The all-weather port was the route by which Germany received vast supplies of Swedish iron ore. Norway in general and Narvik in particular had been central to Allied and German strategic planning since the outbreak of war. Instead, the Germans were about to face their first large-scale naval action since Jutland, and a massive defeat. Now all the German destroyers and the tough men of General Edouard Dietl’s mountain troops were taking on fuel, ready to return to Germany and prepare for new victories. Without suffering the loss of a single soldier or sailor, the German Army and Navy had sailed 1,500 miles through waters dominated by the British Royal Navy and captured Narvik without firing a shot, bagged nearly 500 Norwegian soldiers, seized one of Norway’s major military depots, and even taken five armed British merchant ships and their crews.
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