The official account of the catastrophic May-June 1940 campaign which caused
the downfall of Neville Chamberlain and brought Winston Churchill to power.
Derry describes the rival British and German plans to occupy Norway, the source
of vital raw materials. He shows how Hitler, far from "missing the bus" in
Chamberlain's contemptuous phrase, struck first, invading by air and sea and
catching the British on the hop. Derry details the belated British response,
with amphibious operations and landings around Trondheim and Narvik in central
and northern Norway. Despite losing half their destroyers to the Royal Navy,
Germany's speedy occupation of the main population centres and the Luftwaffe's
command of the air, made her victory and a humiliating British withdrawal
inevitable. The author is unsparing in his analysis of the command and
intelligence failures behind Britain's first major military setback of the war,
which had such far-reaching political consequences. Reprint of the 1952 original
edition.
