Norway 1940 by James S. Corum & Graham Turner

Author:James S. Corum & Graham Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472847447
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2021-03-09T00:00:00+00:00

Blenheim I bomber. The Blenheim, with a three-man crew, entered service in 1937 as a light bomber. For the time, it was fairly fast (265mph max speed) but carried only a 500kg bombload and two machine guns. The lack of a de-icing system made the Blenheim ineffective in operations over the North Sea. It was obsolete as a bomber in 1940 but served effectively as a night fighter in 1941 and 1942. (Popperfoto via Getty Images)

By 11 April, Admiral Forbes’ task force of three battleships, three heavy cruisers, and 18 destroyers had finally joined with the carrier Furious, which, lacking its Skua fighters, carried only its Swordfish torpedo-bomber squadrons. Forbes set course for Trondheim and at 0400 launched the Furious’s 18 Swordfish torpedo-bomber biplanes. Unlike the raid at Bergen, the British air raid on Trondheim was a complete failure. The best target, the German cruiser Admiral Hipper, had already left Trondheim with one destroyer on 10 April to return to Germany, but their absence and movement had been missed by Home Fleet reconnaissance. However, there were still three German destroyers in Trondheim harbour and the Swordfish attacked them. All the torpedo attacks failed, owing to the shallow depth of the harbour.

On 11 April Bomber Command made its first raid against German forces in Norway by sending six Wellington bombers and two Blenheim light bombers to strike the Germans at Værnes airfield near Trondheim. Værnes was essentially inoperable due to heavy rainfall and resulting slush. So, the first raid by the RAF Bomber Command did little damage.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.