Norway's aging destroyers left coastal ships exposed

For much of the interwar period Norway had only three destroyers, each described here as a 600-ton vessel with six 3-inch guns and three 18-inch torpedoes. British surplus ships and American Clemsons offered alternatives after the First World War. A reservist fleet could have acquired enough of these vessels to provide a useful reserve without maintaining a large active establishment. At Narvik, proper destroyers accompanying an Eidsvold-class coastal-defence ship would have complicated the German attack. German destroyers concentrating their torpedoes on the heavy ship would also have had to watch for attacks from its escorts.