an ultimatum to Lithuania on 20 March 1939, forcing the concession of the Klaipėda Region , formerly the German Memelland . Greatly alarmed and with Hitler making further demands on the Free City of Danzig ,

12573-534: The rush to get away before the German bombers arrived, the soldiers landed without much of their kit but De Wiart got the troops dispersed before a reconnaissance aircraft arrived. De Wiart was not aware that the attack directly into Trondheimsfjord had been called off. Throughout his time at Namsos, he was left ignorant of what was happening elsewhere in Norway. Two battalions of French Chasseurs Alpins (mountain troops) landed on 19 April under air attack. One of

12700-462: The significant territorial, colonial, and financial losses imposed by the Treaty of Versailles . Under the treaty, Germany lost around 13 percent of its home territory and all its overseas possessions , while German annexation of other states was prohibited, reparations were imposed, and limits were placed on the size and capability of the country's armed forces . The German Empire was dissolved in

12827-672: The sinking of the German cruiser Wiesbaden . He served as First Sea Lord , the professional head of the Royal Navy, for the first four years of the Second World War . In that role his greatest achievement was his successful campaign against the German U-boats and the winning of the Battle of the Atlantic but his judgment has been questioned over the failed Norwegian Campaign in 1940, and his dismissal of Admiral Dudley North in 1940. His order in July 1942 to disperse Convoy PQ 17 and withdraw its covering forces, to counter

12954-498: The start or prelude to World War II. The exact date of the war's end also is not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 15 August 1945 ( V-J Day ), rather than with the formal surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945, which officially ended the war in Asia . A peace treaty between Japan and the Allies was signed in 1951. A 1990 treaty regarding Germany's future allowed

13081-593: The strong Maginot Line fortifications on the Franco-German border, Germany directed its attack at the neutral nations of Belgium , the Netherlands , and Luxembourg . The Germans carried out a flanking manoeuvre through the Ardennes region, which was mistakenly perceived by the Allies as an impenetrable natural barrier against armoured vehicles. By successfully implementing new Blitzkrieg tactics,

13208-451: The sun was going down. When they rounded the last bend of the fjord, they saw Namsos on fire. Mountbatten at this point did not know if the Germans were in possession of the town. A burning anti-submarine trawler, HMS Aston Villa , lay just ahead. As he closed the wharves, Mountbatten could see that everything was ablaze. But De Wiart was there with 5,500 troops lined up in good order, waiting to get off. Evacuation began at 10:30 p.m. Two of

13335-481: The town was destroyed in the attack, there were no deaths in the bombing. German bombers destroyed much of the wooden town of Namsos on 20 April. Attacks lasted throughout the day, and most of the houses, as well as the railway terminal, a church, the French headquarters and the two wooden wharves were burned. The stone wharf was damaged. The Norwegians paid dearly for the help the Allies had brought. Only one Allied ship

13462-400: The transports conveying the French was too long to enter the harbour and returned to the United Kingdom without landing many of the French supplies, leaving the troops without straps for their skis or the mules they used for transport. The French stayed in Namsos, enduring air bombardment against which they had little protection. The French cruiser Émile Bertin was damaged by bombing during

13589-409: The transports were able to get alongside the damaged quay and embark troops. The destroyers took off the other men and ferried them to York and the third transport, before taking a last load themselves. Meanwhile, the rearguard was engaging the Germans to cover the evacuation. A tricky disengagement followed and a rush for the last ship, HMS  Afridi . There was no time to destroy supplies left on

13716-562: The two roads south met, before the Germans got there from Trondheim. The naval commander, Admiral Geoffrey Layton , decided that taking his destroyers into Namsos was too risky. He would send troops and supplies in on the Polish transport MS Chrobry . Since most of the remaining troops at Lillesjona were aboard the RMS ; Empress of Australia , much time was wasted with further trans-shipping, and Chrobry , accompanied by HMS  Vanoc got into Namsos just before sunrise on 17 April. In

13843-645: The two wars became World War II in 1941. Other proposed starting dates for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War   II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939. Others view the Spanish Civil War as

13970-723: The vicinity. The only Allied aircraft present were during the first British landings. A brief patrol was mounted well offshore by Gloster Gladiators , operating from the aircraft carrier HMS  Glorious . They claimed three German aircraft shot down. Some eighteen Gladiators were flown off the Glorious and briefly operated from the frozen Lake Lesjaskogsvatnet at Lesjaskog , but these were too far south to help Namsos. De Wiart received orders on 28 April to evacuate Namsos, and on 29 April, an evacuation convoy of destroyers, three British and one French, left Scapa Flow in Scotland under

14097-409: The village of Bangsund further south. He also sent 300 troops due east along the second, less direct, route south to Grong , where they linked up with small numbers of Norwegian troops under Colonel Ole Getz. Smaller groups were sent south of Bangsund to reach Beitstadfjorden , at the head of Trondheimsfjord. De Wiart understood that speed was vital and that the force should reach Steinkjer , where

14224-513: The war were not fulfilled in the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian , and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy, repressed socialist, left-wing, and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive expansionist foreign policy aimed at making Italy a world power, promising

14351-475: The war. Germany annexed western Poland and occupied central Poland ; the Soviet Union annexed eastern Poland ; small shares of Polish territory were transferred to Lithuania and Slovakia . On 6 October, Hitler made a public peace overture to the United Kingdom and France but said that the future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet Union. The proposal was rejected and Hitler ordered an immediate offensive against France, which

14478-611: The water. After the Afridi had picked up some of the French sailors and Allied soldiers, she was hit by two heavy bombs and capsized with the loss of a hundred men, including some of the rearguard and the wounded from the Bison . British anti-aircraft fire destroyed a number of German aircraft. The convoy reached Scapa Flow on 5 May, De Wiart's 60th birthday. Second World War Asia-Pacific Mediterranean and Middle East Other campaigns Coups World War II or

14605-512: The west halted the German advance for several days, but it was outflanked and encircled by the Wehrmacht . Remnants of the Polish army broke through to besieged Warsaw . On 17 September 1939, two days after signing a cease-fire with Japan , the Soviet Union invaded Poland under the supposed pretext that the Polish state had ceased to exist. On 27 September, the Warsaw garrison surrendered to

14732-488: The wharves, so Afridi shelled the equipment as she pulled away from Namsos at 2:20 a.m, 4 May. At 4:30 am the rear of the British convoy was sighted by German reconnaissance aircraft and bombers soon followed. The force was attacked continuously until late afternoon. During the third attack of the day, the French destroyer Bison was hit in the forward magazine and exploded with 136 killed. The other destroyers turned back to pick up survivors who were being machine-gunned in

14859-707: The world order , and soon began a massive rearmament campaign . France, seeking to secure its alliance with Italy, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia , which Italy desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935 when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany, and Hitler repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament programme, and introduced conscription. The United Kingdom, France and Italy formed

14986-614: Was invaded by Germany. The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany. At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers . The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country—with the exception of the Soviet Union—that attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary , Slovakia , and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to

15113-542: Was a long rail journey to Oxelösund on the Baltic, south of Stockholm , which was not obstructed by ice. British information suggested that Oxelösund could ship only a fifth the amount Germany required. Without the Swedish iron ore shipments through Narvik, the German war industry could not have produced as many tanks, guns, submarines and other weapons. The Admiralty was investigating the possibility of sending ships into

15240-604: Was educated at Fonthill School in East Grinstead , Sussex. Pound joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in the training ship HMS Britannia in January 1891 and was posted as a midshipman to the battleship HMS  Royal Sovereign in the Channel Squadron in January 1893. He transferred to the cruiser HMS  Undaunted in May 1894 on the China Station and then joined HMS  Calypso in

15367-468: Was holding out in Hegra Fortress an old border fort. They began pushing up the fjord and patrols reached Verdal on 16 April. The Verdal bridge was defended by about 80 Norwegian soldiers, armed with Krag-Jørgensen rifles and Colt M/29 heavy machine guns . When the Germans attacked on the morning of 21 April, the Norwegians were supported by a section of Royal Engineers who happened to be in

15494-521: Was no panic among the British and Norwegian forces, and they succeeded in countering the first moves of the Germans. Heavy fighting occurred around the small village of Vist . The initial attacks were repelled, but the Germans outflanked the British positions on skis through the deep snow. The Luftwaffe attacked and destroyed the British forward base at Steinkjer on 21 April, causing the loss of much of their supplies and destroying 242 houses, leaving over 1,800 Norwegian civilians homeless. Although 80% of

15621-688: Was paralytic, indicative of a fast developing brain tumour . Pound then resigned formally on 20 September 1943. He died from the tumour at the Royal Masonic Hospital in London on 21 October ( Trafalgar Day ) 1943 and, after a funeral service in Westminster Abbey , followed by cremation at Golders Green Crematorium , his ashes were buried at sea in The Solent . In 1908 Pound married Betty Whitehead; they had two sons and

15748-456: Was postponed until the spring of 1940 due to bad weather. After the outbreak of war in Poland, Stalin threatened Estonia , Latvia , and Lithuania with military invasion, forcing the three Baltic countries to sign pacts allowing the creation of Soviet military bases in these countries; in October 1939, significant Soviet military contingents were moved there. Finland refused to sign

15875-436: Was present in the harbour when the attack occurred. Fourteen German bombers went after the tiny anti-submarine trawler HMT Rutlandshire and badly damaged it just down the bay from Namsos. The ship was beached, and the survivors machine-gunned in the water. None were killed and only two injured. They were later rescued by the destroyer HMS  Nubian , sister ship of HMS Afridi . Air attacks on Namsos continued throughout

16002-772: Was repulsed with heavy Italian casualties; the campaign ended within months with minor territorial changes. To assist Italy and prevent Britain from gaining a foothold, Germany prepared to invade the Balkans, which would threaten Romanian oil fields and strike against British dominance of the Mediterranean. In December 1940, British Empire forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces in Egypt and Italian East Africa . The offensives were successful; by early February 1941, Italy had lost control of eastern Libya, and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered significant defeats, with

16129-673: Was required to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it essentially toothless. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia, passed the Neutrality Act in August of the same year. Hitler defied the Versailles and Locarno Treaties by remilitarising the Rhineland in March 1936, encountering little opposition due to the policy of appeasement . In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed

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