Norwegian resistance and the three battles of Narvik

Counting the Norwegian action first makes Narvik a sequence of three naval battles. Germany expected a straightforward victory with overwhelming force, but the Norwegian ships put up a harder fight than expected. The second battle became the high point of the German destroyer arm when it defeated the British H-class force. That success gave the force a sense that it had proved itself against the British. The third reversed that confidence when four Tribal-class destroyers, backed by HMS Warspite, arrived.