British strategy depended on preventing hostile access from Norway into the North Atlantic, a role demonstrated by strong Norwegian neutrality during the First World War. British officers discussed the danger of Norway falling, at one stage regarding a Soviet seizure as more likely than a German one. Clarke has found such discussions in officers' personal papers, but has not located a formal plan in the archives. The information already assembled for Britain's 1940 occupation proposals supports his inference that assessment and contingency work had been under way earlier. British interest in Norway's coast reflected its importance to the blockade and the danger that weaker Norwegian neutrality posed to that strategy.
Chapter · 57:31-59:24
Britain planned around the possibility that Norway would fall
British officers regarded Norway as vital to control of the North Atlantic and had considered its vulnerability before the formal 1940 occupation proposals appeared.