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Hitler's Pre-Emptive War: The Battle for Norway, 1940
A thorough examination of one of history’s revolutionary campaigns . . . After Hitler conquered Poland, and while still fine-tuning his plans against France, the British began to exert control of the coastline of neutral Norway, an action that threatened to cut off Germany’s iron-ore conduit to Sweden and outflank from the start its hegemony on the Continent. The air, airborne, sea, amphibious, infantry, armor and commando aspects of this brief but violent campaign are here covered in meticulous detail. Henrik Lunde, a native Norwegian and former U.S. Special Operations colonel, has written perhaps the most objective account to date of a campaign in which 20th century military innovation found its first fertile playing field.
552 pages, Hardcover
First published March 19, 2009
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478 people want to read
About the author
Henrik O. Lunde
12 books13 followersHENRIK O. LUNDE, was born in Norway, moved to America as a child and thence rose in the U.S. Army to become a Colonel in Special Forces. Highly decorated for bravery in Vietnam, he proceeded to gain advance degrees and assume strategic posts, his last being in the Plans and Policy Branch of Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers Europe. After retirement from the Army he turned to writing, with a focus on his native North, and given his combination of personal tactical knowledge plus objective strategic grasp has authored several groundbreaking works. These include Hitler's Pre-Emptive War, about Norway 1940, Finland's War of Choice, and Hitler's Wave-Breaking Concept, which analyzes the controversial retreat of Germany's Army Group North from the Leningrad front in WWII. In A Warrior Dynasty he re-examines the potential of pure military skill in global affairs. His next, long-awaited work, will examine how America itself has fared in this regard during the last 50 years.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
May 16, 2021
This is a superb and highly detailed account of the first air/land/sea special operation in the 20th century. It's absolutely a must read for a WW2 history buff. This book was mostly dry and heavy but then again this is a military history book. I learned quite a lot about this operation and I would recommend it to any history fan. Thanks!
August 10, 2012
An interesting, but very detailed — perhaps too detailed — book about a World War II campaign that is often relegated to a few paragraphs in history books.
I have Norwegian heritage and had been meaning to learn more on this subject, but "Hitler's Pre-Emptive War: The Battle For Norway, 1940" by Henrik O. Lunde jumped to the top of my To Read List after reading the interesting novel "The Redbreast" by Jo Nesbo, which is set in Norway and has many references to the German occupation and its affect on the Norwegian people.
There are many reasons to study the Battle of Norway, not the least of which is that it was the first time in the war that the Germans and Allies faced each other in battle. To say the Allies came off the worst in nearly every facet of warfare is an understatement, but the hard lessons learned about command and control, coalition-building, logistics, small unit tactics and airpower would be vital to successes farther down the road.
Unfortunately for the Allies, the German attack on France occurred at nearly the same time, which meant two straight stunning losses to start the war. The losses in France directly resulted in the eventual fall of Norway as the British and French decided to cut and run, ending a campaign they may have won had they exhibited better judgment and strategic acumen.
This is primarily a military history, so the political situation receives scant mention. The pre-battle role and later assumption of power by Quisling, the Norwegian fascist whose name became as synonymous with "traitor" as Benedict Arnold's, is briefly discussed. There are many references to the post-war tribunals and soul-searching conducted by the Norwegian people, which is also touched on in Nesbo's novel The Redbreast.
There are some real gems of information here, especially when it comes to the naval battles between the German and British fleets in the North Sea and off the Norwegian coast, and the brave performance of the Norwegian soldiers, who were generally poorly equipped and poorly led. How close this campaign came to being a reversal or at least a Pyrrhic victory for Hitler is something I had not realized before.
But be warned: the author often takes the action down to the company and platoon level, usually with confusing references to unit numerical designations that are very similar for both sides, which can make large sections a real slog to get through. There are maps included, but in the eBook version I read they were in a separate section. Having them included in the text alongside the description of the battles would have been very, very helpful.
When Mr. Lunde deals with the strategic aspects of the campaign the pace moves along quite well. He takes care to identify what each side had to say about battles, casualties, etc., and debunks many myths and false statements made by the participants and previous chroniclers. The focus is almost entirely on the battles in the far north around Narvik, with little time spent on the relatively quick actions in the south and central part of the country.
I have Norwegian heritage and had been meaning to learn more on this subject, but "Hitler's Pre-Emptive War: The Battle For Norway, 1940" by Henrik O. Lunde jumped to the top of my To Read List after reading the interesting novel "The Redbreast" by Jo Nesbo, which is set in Norway and has many references to the German occupation and its affect on the Norwegian people.
There are many reasons to study the Battle of Norway, not the least of which is that it was the first time in the war that the Germans and Allies faced each other in battle. To say the Allies came off the worst in nearly every facet of warfare is an understatement, but the hard lessons learned about command and control, coalition-building, logistics, small unit tactics and airpower would be vital to successes farther down the road.
Unfortunately for the Allies, the German attack on France occurred at nearly the same time, which meant two straight stunning losses to start the war. The losses in France directly resulted in the eventual fall of Norway as the British and French decided to cut and run, ending a campaign they may have won had they exhibited better judgment and strategic acumen.
This is primarily a military history, so the political situation receives scant mention. The pre-battle role and later assumption of power by Quisling, the Norwegian fascist whose name became as synonymous with "traitor" as Benedict Arnold's, is briefly discussed. There are many references to the post-war tribunals and soul-searching conducted by the Norwegian people, which is also touched on in Nesbo's novel The Redbreast.
There are some real gems of information here, especially when it comes to the naval battles between the German and British fleets in the North Sea and off the Norwegian coast, and the brave performance of the Norwegian soldiers, who were generally poorly equipped and poorly led. How close this campaign came to being a reversal or at least a Pyrrhic victory for Hitler is something I had not realized before.
But be warned: the author often takes the action down to the company and platoon level, usually with confusing references to unit numerical designations that are very similar for both sides, which can make large sections a real slog to get through. There are maps included, but in the eBook version I read they were in a separate section. Having them included in the text alongside the description of the battles would have been very, very helpful.
When Mr. Lunde deals with the strategic aspects of the campaign the pace moves along quite well. He takes care to identify what each side had to say about battles, casualties, etc., and debunks many myths and false statements made by the participants and previous chroniclers. The focus is almost entirely on the battles in the far north around Narvik, with little time spent on the relatively quick actions in the south and central part of the country.
September 24, 2014
There are really two parts to this review, a discussion of the history and a discussion of the book.
The History:
For being a bit of a WWII history afficianado I was woefully ignorant of the specifics of the Norwegian campaign before reading this book. As with so many bits of WWII, I was surprised by the low-percetage chances and absurd coincidences that seem to crop-up with disturbing regularity in the period. The fact that both the Germans and British independently had invasion forces prepped and even sailing for various Norwegian ports is just odd - I can get that certain days present the best invasion conditions, but if the Brits hadn't disembarked their force bound for Trondheim, the two invasion fleets would have met in the fjord and the Norwegians would have had to choose who to welcome and who to fight.
The British unpreparedness for modern warfare in Norways and the contempt they portrayed towards their Norwegian allies is particularly illustritive of the Brits views of themselves as a Great Power. It also serves as a good background to understand the later power struggles between British and US forces for leadership in coalition as described in An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 among other sources.
The Book:
I read this as an e-book and I would NOT suggest doing so to anyone else. Yes it meant that I was not lugging around a relative tome and could easily read on the subway. However, I did not encounter the maps until the end of the text and these were not well rendered on my e-reader screen. Without an easy way to refer to maps (and flip between them and the text), much of the nitty-gritty of operational histories became a list of interesting sounding small towns, mountains, and lakes in Norway. I resorted to Google Maps just to give myself some orientation, but the text tended to be more detailed and I didn't have internet connection on those subway rides.
That relates to a larger point. Even after seeing the maps, I feel like there should have 2-3 times as many. This book is amazingly detailed, breaking down the action to company and at times platoon level - especially in the Narvik campaign. I feel like there was an opportunity here to really glean some tactical as well as strategic knowledge from the study of the campaign, but without clear visual aides, this was impossible.
In many ways I feel like Lunde was trying to write a much more academic military analysis limited to the Narvik campaign and his editor talked him into trying to write a more general audience history of the whole Norwegian invasion. I'm not the best judge of the success in writing an academic/military analysis, but I can say he missed the mark on the general audience history. This book clearly assumes the reader is familiar with the broader campaign, the personalities involved, and previous works written from British, Norwegian, and German perspectives.
All told, I think I likely would have abandoned this book if a) I hadn't had such a gap in my knowledge of the campaign, and b) didn't have limited access to other books due to construction on my apartment.
The History:
For being a bit of a WWII history afficianado I was woefully ignorant of the specifics of the Norwegian campaign before reading this book. As with so many bits of WWII, I was surprised by the low-percetage chances and absurd coincidences that seem to crop-up with disturbing regularity in the period. The fact that both the Germans and British independently had invasion forces prepped and even sailing for various Norwegian ports is just odd - I can get that certain days present the best invasion conditions, but if the Brits hadn't disembarked their force bound for Trondheim, the two invasion fleets would have met in the fjord and the Norwegians would have had to choose who to welcome and who to fight.
The British unpreparedness for modern warfare in Norways and the contempt they portrayed towards their Norwegian allies is particularly illustritive of the Brits views of themselves as a Great Power. It also serves as a good background to understand the later power struggles between British and US forces for leadership in coalition as described in An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 among other sources.
The Book:
I read this as an e-book and I would NOT suggest doing so to anyone else. Yes it meant that I was not lugging around a relative tome and could easily read on the subway. However, I did not encounter the maps until the end of the text and these were not well rendered on my e-reader screen. Without an easy way to refer to maps (and flip between them and the text), much of the nitty-gritty of operational histories became a list of interesting sounding small towns, mountains, and lakes in Norway. I resorted to Google Maps just to give myself some orientation, but the text tended to be more detailed and I didn't have internet connection on those subway rides.
That relates to a larger point. Even after seeing the maps, I feel like there should have 2-3 times as many. This book is amazingly detailed, breaking down the action to company and at times platoon level - especially in the Narvik campaign. I feel like there was an opportunity here to really glean some tactical as well as strategic knowledge from the study of the campaign, but without clear visual aides, this was impossible.
In many ways I feel like Lunde was trying to write a much more academic military analysis limited to the Narvik campaign and his editor talked him into trying to write a more general audience history of the whole Norwegian invasion. I'm not the best judge of the success in writing an academic/military analysis, but I can say he missed the mark on the general audience history. This book clearly assumes the reader is familiar with the broader campaign, the personalities involved, and previous works written from British, Norwegian, and German perspectives.
All told, I think I likely would have abandoned this book if a) I hadn't had such a gap in my knowledge of the campaign, and b) didn't have limited access to other books due to construction on my apartment.
November 7, 2017
Hitler’s Pre-emptive War, by Henrik O. Lunde, is an in-depth study of the German attack on Norway during the Second World War. If I were to title this review, it would be called ‘Who Knew?’. As a military historian, I’ve read and studied so many aspects of this global conflict, and yet, so many of the details in Lunde’s book are completely new to me.
He has obviously spent a great deal of time researching this subject, and all aspects of these opening moves by Germany and the British are well covered. We see how there were so many opportunities for the Allies to turn the tide of battle, and the war, during the battle for Norway, but the British seemed to be living in a world of denial, and in these pre-Churchill days, a leadership vacuum.
The military historian will be glued to the pages as they follow the day to day actions carefully described by the author. Like me, I’m sure there will be moments of frustration as they realize how close this invasion by Germany, nearly resulted in disaster—and Second World War defeat.
Hitler’s Pre-emptive War is probably one of the most accurately researched book I’ve ever read. I can describe it in one word—fascinating.
Review by Daniel L. Little – June 13, 2017
He has obviously spent a great deal of time researching this subject, and all aspects of these opening moves by Germany and the British are well covered. We see how there were so many opportunities for the Allies to turn the tide of battle, and the war, during the battle for Norway, but the British seemed to be living in a world of denial, and in these pre-Churchill days, a leadership vacuum.
The military historian will be glued to the pages as they follow the day to day actions carefully described by the author. Like me, I’m sure there will be moments of frustration as they realize how close this invasion by Germany, nearly resulted in disaster—and Second World War defeat.
Hitler’s Pre-emptive War is probably one of the most accurately researched book I’ve ever read. I can describe it in one word—fascinating.
Review by Daniel L. Little – June 13, 2017
November 22, 2012
My second book from this author and the second disappointment as far as my expectations for the content and the presentation are concerned.
Admittedly Lunde has knowledge and taken his time researching but his leaning towards military tactical training makes it difficult reading. I found myself incredibly frustrated by the maps used and not used. Reading on the train without access to other maps it was impossible to understand where the current battle was happening. The text frequently referred to parts of Norway or cities that can not be found on any map, and maps are not cross referenced to the chapters.
I feel I learned little more about the War in Norway.
I hope the book is better suitable for people with a military background, for the hobby historian I feel it might be unsuitable/
Admittedly Lunde has knowledge and taken his time researching but his leaning towards military tactical training makes it difficult reading. I found myself incredibly frustrated by the maps used and not used. Reading on the train without access to other maps it was impossible to understand where the current battle was happening. The text frequently referred to parts of Norway or cities that can not be found on any map, and maps are not cross referenced to the chapters.
I feel I learned little more about the War in Norway.
I hope the book is better suitable for people with a military background, for the hobby historian I feel it might be unsuitable/
January 14, 2013
Very gripping, not dry & boring at all. The UK & France make some truly epic, bizarre mistakes, and Germany gets lucky in a few areas I didn't know about... it could have been much closer than it was. Definitely recommended.
(Side note: Most bizarre British mistake is bringing along obsolete plans for a *British* invasion of Norway with them. That are then captured by the Germans and paraded about as a propaganda piece. What.)
(Side note: Most bizarre British mistake is bringing along obsolete plans for a *British* invasion of Norway with them. That are then captured by the Germans and paraded about as a propaganda piece. What.)
July 7, 2013
This book covers extensively a relatively minor theater of WW2. It can be read as a case study on foreign politics, millitary coalitions, strategy and tactics. Never been really interested in the topic but I could not stop reading this book from cover to cover. Gives a lot of thoughts, a great example how you can learn from past mistakes.
September 5, 2011
I picked this book up because I have always been interested in my Norwegian heritage. This is a very detailed look at the battle for Norway. It's a long detailed read but if you're interested in WW2 and how things came about it's worth the read.
May 10, 2012
A very detailed and engaging history of an overlooked element of World War II.
Learned a lot; this is no casual reading engagement - you'll note that it took me more than a year to complete it. Had to set it aside several times.
Learned a lot; this is no casual reading engagement - you'll note that it took me more than a year to complete it. Had to set it aside several times.
December 22, 2013
This book read like a PhD candidate's dissertation. That's not bad, just caused me to slog through every page. There is indeed a terrific level of detail about this very specific aspect. I just had to slow down my reading speed to try an assimilate the wealth of information.
September 25, 2014
Well-researched, balanced and competent, but also occasionally overly detailed and dry. A usefull read for the enthusiast and the reader with previous military experience/training, but not recommended as an introductory overview.
April 4, 2018
In-depth study of the campaign from a Norwegian perspective. Particularly good at summarizing differences between the leadership. Would have benefited from more granular maps, as it was hard to follow some of the campaigns.
July 23, 2012
I'm starting to realise that my knowledge of history is quite limited, and learned from a very Australian perspective. While very detailed, this was presented in a balanced and analytical fashion.
June 24, 2015
Good book. A bit heavy on Narvik.
January 3, 2023
I knew I was unfamiliar with the campaign in Norway; I just didn't know how unfamiliar I truly was. This book is an excellent study of the campaign, largely from a strategic level. I felt myself wanting more accounts at the small unit, tactical level and the maps were wanting and poorly placed within the book (at the rear, as an appendix, rather within the text chronologically). Nevertheless, I gained a great deal from having read this book. I completed it in late 2022.
September 15, 2024
this is the type of book you get when your country doesn't have major wars to write about so you get 600 pages on every little wrinkle of a campaign that mattered very little to WWII's outcome and only had a few thousand casualties. The opening chapters on the diplomatic dancing in the leadup to Hitler's invasion were the most interesting, once the straight military history kicks off it becomes a real chore.
October 4, 2019
Narrative consists primarily of detailed unit movements during a roughly 3-month period in spring 1940. Fascinating, and no doubt superbly researched, but a tiring reading experience.
July 13, 2020
A too detailed but very informative book about invasion of Norway by Nazi germany in 1940 .
The book was a little bit long but i enjoyed reading it .
The book was a little bit long but i enjoyed reading it .
February 5, 2022
Great book on the Battle of Norway
October 24, 2010
Something that recently crossed my sights was the invasion of Norway. While I knew of it from a general perspective, I realized I didn’t really “know” what happened. Because this and having a desire to expand my knowledge on the early happening in WWII, I picked this one up.
Mr. Lunde opens by describing the political environment leading to war in Scandinavia, looking at the three combatants both politically and militarily. Mr. Lunde is highly critical of Mr. Churchill and his aggressive stance against Germany in the Scandinavian region, bringing an interesting perspective. After describing the German and British plans (or lack thereof) and preparations for war, we go thru the opening naval maneuvers and combats and close with the land campaign. The naval actions are nicely done with good details about the combatants, particularly the quality of the leadership and ability of ships. Mr. Lunde provides excellent analysis of the combats, particularly the battle for Narvik (both the German capture and the Allied response). The land campaign was rather weakly done. Where details were provided in the naval campaign, they’re lacking on land. Part of this is due to the lack of documentation from Norwegian forces (for the Southern portion of the campaign) but the major driver is that the maps provided rarely support Mr. Lunde’s description of the battles. Complicating this, the publisher chose to place all the maps in the back portion of the book. Any time you want to “see“ what Mr. Lunde is describing, turn to the back of the book and find a map that hasn’t been referenced (rarely if ever was a map number or page referenced),and then attempt the identify the village/town the fighting is near (btw, rarely did the maps go down to the level of fidelity Mr. Lunde referenced).
Rating wise this one was complicated. Mr. Lunde does an excellent job telling the story of going to war and of the naval campaign but things just blew up when it came to the land campaign eventually making it so I dreaded reading this book. Maps are poorly done for the areas they identify; looking like someone used PowerPoint to mark up some weak maps. Unit sizes and positions are rarely marked and most of the maps are on a larger scale than Mr. Lunde talks about (I’m sorry, when an author is discussing the importance of a small village in defending an area and the position of the troops, you expect a nice map of that area, the position of the troops at the start, where the efforts were made and their final positions). If the maps were located with where the descriptions of the battle were and if they’d been of good quality I’d easily call this one a four star book. However, given the poor quality of the maps and the fact that they contributed to confusion and promoted a dread in reading the book, along with the poor editing (sorry, when I can find editorial problems fairly easily and regularly) and the price, I have to call this one a 2.5 star book that I’m rounding down to 2 stars. This is sad to me because Mr. Lunde does provide some great insight into the political and naval portions of the campaign.
Mr. Lunde opens by describing the political environment leading to war in Scandinavia, looking at the three combatants both politically and militarily. Mr. Lunde is highly critical of Mr. Churchill and his aggressive stance against Germany in the Scandinavian region, bringing an interesting perspective. After describing the German and British plans (or lack thereof) and preparations for war, we go thru the opening naval maneuvers and combats and close with the land campaign. The naval actions are nicely done with good details about the combatants, particularly the quality of the leadership and ability of ships. Mr. Lunde provides excellent analysis of the combats, particularly the battle for Narvik (both the German capture and the Allied response). The land campaign was rather weakly done. Where details were provided in the naval campaign, they’re lacking on land. Part of this is due to the lack of documentation from Norwegian forces (for the Southern portion of the campaign) but the major driver is that the maps provided rarely support Mr. Lunde’s description of the battles. Complicating this, the publisher chose to place all the maps in the back portion of the book. Any time you want to “see“ what Mr. Lunde is describing, turn to the back of the book and find a map that hasn’t been referenced (rarely if ever was a map number or page referenced),and then attempt the identify the village/town the fighting is near (btw, rarely did the maps go down to the level of fidelity Mr. Lunde referenced).
Rating wise this one was complicated. Mr. Lunde does an excellent job telling the story of going to war and of the naval campaign but things just blew up when it came to the land campaign eventually making it so I dreaded reading this book. Maps are poorly done for the areas they identify; looking like someone used PowerPoint to mark up some weak maps. Unit sizes and positions are rarely marked and most of the maps are on a larger scale than Mr. Lunde talks about (I’m sorry, when an author is discussing the importance of a small village in defending an area and the position of the troops, you expect a nice map of that area, the position of the troops at the start, where the efforts were made and their final positions). If the maps were located with where the descriptions of the battle were and if they’d been of good quality I’d easily call this one a four star book. However, given the poor quality of the maps and the fact that they contributed to confusion and promoted a dread in reading the book, along with the poor editing (sorry, when I can find editorial problems fairly easily and regularly) and the price, I have to call this one a 2.5 star book that I’m rounding down to 2 stars. This is sad to me because Mr. Lunde does provide some great insight into the political and naval portions of the campaign.
May 18, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. Lunde does a good job at painting the bigger picture so that the error of various judgements or the luck involved in various actions is more pronounced. Lunde weaves together events at the highest political levels together with lower level tactical actions to keep the entire campaign in perspective. I have read few books that do this as well as Lunde. I also appreciated very much Lunde sharing discrepancies on various statistics or statements when the record is unclear (he actually does a fair amount of this, both on the political and military level).
The basic gist of the campaign is that the Germans were daring - and lucky - and the British were cocky without cause, the French and the Polish fought reasonably well, and the Norwegians in North Norway fought hard and gained little recognition for it. Norway as a whole got the shaft from the Allies, but in light of the defeat in France which coincided with the latter part of the campaign in Norway, it seems likely it would have happened at one point or another.
If this campaign is of interest to you, I highly recommend this book.
The basic gist of the campaign is that the Germans were daring - and lucky - and the British were cocky without cause, the French and the Polish fought reasonably well, and the Norwegians in North Norway fought hard and gained little recognition for it. Norway as a whole got the shaft from the Allies, but in light of the defeat in France which coincided with the latter part of the campaign in Norway, it seems likely it would have happened at one point or another.
If this campaign is of interest to you, I highly recommend this book.
August 6, 2014
Tedious. This book starts off well but then dives way too deep into the battle while moving from tactical through operational to strategic level of decision-making. It is very hard to follow. I think Lunde would benefit from a different structure to his work - possibly a three part book with each part rooted into a particular level of war which is sub-structured chronologically would be easier to follow.
The maps are a debacle. There is seemingly no organization to them. The maps that are included don't include key cities that the author is writing about. Again, the structure and editing of this book are one of the worst I have seen.
This is an important campaign in WWII which fills a noticeable gap in literature on that recent conflict, but it needs serious editing and more maps.
The maps are a debacle. There is seemingly no organization to them. The maps that are included don't include key cities that the author is writing about. Again, the structure and editing of this book are one of the worst I have seen.
This is an important campaign in WWII which fills a noticeable gap in literature on that recent conflict, but it needs serious editing and more maps.
April 18, 2011
long detailed had to plow through this book
Churchill screwed up whole campaign
bad decisions but the French fought well
Churchill screwed up whole campaign
bad decisions but the French fought well
March 29, 2011
Very long winded and tecnical.Could have been shorter .ok
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews