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Anatomy of a Campaign
john kiszely served in the British Army for forty years, rising to the
rank of lieutenant general. His operational service included Northern
Ireland, the Falkland Islands, Bosnia and Iraq. He served three tours of
duty in the Ministry of Defence, latterly as Assistant Chief of the
Defence Staff. On leaving the Army he was for three years a visiting
professor in war studies at King’s College London, and from 2014 to
2017 a visiting research fellow on the Changing Character of War
Programme at Pembroke College, Oxford.
Cambridge Military Histories
Edited by
HEW STRACHAN, Chichele Professor of the History of War,
University of Oxford and Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford
GEOFFREY WAWRO, Professor of Military History, and Director of
the Military History Center, University of North Texas
John Kiszely
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
4843/24, 2nd Floor, Ansari Road, Daryaganj, Delhi – 110002, India
79 Anson Road, #06–04/06, Singapore 079906
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107194595
DOI: 10.1017/9781108161046
© John Kiszely 2017
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2017
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kiszely, John, author.
Title: Anatomy of a campaign : the British fiasco in Norway, 1940 / John Kiszely,
independent scholar.
Other titles: British fiasco in Norway, 1940
Description: 1st edition. | New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, [2016]
| Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016049303 | ISBN 9781107194595 (Hardback)
Subjects: LCSH: World War, 1939–1945–Campaigns–Norway. |
Norway–Strategic aspects. | World War, 1939–1945–Naval operations, British. |
Norway–History–German occupation, 1940–1945.
Classification: LCC D763.N6 K48 2016 | DDC 940.54/2181–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049303
ISBN 978-1-107-19459-5 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 ‘A Legitimate Side-Show’ 20
3 Deciding to Decide 29
4 Warning Signs 39
5 ‘The Major Project’ 47
6 ‘Hare-Brained’ 55
7 Taking Stock 67
8 Weserübung 79
9 ‘Something Must Be Done’ 87
10 The Jigsaw Puzzle 100
11 ‘Completely Outwitted’ 110
12 ‘Boldness Is Required’ 135
13 ‘An Even Greater Prize’ 155
14 Maurice 168
15 Sickle 181
16 ‘We Must Get Out’ 205
17 The Third Dimension 218
v
vi Table of Contents
level, but mainly in terms of its relationship to strategy and policy, rather
than seeking to give a blow-by-blow account of all the battles and
engagements or to record the contribution of the units, ships and squad-
rons which took part. It is, therefore, important to acknowledge from the
outset that in doing so, the book invariably overlooks the individual acts
of courage and heroism that featured in every battle and engagement
and, indeed, often in the periods in between. It is equally important to
bear this in mind to see these events in perspective.
Acknowledgements
There are many people to whom I owe huge thanks for their help in the
production of this book. I am particularly grateful to Professor Sir Hew
Strachan for suggesting that I undertake a visiting research fellowship on his
Changing Character of War Programme at the University of Oxford and to
Dr. Rob Johnson, the programme director, who acted as my supervisor.
Both of them devoted far more of their time to my work than I deserved and
offered wise advice and encouragement throughout. My thanks, too, go to
the fellows and staff of Pembroke College for their welcome and hospitality.
In the course of my three years of research, I received much support
and a highly efficient service from the staff at all the libraries, archives and
other research establishments that I consulted: the Joint Services Com-
mand and Staff College Library at the Defence Academy, Shrivenham;
the National Archives at Kew; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the
Codrington Library at All Souls College, Oxford; the British Library;
the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at Kings College London;
the Churchill Archives Centre at Churchill College, Cambridge; the
Imperial War Museum; the National Army Museum; the Army Histor-
ical Branch of the Ministry of Defence; the National Museum of the
Royal Navy; the Royal Marines Museum; the Royal Air Force Museum
London; the Norwegian Armed Services Museum in Oslo; and the
Combined Arms Research Library at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
I am grateful to the following who read all or part of my manuscript and
provided helpful comments: Dr. Harald Høiback, Dr. Rob Johnson, Pro-
fessor David French, Dr. Christina Goulter, Nigel de Lee, Air Vice Marshal
Tony Mason, Professor Douglas Porch and Professor Sir Hew Strachan.
I would to thank my editor Michael Watson at Cambridge University
Press. And my thanks to Angela Wilson at All Terrain Mapping for the
maps. Others to whom I am grateful for their support and assistance are
Geirr Haarr, Dr. Jan Lemnitzer, Ruth Murray, Lieutenant Colonel Rus-
sell P. Rafferty (U.S. Army) and Dr. Robin Woolven.
Finally, I am eternally grateful to my wife, Arabella, for her forbear-
ance during the writing of this book, and for her love.
x
Figures
xii
British Operations
North of South of
1940 Narvik Area South of Narvik Trondheim Trondheim
Apr
8 British mines laid Loss of
Glowworm
9 Renown v Karlsruhe sunk
Gneisenau & off Kristiansand
Scharnhorst
10 Destroyer attack, Königsberg sunk,
Narvik Bergen
13 Warspite attack,
Narvik
14 First British troops Naval party at
land near Harstad Namsos
15 24 Brigade at
Harstad
16 146 Brigade at
Namsos
17 Naval party at
Åndalsnes
18 148 Brigade at
Åndalsnes
19 Chasseurs
Alpins land
21 Action at Vist Action at
begun Lundehøgda
Ridge
22 Action at
Fåberg
23 Action at
Tretten
15 Brigade at
Åndalsnes
24 Bombardment of
Narvik
25 Gladiators at
Lesjaskog
xiii
xiv Table of British Operations
(cont.)
North of South of
1940 Narvik Area South of Narvik Trondheim Trondheim
Action at Kvam
begun
27 Action at
Kjørem
28 Chasseurs Alpins Action at Otta
land
May
2 Evacuation of
Åndalsnes
completed
3 Evacuation of
Namsos
completed
4 No 1 Independent
Company at Mo
6 Foreign
Legionnaires land
8 Nos 4 & 5
Independent
Companies at
Mosjøen
9 Polish brigade No 3 Independent
lands Company at Bodø
13 Bjerkvik captured No 2 Independent
Company at Bodø
15 Loss of Chrobry
17 Loss of Effingham
Action at Stien
21 Gladiators at
Bardufoss
22 Action at
Krokstranda
25 Action at Pothus
26 Hurricanes at Gladiators at Bodø
Bardufoss
28 Narvik captured
31 Evacuation of Bodø
completed
June
4 Evacuation from
Narvik & Harstad
begun
8 Evacuation
completed
Loss of Glorious
Abbreviations
xv
1 Introduction
Genesis
Around the Cabinet table on the morning of 19 September 1939, just
over a fortnight into the war, sat the nine men responsible for its strategic
direction.
In the chair was Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Now aged
seventy, he was politically in a strong position, and his Conservative
Party had an overall parliamentary majority of more than 200. Although
criticised for the failure of appeasement, his stock was riding high, both
within his own party and in public opinion. Even Anthony Eden, who
had resigned as Foreign Secretary over the Munich agreement,
remarked earlier in the year that Chamberlain had the makings of a
really great Prime Minister, provided his health held out.1 For six years
Chancellor of the Exchequer before he became Prime Minister in 1937,
Chamberlain tended to sympathise with the Treasury point of view, a
trait that hitherto had served him not entirely for the worse. He was
known to be a master of his brief, and his private secretaries were
‘amazed by his command of detail’.2 Although outwardly self-confident,
he was, even at this early stage of the war, deeply troubled by self-
doubt. On 10 September he wrote to one of his sisters, ‘Whilst war was
still averted, I felt indispensable for no-one else could carry out my
policy. Today the position has changed. Half a dozen people could take
my place while war is in progress and I do not see that I have any
particular part to play until it comes to peace terms.’3 Within a few
weeks, following the sinking of the battleship Royal Oak at Scapa Flow,
he was confiding in his other sister, ‘[H]ow I do hate and loathe this
war. I was never meant to be a war minister, and the thought of all
those homes wrecked with the Royal Oak makes me want to hand over
my responsibilities to someone else.’4 And when it was mentioned in
Cabinet that the Chiefs of Staff might be about to recommend ‘gloves
off’ in the air war, ‘he shook his head in a dull way as if it were too
much to consider.’5 By nature, Chamberlain was a conciliator – not just
1
2 Introduction
in foreign policy terms but also in his style of leadership and manage-
ment. If confrontation or ‘unpleasantness’ with colleagues could be
avoided, he would almost always favour that path, a policy which
worked better for him in time of peace than it was to in time of war.
One of Chamberlain’s first tasks on the outbreak of war had been to
decide on the size and membership of his Cabinet. In 1916 Lloyd George
had formed a War Cabinet comprising a very small group of ministers,
almost all without departmental responsibilities.6 Chamberlain may have
been influenced to some degree by this, but his approach was essentially
pragmatic – ‘My sole purpose was to find a Cabinet that would work’7 –
deciding on a membership of six ministers, two of whom headed full
departments of state. The first of the latter was the Earl of Halifax, the
Foreign Secretary, aged fifty-eight. Born into an aristocratic Yorkshire
family, Edward Halifax had embarked on an academic career as a Fellow
of All Souls College, Oxford, before entering politics. Appointed Viceroy
of India, where he served from 1926 to 1931, he had occupied a series of
ministerial jobs on his return before becoming Foreign Secretary in 1938.
From 1934, reflecting his continuing affinity with academia, he had, in
addition, been Chancellor of the University of Oxford. He was also a keen
Master of Foxhounds and a devout High Anglican (or, as Labour Party
leader Clement Attlee put it many years later, ‘all hunting and Holy
Communion’.)8 Halifax had been, and remained, a close colleague of
Chamberlain, an architect of appeasement, who by nature preferred con-
sensus and compromise.9 As one historian has noted, ‘Both men . . . had a
striking, not to say naïve belief in the power of reason and reasonable-
ness.’10 Halifax, though, was not beyond scheming behind Chamberlain’s
back and was seen by some as a potential alternative Prime Minister.
The other departmental minister to whom Chamberlain turned was Sir
John Simon, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Aged sixty-seven, Simon was
another of the most experienced ministers in the peacetime Cabinet.
Originally a member of the Liberal Party, he had founded and became
leader of the breakaway Liberal Nationals and held two of the great offices
of state – Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary – before succeeding his
close political ally Chamberlain as Chancellor in 1938. Simon, too, was a
leading advocate of appeasement. But his outstanding intellect and legal
training were marred by what one biographer has described as ‘his ability
to see all sides of a complicated question [which] easily degenerated into
an irritating inability to make up his mind’.11 Nor was Simon’s loyalty to
be taken for granted; on the eve of war, he had suddenly and vociferously
joined the group arguing for a more hawkish response to Hitler – a move
prompted, it was said, because in it he ‘saw his chance of becoming PM’.12
John Kiszely 3
Norway
On 1 September Churchill had returned to the Admiralty ‘to the room
I had quitted in pain and sorrow almost exactly a quarter of a century
before, when Lord Fisher’s resignation had led to my removal from my
post as First Lord and ruined irretrievably, as it proved, the important
conception of forcing the Dardanelles’.25 Indeed, the disastrous failure of
the Dardanelles operation in 1915, and the major role that Churchill had
played in it, was to cast a long shadow over the British campaign in
Norway in 1940.
Clearly determined that the Royal Navy should take the fight to the
enemy at the earliest opportunity (and be seen doing so), Churchill
already had some ideas about how this might be achieved. The first of
these was a scheme, uncannily reminiscent of the Dardanelles plan, to
force a sea passage – this time into the Baltic with a small flotilla of large
ships with specially reinforced armour plating and extra anti-aircraft
guns. He had trailed this idea with a senior general two months earlier26
and, on arrival at the Admiralty, had directed the naval staff to produce a
report on Operation Catherine, as he christened it (‘because Russia lay in
the background of my thought’27).
The second scheme was already under consideration at the Admiralty
when Churchill arrived there. This concerned the interdiction of the
export of Swedish iron ore to Germany. The Foreign Office had been
aware for some years of the dependence of German industry on the large
6 Introduction
–––––––––––––––––
no obvious qualification for the job - the Attorney General, Sir Thomas
Inskip - prompting the unkind comment that it was ‘[t]he most remark-
able appointment since the Emperor Caligula made his horse a consul’.42
The purpose was to head off criticism that defence was uncoordinated,
but without upsetting the vested interests of the services; its creation
was a neat political trick, but little more than that. Inskip was succeeded
in early 1939 by Lord Chatfield, who ‘found it equally impossible to
get things done, in spite of his vast experience in the politico-strategic
field’.43
A further attempt to achieve greater coordination was the establish-
ment in October 1939 of the Military Coordination Committee. Under
Chatfield’s chairmanship, it comprised the three service ministers and
the Minister of Supply with the three service Chiefs of Staff acting as
‘expert advisers’. The committee’s remit was ‘to keep under constant
review on behalf of the War Cabinet the main factors of the strategic
situation and the progress of operations, and to make recommendations
from time to time to the War Cabinet as to the general conduct of the
war’.44 Again, its actual power to achieve coordination of defence was
strictly limited.
Below the Military Coordination Committee sat the Chiefs of Staff
Committee. The quality of advice of the three service Chiefs would play a
critical role in determining the success of government strategy.
The chairman of Chiefs of Staff Committee, largely by virtue of
longevity in post, was the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal
Sir Cyril Newall.45 Commissioned into an infantry regiment, Newall
had transferred as a captain from the Army to the Royal Flying Corps
in 1914 and was posted to France. There he had been awarded the
Albert Medal (the then equivalent to the George Cross) for courage-
ously leading a party of airmen in fighting a fire in an ammunition
store. From early 1915 he filled a succession of command and man-
agement appointments, ending the war as Deputy Commander of the
Independent Air Force deployed in France. Thereafter, he served
almost exclusively in Britain, displaying his administrative skill in
important Air Ministry jobs, such as head of the Royal Air Force
(RAF) Supply and Organisation. Newall became Chief of the Air Staff
in 1937 at the remarkably young age of fifty-one, selected personally
by the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Swinton. This came as a
surprise to many who believed that there were better men for the
job, notably the stronger personalities of Air Chief Marshals Hugh
Dowding of Fighter Command and Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt of Bomber
Command, ‘both of whom’, in one historian’s opinion, ‘were his
superiors in every respect’.46
10 Introduction
I have seen the Matterhorn from the Gorner Grat, Mont Blanc
from Chamonix, and the divine flush on the summit of the Jungfrau.
Forty years ago I heard for the first time the Ninth Symphony;
and while I have heard it often since then, the most memorable
occasion was in May 1912 when I heard it at Paris, played by a
magnificent orchestra, conducted by Felix Weingartner; I have heard
Die Meistersinger in Munich, conducted by Arthur Nikisch; I have
heard the Emperor Concerto, with Ossip Gabrilowitsch at the piano; I
have heard Tod und Verklärung with Stokowski and the Philadelphia
Orchestra; I have heard De Pachmann (in his prime) play Chopin’s B
flat minor sonata, Paderewski play Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.
2, Josef Hofmann play Beethoven’s Sonata 111. I have heard
Carmen sung by Emma Calvé, Emma Eames, Jean de Reszké and
Lassalle; Tristan und Isolde sung by Jean de Reszké and Lilli
Lehmann; Faust sung by Jean and Edouard de Reszké, Emma
Eames, Maurel, and Scalchi; Mignon sung by Mme. Lucrezia Bori; I
have repeatedly heard the three greatest bassos of modern times,
Edouard de Reszké, Pol Plançon, and Chaliapin.
In the theatre I have seen Edwin Booth as Shylock, Mansfield as
Richard III, Irving in The Lyons Mail, Possart as Mephistopheles,
Sarah Bernhardt as La Tosca, Duse as Francesca, Salvini as
Othello, and twice have I seen the Passion Play at Oberammergau.
All these are memorable experiences, and for fear I may not be
conscious when I am dying, I am recalling them now. But if I should
attempt to recall all the glorious things I have seen in nature and in
art, I should have no time for fresh experiences that await me.
As for social pleasures, one of the highest enjoyments is
agreeable company and good conversation; and I especially like
men, women and children.
Transcriber’s Notes
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made
consistent when a predominant preference was found in the
original book; otherwise they were not changed.
Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced
quotation marks were remedied when the change was
obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.
Just for the curious: Chapter XVIII has four references to
“F. P. A.” but doesn’t give the full name. When this book was
written, he was a well-known columnist: Franklin P. Adams.
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