Narvik: Hitler's First Defeat — Norway
April–June 1940 — the Battle of Narvik. Germany seizes the iron ore port; Allied forces counterattack and briefly retake the city before withdrawing.
Narvik was the first land defeat Germany suffered in WWII. Allied forces retook the city on May 28, 1940 — but were forced to evacuate two weeks later when Dunkirk made Norway a sideshow. The battle cost Germany 10 destroyers — one-third of its entire destroyer fleet — crippling the Kriegsmarine for years.