Churchill -- obsessed with Norway

What would have happened if Churchill had got what he wanted? 120,000 soldiers, 300 aircraft, 100 warships, as well as huge aircraft carriers made of ice (!) which were impossible for German submarines to sink — all set against the coast of northern Norway.

Winston Churchill was obsessed with Norway during World War II. He wanted to intervene militarily against the German ore traffic from Narvik, and he insisted on a large-scale D-Day against the Norwegian coast: “Operation Jupiter”.“Mad plans!”, his military advisers replied, sabotaging the British Prime Minister’s wishes. But Churchill did not give up and demanded to see constantly new plans for a large-scale invasion of Norway.

An important reason why Churchill wanted to invade Norway – or another flank in Europe such as Turkey or the Aegean Sea – was that right up until February 1944 he was extremely skeptical of D-Day. The Americans wanted to go straight across the Channel, and got their way, but Churchill feared that the front would freeze in Normandy, like in World War One.

Asbjørn Jaklin has found startling sources about “Operation Jupiter” and about the geopolitical drama that unfolded throughout the war.