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comprehensively traces the progress of the Norwegian Campaign with much use of participant accounts, many previously unpublished.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 Norwegian 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 Germans, 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. In contrast, the Allies tried to conduct the campaign on land, with an overreliance on infantrymen and inadequate air support. The book deals with the strategic and political imperatives in an integrated and comprehensive manner, 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 the higher levels of political decision making, with no combatant or personal perspective; this book makes much use of many previously unpublished contemporary writings and eyewitness accounts of the people actually involved in the Norwegian Campaign.