Furthermore, on 13 March the Defendant Jodl recorded in his diary:
“Führer does not give order yet for ‘W’ (Weser Exercise). He is still looking for an excuse.” (Justification?)
On 14 March 1940 he again wrote: “Führer has not yet decided what reason to give for ‘Weser Exercise’”. On 21 March 1940 he recorded the misgivings of Task Force XXI about the long interval between taking up readiness positions and the close of the diplomatic negotiations, and added:
“Führer rejects any earlier negotiations, as otherwise calls for help go out to England and America. If resistance is put up it must be ruthlessly broken.”
On 2 April he records that all the preparations are completed; on 4 April the Naval Operational Order was issued; and on 9 April, the invasion was begun.
From all this it is clear that when the plans for an attack on Norway were being made, they were not made for the purpose of forestalling an imminent Allied landing, but, at the most, that they might prevent an Allied occupation at some future date.
When the final orders for the German invasion of Norway were given, the diary of the Naval Operations Staff for 23 March 1940 records: “A mass encroachment by the English into Norwegian territorial waters . . . is not to be expected at the present time.”
And Admiral Assmann’s entry for 26 March says: “British landing in Norway not considered serious.”
Documents which were subsequently captured by the Germans are relied on to show that the Allied plan to occupy harbors and airports in Western Norway was a definite plan, although in all points considerably behind the German plans under which the invasion was actually carried out. These documents indicate that an altered plan had been finally agreed upon on 20 March 1940, that a convoy should leave England on 5 April, and that mining in Norwegian waters would begin the same day; and that on 5 April the sailing time had been postponed until 8 April. But these plans were not the cause of the German invasion of Norway. Norway was occupied by Germany to afford her bases from which a more effective attack on England and France might be made, pursuant to plans prepared long in advance of the Allied plans which are now relied on to support the argument of self-defense.
It was further argued that Germany alone could decide, in accordance with the reservations made by many of the Signatory Powers at the time of the conclusion of the Kellogg-Briand Pact, whether preventive action was a necessity, and that in making her decision her judgment was conclusive. But whether action taken under the claim of self-defense was in fact aggressive or defensive must ultimately be subject to investigation and adjudication if international law is ever to be enforced.