The Army of Norway, also simply Army Norway (german: Armee Norwegen), was a German army operating in the far north of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. The Army of Norway was under ''Armeeoberkommando Norwegen'' (Army High Command Norway), abbreviated ''AOK Norwegen'', which was one of the two army

echelon ECHELON, originally a secret government code name, is a surveillance program (signals intelligence/SIGINT collection and analysis network) operated by the five signatory states to the UKUSA Security Agreement:Given the 5 dialects that use ...

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

controlling German troops in the far north. ''Armeeoberkommando Norwegen'' was directly subordinate to

OKH The (; abbreviated OKH) was the high command of the Army of Nazi Germany. It was founded in 1935 as part of Adolf Hitler's rearmament of Germany. OKH was ''de facto'' the most important unit within the German war planning until the defeat at ...

, the high command headquarters of the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. It was created from Army Group XXI in December 1940, itself a successor of the XXI Army Corps, and disbanded in December 1944, with its assets taken over by the 20th Mountain Army.

Operations

The Army of Norway took part in

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named afte ...

in 1941. In talks between

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

and German staffs in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

in June 1941, the Germans were given military responsibility over northern Finland; Army Norway was to take Murmansk and the

Murmansk railway Railway between Murmansk on the Baltic_Sea.html"_;"title="Arctic_Ocean_and_Saint_Petersburg_on_the_Baltic_Sea">Arctic_Ocean_and_Saint_Petersburg_on_the_Baltic_Sea_ Kirov_Railway_(russian:_Кировская_железная_дорога,_''Kiro ...

. The plan was codenamed

Operation Silberfuchs Operation Silver Fox (german: Silberfuchs; fi, Hopeakettu) from 29 June to 17 November 1941, was a joint German–Finnish military operation during the Continuation War on the Eastern Front of World War II against the Soviet Union. The objectiv ...

(''Silver Fox''). The Army was evacuated from Norway in 1945 as part of the Operation ''Uberbirkhahn''.

Commanders

Commander-in-Chief

Assets

German Army of Norway ( Falkenhorst) * From January 1941: ** XXXIII Corps ** XXXVI Corps ** Gebirgskorps Norwegen * From July 1941: (during

) ** XXXIII Corps ** XXXVI Corps ** LXX Corps ** Gebirgskorps Norwegen * From September 1941: ** XXXIII Corps ** XXXVI Corps ** LXX Corps ** Gebirgskorps Norwegen ** Finnish III Corps * From March 1942: (after creation of German Twentieth Mountain Army) ** XXXIII Corps ** LXX Corps ** LXXI Corps

References

A N Norway in World War II Military units and formations established in 1940 Military units and formations disestablished in 1944 {{Germany-WWII-stub