'In the past the German General Staff had taken no interest in the
military history of wars in the north and east of Europe. Nobody had
ever taken into account the possibility that some day German divisions
would have to fight and to winter in northern Karelia and on the
Murmansk coast.' (Lieutenant-General Waldemar Erfurth, German Army).
Despite this statement, the German Army's first campaign in the far
north was a great success: between April and June 1940 German forces
totaling less than 20,000 men seized Norway, a state of three million
people, for minimal losses. Hitler's Arctic War is a study of the
campaign waged by the Germans on the northern periphery of Europe
between 1940 and 1945.
As Hitler's Arctic War makes clear, the emphasis was on small-unit
actions, with soldiers carrying everything they needed - food,
ammunition and medical supplies - on their backs. The terrain placed
limitations on the use of tanks and heavy artillery, while lack of
airfields restricted the employment of aircraft.
Hitler's Arctic War also includes a chapter on the campaign fought by
Luftwaffe aircraft and Kriegsmarine ships and submarines against the
Allied convoys supplying the Soviet Union with aid. However, Wehrmacht
resources committed to Norway and Finland were ultimately an unnecessary
drain on the German war effort. Hitler's Arctic War is a groundbreaking
study of how war was waged in the far north and its effects on German
strategy.
