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Operation Birkhahn

Operation Birkhahn was a Nazi operation taking place in the spring of 1945 which was the evacuation of their troops from Norway. Approximately 400,000 Nazi troops were in Norway at the time and evacuated near the end of the war in just a matter of days. The evacuation led to the Nazis losing their furthest North territory. Norway was one of the only territories which the Axis powers held that was located North of both Russia and Great Britain. The operation took place shortly after the death of Adolf Hitler who called for the mission days before his death. Operation Birkhahn was authorized before the Nazis officially surrendered and it began just before the surrender, it wasn't entirely completed until afterwards when they were forced to evacuate due to the end of their war efforts. Operation Birkhahn was a result of a weakened Nazi army and it played a part in causing the Nazi surrender and bringing the end of the war.

Background

Norwegian Campaign

The Nazi army began to occupy Norway in 1940 and held it until 1945 when Operation Birkhahn led to the evacuation of all troops in Norway. The Nazis only took one month to gain control of the country after their initial invasion. Germany took Norway in an attempt to gain a strategic advantage against the Allied powers. Giving them control in the North allowed the Nazis to pose a threat of attacks on Great Britain and also an easier attack route towards Iceland, Greenland and North Eastern parts of North America without Britain standing in the way and also potentially without the Americans knowing it was coming. The Nazis had control for years but come April of 1945 the world started to sense that the end of their reign in Norway and Denmark was coming to an end.

British Efforts

The British were eager to get the Nazis out of Norway and the North however they were unable to devise an effective plan. The British military hoped to place bases inside Norway but the Nazis beat them to it leading to many plans being created by the British military in attempts to get the Germans out of control in Norway. Despite many plans being drafted and created, the majority of them were never carried out due to the British fearing the results of the battle and the large amounts of deaths that would come from it. After many battles between the British and Germans the British were forced to withdraw and end their attempt to free Norway from the Nazis. The Nazis however suffered vast amounts of losses and were no longer suited to maintain their campaign. Thus the Nazis knew that the time had come and they called for an evacuation known as "Operation Birkhahn.”

The Operation

Due to the loss of troops in Norway and the weakening impact of the Nazis not only in Norway but throughout Europe, Hitler decided it was time to pull the plug on the Norwegian Campaign. The British had lost the battle but in the end had achieved their goal. The Nazis were forced to go. Late in April just days before committing suicide, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered “Operation Birkhahn”, the total evacuation of German Nazi troops from the country of Norway. Due to bad weather across Norway the Nazis had to delay their evacuation and so the Operation did not begin before Hitler took his own life. The first week of May it began, approximately 400,000 soldiers began to evacuate. The troops officially surrendered in their campaign on May 4th, just four days later, May 8th, the Nazis officially surrendered and ended their war efforts. Come May 8th, Operation Birkhahn had yet to finish, troops were still inside Norwegian borders. Because of the Nazi surrender to the Allied Forces, the end of Operation Birkhahn was not carried out on the Nazi’s own will but because they were forced to get every last soldier out. On May 9th the British sent their troops back to Norway to oversee the surrender and the exodus of troops. The Nazis had positioned various minefields throughout Norway during their campaign and the British were to make sure that they disabled them all. The British troops were ordered to police the evacuating troops and ensure that they went peacefully. The evacuation took just a matter of days, starting on the 4th and ending shortly after the surrender.

The Impact

The impact of Operation Birkhahn is often overlooked when discussing the war in its whole. The reason for this is because it occurred just before the surrender and also because the country of Norway has never been considered to play a big role in the Second World War. The operation taking place and not having troops in Norway did not play a big part in the Nazi surrender. Operation Birkhahn contributed to the surrender in an ideological way. The Nazis put up a fight against the British and managed to maintain control of Norway for five years. The control of it not only allowed the Nazis to pose more of a threat on each of the allied powers, it also was progress towards their goal of controlling Europe. The furthest North the Nazis controlled was Norway and the evacuation changed that. After losing too many forces to maintain control, Hitler knew what had to be done, and that was to admit defeat in Scandinavia. Hitler called for the operation to take place. He never saw the evacuation be executed however due to his death. The Nazis knew they were losing control and because of the delay on the evacuation, the rest of the world did not know about the diminishing influence. Losing control in Norway made the Nazis realize that they were not nearly as powerful as they had once been. Unable to continue a campaign in the North they had little choice but to surrender. The evacuation of their troops had not yet taken place but the orders were in and the Nazis knew it was inevitable which had a role in ultimately deciding to surrender to the Allies. When the operation actually began, the Nazis had just a few more days of war left until they surrendered. One could consider Norway to be a complete failure for Hitler and his army. The campaign was long and the influence posed as a threat but Hitler failed to utilize his troops in Norway, he never launched an attack from Norway. The only thing that came from the campaign was a waste of resources, food, water, money and time.

Operation Birkhahn has never been well known and is not a major part of World War Two. The operation did however have an important role in the surrender of the Nazis and is not to be overlooked. While the physical removal of troops from Norway did not have any drastic effect on World War Two, the evacuation showed the Nazis along with the world that they were weakening and that they were losing control and territory. It also showed that despite the fact that the Nazis had been beating the British in the battles in Norway yet still failed in their campaign efforts. The evacuation of Norway showed the Nazis that they were not as strong as they once were and that the war was no longer something they could win.