Battle of Denmark

Battle of Denmark
Date April 9 ,1940 Location Denmark Result German Victory Territorial changes Occupation of Denmark by German Forces
Belligerents
Denmark	Germany
Commanders
Christian X William Wain Prior[1]	Leonhard Kaupisch[2]
Strength
14,500 soldiers[3] in the Zealand and Jutland Divisions and the Bornholm garrison[4] four air squadron	Höheres Kommando XXXI:[5] 170th Infantry Division 198th Infantry Division 11th Schützenbrigade Luftwaffe: 527 aircraft of the X. Fliegerkorps[6]
Casualties and losses
16 killed 20 wounded Remainder captured or escaped[3] 25 aircraft destroyed	20 killed or wounded[7] 2 captured 12 armoured cars destroyed or damaged 4 tanks damaged 1 aircraft damaged[8]

The Battle of Denmark was the fighting that followed the German army crossing the Danish border on 9 April 1940 by land, sea and air. The German ground campaign against Denmark was the briefest on record in military history.^[9]

Motivation for invading Denmark

The attack on Denmark was planned as a part of the German Operation Weserübung - the German plan for an invasion of Norway. In order to capture Norway the Germans needed to control the air fields at Aalborg in northern Jutland. Additionally, the Luftwaffe high command was in favour of occupying Denmark in order to extend the German air-defence system northwards, making it harder for British bombers to outflank the system from the north when attacking cities in Germany.^[10]

German plan of attack

The German High Command planned for a combined assault on Denmark to overrun the country as swiftly as possible, with an airborne assault on the Aalborg air fields and a surprise landing of infantry from naval auxiliaries at Copenhagen in addition to a simultaneous ground assault across the Jutland peninsula.^[11]

Battle

Although the Danish Army had been forewarned of the attack it was denied deploying or preparing defensive position as the Danish government did not want to give the Germans a provocation for their actions. All that was available to meet the land invasion were small and scattered units of the frontier guard and elements of the Jutland division.^[12]

Battle for Jutland

The Danish border was breached at Sæd, Rens, Padborg and Krusaa at 0415hrs. With the Kriegsmarine simultaneously landing troops at Lillebælt the troops at the border were cut off at the outset of the fighting.^[3]

Eastern flank

Danish troops at Bredevad on the morning of the German attack. Two of these soldiers were killed in action later that day

Lundtoftebjerg

The first clash between the Danish Army and the invading forces occurred at Lundtoftebjerg, where a Danish platoon armed with two 20 mm guns and a light machine gun had taken up positions covering the road. In brief skirmish the Germans lost two armoured cars and three motorcycles, while the Danes suffered one wounded in the fighting itself and had a fatality during the following retreat.^[3]

Hokkerup

As the German column reached Hokkerup it encountered another roadblock, this time defended by a force of 34 Danish soldiers. The Danes knocked out three German armoured cars, forcing the Germans to pull back. The Germans set up a 37 mm gun 300 meters away, but was knocked out by Danish fire after firing one round. The Germans eventually managed to surround and capture the Danish unit.^[3]

Bjergskov

North of Hokkerup the German forces encountered yet another roadblock defended by two 20mm guns. German tanks pushed the roadblock aside and opened fire. One gun returned fire until a German tank drove over it. The gunner attempted to take cover, but was killed when a German airplane strafed the road. The second gun malfunctioned. The Germans then surrounded and captured the Danes. ^[3]

Central front

Bredevad

In a meeting encounter between Danish and German forces at Bredevad, 10 km north of the border, German armored cars encountered a Danish roadblock manned by one and a half platoon, one gun and grenades. The Danes fired warning shots, which were ignored by the Germans. The Danes then opened fire, knocking out the lead armored car and killing its driver. A short skirmish followed. The Danes knocked out two more German armoured cars at a loss of 4 killed and 2 wounded before being surrounded and forced into submission.^[3]

Danish PoWs at Bjergskov

Haderslev

As the Danish forces at Søegaard army camp were preparing to pull back north to Vejle where the main force of the Jutland Division was preparing for battle a short skirmish developed at Aabenraa as a Danish rearguard was attacked. After damaging a German tank the rearguard pulled back to Haderslev. Haderslev was defended by a garrison of 225 men of the Jutland Division, which defended the barracks in the town and the road leading into it. After fighting that saw the Germans losing three tanks on the outskirts of Haderslev the order to surrender was received from Copenhagen. However, this order was not received by the forces defending the barracks inside Haderslev and as the Germans entered the town a new fight began. One German and one Danish soldier, and three Danish civilians, were killed before the garrison gave up.^[3]

Madsen 20 mm anti-tank gun at Aabenraa

Western flank

Tønder garrison

The first fighting in Western Jutland occurred against the garrison at Tønder. The first skirmish happened at Abild where two German armoured cars were knocked out by a 20 mm anti-tank gun before the Danes were forced to retreat. Further on, at Sølstad the Germans were completely halted, losing one armoured car and having another damaged. Only after receiving air support from three Henschel Hs 126 aircraft were the Germans able to push the Danish forces out of their positions and back to Bredebo. when the men of the Tønder garrison reached Bredebo the order to capitulate had been issued and the fighting was over.^[3]

Airborne landings

At 0615hrs 96 Fallschirmjägers jumped from nine Junkers Ju 52 transports to secure Storstrøm Bridge, connecting the island of Falster with the mainland, and the coastal fortress on Masnedø island. This landing opened the way for a battalion of the 198th Infantry Division to advance on Copenhagen by land.^[13]

Naval landings

In order to capture the connections between Jutland and Zealand the Kriegsmarine landed more troops from the 198th Infantry Division at Funen.^[13]

Capture of Copenhagen

To secure the quick surrender of the Danish authorities a capture of the capital city was essential. At 0450hrs the 2,430 ton minelayer Hansestadt Danzig, with an escort of the icebreaker Stettin and two patrol boats, entered the Copenhagen harbour with battle flags flying. Although the harbour was covered by the coastal artillery guns of Fort Middelgrund the newly appointed Danish commander hesitated as to what to do. After the landing of a battalion of the 198th Infantry at 0518hrs, the German forces captured the 70-strong garrison of the Citadel - the headquarters of the Danish Army - without firing a single shot. The next target of the German forces was Amalienborg Palace, the residence of the Danish royal family.^[13]

Amalienborg and capitulation

When the German infantry arrived at Amalienborg they were met with determined opposition from the training company of the King's Royal Guard, which repulsed back the initial attack, suffering three wounded.^[14] This gave Christian X and his ministers time to confer with the Danish Army chief General Prior. As the discussions were ongoing, several formations of Heinkel He 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers from Kampfgeschwader 4 roared over the city dropping the OPROP! leaflets. Faced with the explicit threat of the Luftwaffe bombing the civilian population of Copenhagen, and only General Prior in favour of continuing the fighting, the Danish government capitulated in exchange for retaining political independence in domestic matters.^[3]

Fate of the Danish Air Services

The entire four squadron-strong Danish Army Air Service was stationed at Værløse near Copenhagen.^[3] In anticipation of the German invasion, the squadrons had prepared to disperse to airfields all over the country, but this had not been accomplished by the time the Luftwaffe appeared over the air base. As the German aircraft reached Værløse, four Fokker C.V-E reconnaissance aircraft were getting airborne, one of which was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 110s led by Hauptmann Wolfgang Falck at an altitude of 50 metres.^[7][13] Thereafter the German Bf 110s strafed the air base and destroyed 10 aircraft and badly damaged another 14 as they taxied to take off, wiping out most of the Danish Army Air Service in one action.^[3] The Danish Navy Air Service remained at its bases and escaped damage.^[15]

1st company of the 11th battalion

While most of the Danish Army followed the order to capitulate one unit refused to give up. The commander of the 4th Regiment, based at Roskilde, Bennike, believed that the order to surrender had been forced on the government by the Germans and that Sweden too had been attacked. Instead of surrendering Bennike boarded the ferry to Sweden in Helsingør and went into exile. After the misunderstanding was later cleared up, some of the Danish soldiers stayed in Sweden while others returned to Denmark.^[3]

Aftermath

The Danish capitulation resulted in the uniquely lenient Occupation of Denmark, particularly until the summer of 1943, and also in postponing the arrest and deportation of Danish Jews until nearly all of them were warned and on their way to refuge in Sweden.^[16] In the end, 477 Danish Jews were deported, and 70 of them lost their lives, out of a pre-war total of Jews and half-Jews at a little over 8,000.^[17]

References

Citations

Bibliograpghy

• Dildy, Douglas C. Denmark and Norway 1940: Hitler's boldest operation : Osprey Publishing Ltd., 2007, ISBN 978-1-84603-117-5
• Hooton, E.R (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Gathering Storm 1933-39: Volume 1. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-903223-71-7.
• Hooton, E.R (2007). Luftwaffe at War; Blitzkrieg in the West: Volume 2. London: Chervron/Ian Allen. ISBN 978-1-85780-272-6.