Operation Doomsday

Part of Second World War
Allied occupation of Norway

British airborne troops, just disembarked from Stirling aircraft at Gardermoen airfield near Oslo

Date	9 May – August 1945
Location	Norway 59°54′39.51″N 10°43′21.56″E / 59.9109750°N 10.7226556°E / 59.9109750; 10.7226556
Result	Peaceful occupation

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Norway

Nazi Germany

Commanders and leaders

Andrew Thorne
Roy Urquhart

Franz Böhme

Units involved

British 1st Airborne Division

German 20th Mountain Army

Strength

6,000

Approximately 350,000

Casualties and losses

47 killed and injured

In Operation Doomsday, the British 1st Airborne Division acted as a police and military force during the Allied occupation of Norway in May 1945, immediately after the victory in Europe during the Second World War. The division maintained law and order until the arrival of the remainder of Force 134, the occupation force. During its time in Norway, the division was tasked with supervising the surrender of the German forces in Norway, as well as preventing the sabotage of vital military and civilian facilities.

The German Instrument of Surrender was delivered on 8 May to General Franz Böhme, the commander of all German forces stationed in Norway, and the 1st Airborne Division landed near Oslo and Stavanger between 9 May and 11 May. The majority of the transport aircraft carrying the division landed safely, but three planes crashed with a number of fatalities. The division encountered little of the expected German resistance. Operational duties included welcoming back King Haakon VII of Norway, looking after Allied ex-prisoners of war, arresting war criminals and supervising the clearing of minefields. The division was also able to confirm the deaths of the British airborne troops that had taken part in Operation Freshman, an unsuccessful attempt to disrupt the German atomic weapons programme in November 1942. The division returned to Britain at the end of August and disbanded two months later.

Since 1943 the Western Allies had been developing plans for the occupation of Norway, code-named Operation Apostle, after Germany's surrender. Force 134, the occupation force, was composed of Norwegian troops who were stationed in Scotland, as well as a British contingent (initially the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division), a few American troops, and some 12,000 Norwegian police troops currently stationed in neutral Sweden. In the event of an emergency, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force would deploy troops into Norway from Germany. The entire operation came under Headquarters Scottish Command, which had been commanded by General Andrew Thorne since 7 May 1941. One of the reasons behind Thorne's appointment to Scottish Command, which he regarded as "being banished to Scotland", may well have been Thorne's acquaintance with Adolf Hitler; they had met several times when Thorne had been British Military Attaché in Berlin in 1934 and 1935, and Hitler held Thorne and his military abilities in high regard. In the wake of British Commando raids in Norway during 1941, Hitler had ordered substantial reinforcements for Norway, and British High Command hoped that Thorne as head of Scottish Command would "help to focus the Fuhrer's attention on the threat posed to Scandinavia" and Norway in particular.

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Wikipedia