Namsos Campaign

Part of the Norwegian Campaign of the Second World War

British troops pick through the ruins of Namsos after a German air raid, April 1940.

Date	April and early May, 1940
Location	Namsos and points to the south, Norway
Result	German victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

France

Norway

Nazi Germany

Commanders and leaders

Adrian Carton De Wiart

Sylvestre-Gérard Audet

Ole Berg Getz

Strength

3,500 British
2,500 French
500 Norwegians

6,000

Casualties and losses

British:
19 killed
42 wounded
96 missing

The Namsos Campaign, in Namsos, Norway, and its surrounding area involved heavy fighting between and Norwegian naval and military forces on the one hand, and German military, naval and air forces on the other in April and early May 1940. It was one of the first significant occasions during the Second World War when British and French land forces fought the German Army.

When the Second World War broke out in September 1939, Norway followed a policy of neutrality, as it had successfully 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 the case during the First World War, the Norwegian military was only partially mobilised, with 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 invasion of Finland. Although the Norwegian government had carried out a hurried modernisation of the military in the second half of the 1930s the armed forces were still in a shambles. 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.

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