Invading Norway to get control of its ports was another. It didn't harm Germany but Norway was a neutral sovereign nation.
Britain was already in the process of invading Norway when they started.
Weren't the Dutch countries also "neutral" but had Allied soldiers and equipment stationed in their borders?
I don't think the Dutch were like that, but the Belgians certainly were part of the "allies" and had been in WW1 as well.
If Germany hadn't invaded Norway Britain would have invaded in order to cut of iron ore to Germany from Kiruna via Narvik. No iron ore, no war. The British were already planning an invasion and the Norwegians would not have fought them. The British had already mined Norwegian waters and raided German ships in Norwegian territorial waters. Read up on the Altmark incident.
Norway has always been Britains bitch, after the viking era ended. When i were in the military, we got to know that murica for instance has stashes of military equipment inside many of our mountains. Dunno how it was back then in ww2 but i am pretty sure we would let the allies use our strategic location to save the juice.
Didn't Germany invade to secure the Ports for the nature resources that Norway was shipping to the Germany ?. I read an analysis years back that laid out the points why this measure (invading) was vital for Germany's war effort and was a reason why Britain was attempting to attack German supply lines by invading Norway ( as a sovereign Nation supplying Germany) to prevent and stymy German access to it's much needed resources.
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