Reservists at a coastal fort sink a German cruiser and buy Norway's king an escape to Britain
What happened
Germany invaded Norway and Denmark on 9 April 1940 under Operation Weserübung. Denmark surrendered the same day. In the Oslofjord, Norwegian coastal defenses at Oscarsborg fortress opened fire on a German naval column advancing toward Oslo overnight and into the early morning, sinking the heavy cruiser Blücher, which was carrying troops and administrative staff meant to seize the Norwegian capital and government. The delay this caused in the German advance on Oslo let King Haakon VII, the Norwegian cabinet, and members of the Storting, Norway's parliament, get out of the capital rather than be captured. Norway's military kept fighting after that, but the campaign was outmatched, and organized resistance collapsed by early June 1940.
Why it matters
Because the king and government escaped rather than were captured, Norway had a legal government-in-exile in London for the rest of the war. That mattered directly for the Allied war effort: Norway's large merchant shipping fleet, one of the biggest in the world at the time, kept sailing for the Allies instead of falling under German control, and Norwegian forces and resources abroad stayed organized under a recognized government rather than dissolving into disconnected exile groups.
How we know
Forsvaret, the Norwegian Armed Forces' official body, publishes an account of the sinking of the Blücher in the Drøbak narrows on the night and morning of 9 April 1940 and its role in enabling King Haakon and the government to escape to Britain.
Sources
- Forsvaret (Norwegian Armed Forces). The Sinking of the Blücher: The Battle of Drøbak Narrows, April 1940 · Reputable sourceforsvaret.no · The domain "forsvaret.no" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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