Operation Wilfred

E37576

Operation Wilfred was a British World War II naval operation in April 1940 aimed at mining Norwegian coastal waters to disrupt German access to Swedish iron ore, helping trigger the subsequent German invasion of Norway and battles such as Narvik.


Statements (44)
Predicate Object
instanceOf British military operation
World War II military operation
naval operation
affected Norwegian neutrality
alsoKnownAs Wilfred
belligerent United Kingdom
codename Operation Wilfred
conflict World War II
country United Kingdom
endDate 1940-04-08
executedBy Royal Navy
followedBy German invasion of Norway on 1940-04-09
Naval battles off Narvik
geopoliticalContext Allied efforts to weaken German war industry supply lines
historicalPeriod Second World War
influenced German decision to launch Operation Weserübung
legalStatus violation of Norwegian territorial waters
location Norwegian Sea
Norwegian coastal waters
waters off Norway
materialConcerned Swedish iron ore
militaryBranch Royal Navy
objective to disrupt German access to Swedish iron ore
to interfere with German maritime trade routes
to mine Norwegian coastal waters
to provoke a German reaction in Norway
opponent Nazi Germany
partOf Norwegian campaign
plannedBy British Admiralty
Royal Navy
precededBy Allied planning for intervention in Norway
reason to cut off Swedish iron ore shipments to Germany via Narvik
relatedTo Battles of Narvik
Norwegian campaign
Operation Weserübung
result German invasion of Norway
German naval response in Norwegian waters
escalation of the Norwegian campaign
routeTargeted Narvik–Germany iron ore route
startDate 1940-04-08
status completed
temporalLocation April 1940
theatre European theatre of World War II
typeOfAction offensive mine-laying operation

Referenced by (2)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Operation Wilfred
codename
Battle of Narvik
operation

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