In the early morning of 9 April 1940 (Wesertag, “Weser Day”), Germany occupied Denmark and invaded Norway, ostensibly as a preventive manoeuvre against a planned, and openly discussed, French-British occupation of Norway known as Plan R 4 (actually developed as a response to any German aggression against Norway).

On the pretext that Norway needed protection from British and French interference, Germany invaded Norway for several reasons: strategically, to secure ice-free harbors from which its naval forces could seek to control the North Atlantic; to pre-empt a British and French invasion with the same purpose; and.

The attack on Denmark was part of Operation Weserübung Süd, Germany’s plan for the invasion of Norway. Its main purpose was to secure the iron ore that shipped from Narvik. To capture Norway, the Germans had to control the port outside Aalborg in northern Jutland.

62 days

With the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, Norway again declared itself neutral. On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded the country and quickly occupied Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. After three weeks the war was abandoned in southern Norway.

During World War II, the Spanish State under Francisco Franco espoused neutrality as its official wartime policy. This neutrality wavered at times and “strict neutrality” gave way to “non-belligerence” after the Fall of France in June 1940.

Even famously neutral Switzerland was involved in wars before the twentieth century. But Greenland, which has indeed never fought a war (though Denmark has had a military presence in the country).

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