Nieuport 161 - A Stronger French Air Force in May 1940

Thanks to 575, a Christmas tale 

LN 161 - Norway

April 9, 1940 - Operation Weserrübung
The invasion of Denmark and Norway went perfectly except in three points:
- The loss of the Blücher delayed the capture of Oslo and allowed the government, the king and the parliament to escape capture, the resistance was decided;
- At Narvik, the loss of the supply tankers blocked the German destroyers;
- In the air, the Norwegian Curtiss Hawk 75A inflicted significant losses on the Ju 52s carrying paratroopers to Oslo Fornebu airport.

Of the 24 Hawk 75A received a few weeks earlier (1), 21 were operational at Rygge, at the entrance to the Oslo fjord. Warned by the echoes of the fight between the fortress of Oscarsborg and the Blücher, a dozen pilots were able to take to the air at daybreak, while the airfield was being approached by He 111s that had come to bomb it. Without escort, two German bombers were destroyed and little damage was inflicted on the airfield, although two Hawks were destroyed on the ground.

Shortly afterwards, the first waves of Ju 52s bound for Oslo Fornebu were intercepted and seven of them went down. The slow reaction of the Norwegian army did not prevent the Fallschirmjäger from taking the field. But the Norwegian fighters shot down or destroyed several Ju 52 on the ground, prohibiting its use from the middle of the day.

The retreat
The next day, the Bf 110s, now based in Denmark, escorted the bombers and the Rygge airfield became untenable. The Curtiss were evacuated to Gardermoen, north of Oslo. Three days later, faced with the German advance and the threat of the first aircraft based at Fornebu, a new retreat was decided. All the airfields up to Tondheim being occupied or under German fire, the 17 remaining Hawks flew to Rinnleiret, 65 km NE of Trondheim, while the Gladiators equipped with skis operated from Vangsmjøse, a frozen lake 175 km NW of Oslo. However, the proximity of the fjord made them fear a naval intervention and a new move was decided towards Hattfjelldal, 200 km further north, as soon as the ground had been cleared of the snow that still covered it, which was done on the 25th with the help of hundreds of civilian volunteers, as the airmen did not have the help of reindeer in transhumance (2). There will be only nine hunters left in flying condition.

From 17 April onwards, the Curtiss supported the defenders of the Hegra fortress, some ten kilometers from Værnes, making aerial bombardments inoperative. They also opposed with relative success the bombardment of Namsos, but the landed equipment, stored without any protection near the docks, was largely destroyed.

1) OTL, 19 Hawk 75s had been delivered and were being assembled at Kjeller, five being practically in flying condition but without armament and none had been taken into account by the Norwegian Army Aviation Service. Thirty-six others were on order. ITTL, as France didn't order Curtiss H-75, Norway would have received theirs earlier.

2) South of Trondheim, between Andalsnes and Dombåss, Lake Lesjaskog had been chosen as the site for the British Gladiators and snow removal had barely begun when three thousand reindeer appeared. The Lappish driver of the herd agreed, in exchange for a bottle of pure medicinal alcohol, to have the necessary surface trampled on, and within a few hours the field was ready... except that the gasoline was missing.