One severe outcome has Hitler blaming the navy, curtailing the surface fleet, and perhaps leaving later capital ships unfinished. The losses include experienced admirals, captains, officers, and sailors as well as hulls, making personnel replacement part of the problem. The later analysis uses a more conservative branch in which some ships survive and construction continues, while stressing how much harder replacement building becomes without Swedish ore and Norwegian aluminium. Either branch releases Royal Navy capital ships from Home Waters and changes the balance available in the Mediterranean and Far East.
Notable Point · 1:03:20-1:08:59
Could a defeat in Norway end Germany's surface-fleet ambitions?
The loss of ships, trained officers, and Scandinavian material supplies could make Bismarck- and Tirpitz-era surface strategy far less viable.