Why would the Nazis destroy Denmark?

Answer 1

The Germans did not destroy Denmark, but they did invade and occupy it. The reason was because Denmark is right next to Norway and Sweden. Sweden was neutral and was still selling iron to the Germans (and the Germans needed iron to make ships, tanks, and airplanes), so Germany had little interest in invading Sweden.

Norway on the other hand, was a big target for Germany. Britain had plans to use Norway as a base for attacking Germany. Additionally, Germany wanted to use Norway as a base for submarines to attack the British Navy. Lastly, Sweden's iron shipments often went through Norway, and Germany wanted to make sure that this didn't change. So Germany made plans to invade Norway.

In order to invade Norway, Germany needed to go through Denmark. So that's exactly what they did. Even though the Danish government knew that the Germans were going to attack, they chose not to deploy their military for fear that it would give the Germans a reason to attack (as Germany had done to Poland a few months prior). So when the German military invaded, they faced little resistance and the invasion only lasted about 6 hours- the shortest invasion of the war.