Norway 1940 [Hardcover]

Joseph Kynoch (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2005

Almost two-thousand British soldiers landed in Norway during the evening of April 18th, 1940. On May 2nd, one hundred and sixty three men were rescued by the Royal Navy from one of the most ill-planned operations of World War II. Joseph Kynoch is one of the few soldiers who can still remember the campaign that first brought British troops into battle with Hitler's new army - an army blooded on the battlefields of Poland and well equipped with the most modern weaponry and supported by highly effective air cover. The North-west Expeditionary Force (Codename Sickleforce) was 1,000 men short when it set sail in two coasters for the 500 mile crossing of the North Sea. Two battalions set forth, Leicesters and Sherwood Foresters, and on landing they found much of their equipment had been misdirected or lost. The German Army Group 'Pellengahr' was already established in Southern Norway, the western coastal towns and Trondheim in the North. When the British landed the Germans were already marching north to meet them, pushing the Norwegian Army backwards. These were the first British troops to understand the word Blitzkrieg, but the British Expeditionary Force in France would suffer the same fate, albeit on a larger scale - and the town of Dunkirk would take on a new significance.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph Kynoch was called up in 1939 into the 2/5 Battalion of the Royal Leicester Regiment. After taking part in the Norwegian Campaign, he retrained as a vehicle mechanic and served in REME until 1945, with the 14th Army in India and Assam.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: The Crowood Press; 1st edition (April 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840373806
• ISBN-13: 978-1840373806
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,775,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poignant Remembrance of Britain's First Ground Fighting in World War II, June 5, 2009

By 

Jonathan Lupton (Little Rock , AR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Norway 1940 (Hardcover)

This book chronicles the ground fighting in central Norway by British forces from mid-April to early May 1940. It does this through the author's own recollections, as well as from diary entries and personal accounts from dozens of British eyewitnesses. It has a wealth of useful maps, and some decent photo images.

I recommend this book only if you already have solid knowledge of the Norway campaign, and are willing to slog through text of widely varying quality. At times the narrative jumps around, and it can be difficult to separate Mr. Kynoch's eyewitness observations from the general narrative and accounts from different observers. There are numerous small errors. For example, the caption of a photo on p. x refers to "Cruiser HMS Sheffield" when the vessel is a cruiser of the smaller Arethusa class. The image p. 151 really is the Sheffield. On p. 148, an eyewitness account from a sailor aboard the cruiser Birmingham suddenly becomes the author's own account, without a proper change in pattern to indicate the shift in perspective.

Don't let these flaws fool you though. This book is a gem of information, and is in places an exciting, compelling read. British infantry fought panzers with near-worthless Boys antitank rifles and log roadblocks - the 148 Brigade had no artillery and not a single true antitank gun. The men were out of supply, literally starving, as they fought the disastrous delaying action at Tretten. 148 Brigade was made up of under-trained and inexperienced troops, but they fought well considering their lack of equipment, lack of bullets, and want of simple food.

The book gives a good summary of what went wrong with Britain's tentative incursion in central Norway. Ships risked air attacks and U-boats to deliver 4-inch shells that were useless for the army's 3.7-inch AA guns. Soldiers learned not to fire their Bren guns at aircraft because the tracer ammunition with which they had been erroneously supplied gave away their position. There was nowhere to dig in with the ground frozen and waist-deep snow all around. The British had nobody who spoke Norwegian, and precious few Norwegians spoke English. The two armies co-existed rather than fighting together.

Mr. Kynoch has done a service to history by recording his and others' accounts of a campaign that has been little chronicled and mostly forgotten. Anyone who doubts the importance of logistics and planning in war should be required to read this sad, humorous, and memorable account.