Germany used coordinated land, sea and air power to invade Norway. Britain and France thought, wrongly, that reactive use of sea power and unsupported ill-prepared infantry would suffice to eject the invader. The book comprehensively traces the progress of the Norwegian Campaign with much use of participant accounts, many previously unpublished.

Ostensibly fought for control of Swedish iron ore to Germany, the campaign made an important but largely overlooked contribution to the conduct of the Second World War. It convincingly proved the supremacy of air power in modern warfare and, particularly, the vulnerability of land and sea forces to sustained undefended air assault. It was the first conflict in which one side, the German, used all three arms of their forces in integrated combined assault--Blitzkreig--and in which parachute and glider-borne troops were used to secure airfields and strategic targets. The Allies (Britain, France, Norway and Poland) in contrast tried to conduct the Campaign on land with inadequate air support and virtually the sole use of infantrymen. The book deals, in an integrated and comprehensive manner with the strategic and political imperatives, as well as operations, in a complex and rapidly changing two month campaign. While other books on the Campaign have tended to focus on a limited perspective such as naval operations, or on the higher levels of political decision making, without combatant or personal perspective, this book makes much use of contemporary writings and eye witness accounts, many previously unpublished, of the people actually involved in the Campaign.