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That job they accomplished in four days, then were switched to East Prussia for the drive down the Narew, through a line of pillboxes, to Lomza. Falkenhorst & men smashed through in three days, surrounding and capturing the 18th Polish division at Ostrow. When the other armies had finished their jobs and Poland was crushed, Lieut. General von Falkenhorst was raised one last notch to General of Infantry.
Groundwork for a Nazi conquest of Norway was laid as long ago as 1931-33 when Major Vidkun Quisling, later a Hitler Stooge, became Norway's Defense Minister. Promotions and appointments made then by him were never unmade by later Ministers. For example, Colonel Bertram Sundlo, crony of the whilom German War Chief, General von Blomberg, was in command of the Narvik area when Blomberg in 1935 took a "yachting trip" through that key region's islands and fjords. Colonel Sundlo was still there last month, happy to receive the occupying forces sent up by General von Falkenhorst. But such preparation, together with the infiltration of "tourists" and "salesmen" and the return to Norway of German and Austrian refugees and orphans of World War I who, brought up in Norwegian homes, knew their way well around the country, was only standard practice by Hitler & Co. It has been applied to all countries that Hitler might some day want to absorb.
Specific planning and mounting of a Norse military drive was entrusted to General von Falkenhorst some time last autumn or winter. He went to work at ports in the Baltic removed as far as possible from the eyes of the Allied Intelligence. Russia's invasion of Finland afforded protective coloration for such reports of his activities as did leak out.
For troops he chose veterans of the Polish Blitzkrieg, men not only trained but fire-tested in the use of diversified arms and mechanized equipment. In the perpendicular Norse terrain with its narrow roads and sparse population, Falkenhorst knew he needed more armored cars and trucks than tanks, more speed and agility than sheer power. Motorcycle units, each carrying two men, were essential for reconnaissance and to traverse shaky bridges, mountain trails. Engineers to remove obstructions and repair communications were needed in force. With bombing planes preceding and supporting their advance, razing hamlets such as Rena (see cut, p. 25) which offered resistance, his first columns of occupation could travel light, supplementing their automatic rifles, hand grenades and machine guns with nothing heavier than trench mortars and light mountain artillery.
Practice in loading such an expedition aboard transports was carried out with care and German thoroughness, until each boatswain and quartermaster of the ships assigned knew exactly how to pack in his martial cargo and how to hoist it out instanter.