The Wehrmacht initially invaded Norway with just 40,000 troops, but by the summer of 1941, prior to the attack on the Soviet Union, their presence had grown to around 250,000. Following a rapid buildup, troop numbers averaged 350,000 from June 1942 onward. When the army retreated from Finland into Norway, the force peaked at 550,000. Even at the war’s end, 350,000 soldiers remained stationed in the country. However, the quality of ground troops declined as elite divisions were redeployed to other fronts.

The Wehrmacht found Norway’s infrastructure inadequate for its strategic needs and launched numerous construction projects. Coastal fortifications, harbours, airfields, roads, railway lines, and industrial facilities were built to strengthen their position. To complete these projects, the Wehrmacht relied on auxiliary forces like the Reichsarbeitsdienst and, crucially, the Organisation Todt.

The German Navy (Kriegsmarine) stationed U-boats and large battleships in Norway to defend against Allied invasions and counter enemy naval forces in northern waters. Key bases were located in Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik, with naval personnel also manning coastal batteries and anti-aircraft defences. However, the plan to construct Europe’s largest naval shipyard near Trondheim was never realized, and overall, the Nazis failed to fully exploit Norway’s strategic offensive potential.

With the exception of the 1940 campaign, land combat in Norway was limited. While the Navy and Air Force engaged in intensive offensive operations, the Army primarily became a stationary defence force. Regular combat troops were gradually reassigned to the Eastern Front and replaced by older, less experienced soldiers to maintain defensive operations.

Due to Nazi ideology, the Germans were more hesitant to integrate women into the armed forces compared to the Allies, despite severe manpower shortages. Nevertheless, thousands of women served not only in auxiliary units and militarized healthcare but also directly in the armed forces, primarily in roles such as switchboard operators, typists, plotters, and other administrative positions.

FIRST-CLASS OFFENSIVE BASE AND A DUMPING GROUND FOR SECOND-RATE FORCES

By occupying Denmark and Norway, Nazi Germany not only mitigated the threat of an Allied naval blockade but also secured an excellent base for naval and air operations in the northern seas and for extending its reach into the Atlantic. From 1941 onward, Norway also served as a critical staging ground for the war against the Soviet Union, particularly by threatening strategically vital Allied shipping routes to northern Russian ports.

Consequently, the Germans concentrated substantial naval, air, and land forces in Norway. The most powerful warships, including the battleships Tirpitz and Scharnhorst, along with entire submarine fleets—particularly the 11^th, 13^th, and 14^th U-boat Flotillas—operated from Norwegian ports. There was also an entire air force army, Luftflotte 5 in Norway, specialized in maritime reconnaissance, patrols, and anti-ship strikes. The northernmost tip of Norway served as the launching point for the ground attack on Murmansk, with the ground forces strike group—including elite mountain troops (Gebirgsjäger)—concentrated there.

But the price for gaining strategic advantages turned out to be high. German bases represented a serious danger to the Allies and therefore became the target of their attacks. Both the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe had to allocate considerable additional resources for defense – in addition to patrol-, torpedo- and anti-submarine boats, it was particularly a matter of numerous fighter planes and anti-aircraft artillery, which the Germans would otherwise urgently need on other fronts or in the defense of Germany itself.

The Germans also feared a direct ground invasion, as well as smaller diversionary raids. They therefore had to fortify the entire long Norwegian coast. Innumerable batteries of coastal artillery complemented a network of infantry defenses, obstacles, observation- and guard posts. For this, all logistics were necessary – barracks, warehouses, shelters, command- and signal nests, all connected by a transport network. Thus, in addition to offensive means, Norway also absorbed very numerous defensive forces.

However, not all the forces were of the top quality. This was especially true in the case of ground troops. First-line combat units were needed on other fronts. For the planned positional defense of the coast and for the occupation service, on the other hand, second-rate units, poorly armed, with only minimal engineer-, signal-, and transport support were sufficient.

The Germans called such divisions “static” (bodenständige). Older or physically weaker soldiers who were not suitable for frontline deployment served in them. To an increased extent, soldiers considered less reliable were also assigned to them, among them soldiers of non-German or ethnically unclear origin from the annexed territories. Often their share greatly exceeded the officially valid five percent limit.

The first two “static” divisions, the 702^nd and 710^th, were deployed from Germany to Norway as early as the spring of 1941. Others were formed directly in Norway based on various second-rate positional units such as fortress battalions and coastal artillery batteries. However, rather than functioning as true combat formations, these divisions primarily served as improvised administrative structures, including the 210^th, 230^th, and 270^th divisions in the northern part of the country, or the 174^th, 280^th, and 295^th divisions in the south.

Similar second-rate units intended for guard, rear and garrison service also existed in the navy and air force. Thus, not everyone in Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine uniform belonged to the Nazi military elite. The composition of the German armed forces in Norway was therefore very different. Locals could meet elite pilots, proud sailors, successful submariners, experienced mountain riflemen – mostly young, physically fit fighters steeped in Nazi ideology. On the other hand, during the war, they could also increasingly see older, tired and not very motivated men, many of whom served lukewarmly or only out of compulsion.

However, it is necessary to realize that the local residents were also confronted with non-military elements of the occupiers. Above all, it was the dreaded Gestapo and other police forces, directly focused on fighting the resistance. Furthermore, there was a large bureaucratic apparatus with which the Norwegians had to come into contact in many different matters. Members of the numerous paramilitary organizations and institutions building military infrastructure in Norway were a separate chapter. In them, German officials supervised thousands of foreign workers who expanded the already wide range of occupying forces, differing in numbers, quality, fighting ability and morale.

Either way, the occupier presence in Norway remained truly massive throughout the war. The occupiers were simply impossible to miss or avoid.