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Military unit
Army Norway
(
Armeeoberkommando Norwegen
, abbreviated
AOK Norwegen
) was a German army operating in
Norway
and
Finland
during
World War II
. It was one of the two army
echelon
headquarters
controlling German troops in the far north. Army Norway was directly subordinate to
OKH
, the high command headquarters of the
Wehrmacht
. 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 tasks and assets taken over by the
20th Mountain Army
.
As of 15 January 1941, the actual strength (
Iststarke
) of Army Norway was 129,759 personnel in total.
[1]
Operations
[
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]
On 27 June 1941, shortly after the beginning of
Operation Barbarossa
(22 June), Army Norway consisted of
XXXVI Command
(SS Kampfgruppe Nord,
169th Division
),
Mountain Corps Norway
(
2nd Mountain Division
,
3rd Mountain Division
,
199th Division
,
702nd Division
),
XXXIII Command
(
181st Division
,
196th Division
) and
LXX Command
(
69th Division
,
163rd Division
,
214th Division
).
[2]
A Headquarter Detachment of Army Norway took part in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. In talks between
Finnish
and German staffs in
Helsinki
in June 1941, the Germans were given military responsibility over northern Finland; Army Norway was to take
Murmansk
and the
Murmansk railway
. The plan was codenamed
Operation Silberfuchs
(
Silver Fox
). In January 1942 this HQ detachment became Army Lapland and was responsible for all German forces in Finland. In June 1942 it was renamed 20th Mountain Army.
Commanders
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]
Commander-in-Chief
[
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]
No.
|
Portrait
|
Commander
|
Took office
|
Left office
|
Time in office
|
1
| | Generaloberst
Nikolaus von Falkenhorst
(1885?1968)
| 19 December 1940
| 18 December 1944
| 4 years, 0 days
|
Assets
[
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]
German Army of Norway
(
Falkenhorst
)
See also
[
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]
References
[
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]
- ^
A.O.K. Norwegen, IIa. Abschrift fur Kriegstagebuch. Iststarke nach dem Stande vom 15 Januar 1941. Bundesarchiv-Militararchiv (BA-MA) RW 39/14, fol. 189.
- ^
Schramm, Percy E., ed. (2005).
Kriegstagebuch des OKW: 1940?1941, Teilband 2
. Augsburg: Verlagsgruppe Weltbild GmbH. p. 1137.
ISBN
3828905250
.