UK and German troops combine in 1945 to fight Russians.?

Question

Talking to a retired Para who served under fire in WW II, he told me that after the German surrender, a combined British/German force was sent to Norway to await a suspected invasion from Russian troops. Of course we all know that this invasion never happened.

I do give some credence to his story as I was in the Parachute Regiment at the time that I met this old guy in the Regimental HQ.

I have never read or heard about this joint force. So could this have really happened, or just one of those "Old Soldier" tales.

Can anyone of you shed any light on the matter?

Answer 1

British and U.S troops routinely used both German and Japanese troops to maintain civil order in liberated places which had no law and order, and its not inconceiveable that they would have left German front line units in place however unlikely in the face of the Soviets.

The incident you mention is more likely to have happened during the Berlin siege in 1947 when it looked likely that the western allies would have to fight the Soviets.

Answer 2

At the end of WW2 there were already many German troops still in Norway, these units were among the last to surrender, they still had their weapons and armour and had seen very little action compared to the rest of the German forces in WW2.
These troops surrendered quite peaceably to the Allies in some cases holding on to stocks of weapons until the Allies could arrange for it to be collected and taken away.

Why would a joint British-German Force have been needed in Norway? if the Russians wanted to have occupied Finland & Sweden very little could have been done to stop them, youu have to remember the Russians were able to put more troops on the ground than the Allies.

Also if this happened, and I doubt it could have been done in secret (seeing there were many red sympathisers around at the time) Joe Stalin would not have stood idly by if any such British German Force was created, it probably would have alowed him to push further into Western Europe.

Answer 3

I doubt it. The Red Army had hundreds of divisions in 1945. The German army was broken and the British army (numerically) weak. Only the US army could have joined up with the German army to attack the Soviet Union. And they did not to save lives and because hitler was considered more evil than Stalin (which I personally disagree with).

It could have happened for defence purposes, like British troops seizing the Danish border to prevent that country from becoming communist

In response to DesertViking the Red Army had a legendary disregard for casualties, they didn't even need to seize Berlin they could have besieged it. And at Stalingrad they charged forwards partially unarmed towards German m-guns

Answer 4

while I doubt that this story is true, fact is that British troops were using Japanese forces in Burma (?) and Malayisia (?) to delay the independence tendencies of those nations after the WWII. THe British just came, took down the Japanese flag, flew the Union Jack and commanded former enemies against the locals.

Answer 5

The Russians have been thanked. look. i'm getting ill of this contemporary form to offload all this compliment on Russia. They have been mandatory allies, and with out them the warfare could have been misplaced. however the comparable would properly be suggested for any of the different important Allied powers. whilst Russia replaced into in touch interior the main important volume of direct wrestle they weren't triumphing on their own. with out the great quantities of tanks, airplane, vans, locomotives, and uncooked factors they won, they might have misplaced. Even then, they have been suffering such undesirable casualties they did no longer assume to win beforehand they ran out of adult adult males. it somewhat is why the invasion of Normandy is considered as a results of fact the ideal nail interior the German coffin. It replaced into mandatory for the U. S., uk and Canada to end off Germany, as a results of fact the Russians weren't particularly going to be waiting to tug it off, in spite of each and every of the help that they had won. I even have a great deal of comprehend for the Russians and the warfare attempt they put in. yet to assert they did it themselves is significantly fallacious and disrespectful to the contributions of the different Allies. by no ability equate casualties suffered with contribution. If that replaced into the case the jap ought to have gained interior the Pacific, as a results of fact they suffered the 2nd optimal casualties. The excessive casualties the Russians suffered is properly the clarification they pretty much misplaced, they have been easily dealing with manpower shortages if the warfare endured plenty longer. And the Russians did no longer help against Japan. They desperate to with out postpone grab some territory incredible on the top beforehand Japan surrendered.

Answer 6

I rather doubt it. It took Hitler's Wehrmacht 69 days to conquer tiny Norway. But, they also had to dedicate nearly a half-million occupation troops to keep order in Norway. Stalin's Red Army commanders knew that history and also knew that any Soviet move into the Land of the Midnight Sun would have resulted in a lot of Russian casualties.

Answer 7

It sounds totally unrealistic from a political point of view.