The strategic cost of losing Norway

Germany's hold on Norway tied down substantial German resources, while the Allies spent resources contesting and monitoring the occupied country. A counterfactual considers the strategic options lost in 1940. An Allied Norway could have changed the Arctic convoys and the wider Battle of the Atlantic, offered a route through Denmark for a second front, and forced Germany into a serious northern campaign during the Battle of France. These are possibilities rather than claims about what would certainly have happened. Norwegian fish oil, iron ore, and other supplies were critical to the German war economy. Basing, routes, supply, and force diversion kept Norway strategically important long after the initial invasion.