After their invasion in Operation Weserübung, Hitler vowed that he would never again leave Norway,[1] and favored annexing Denmark as a German province even more due to its small size and relative closeness to Germany.[62] Himmler's hopes were an expansion of the project so that Iceland would also be included among the group of Germanic countries which would have to be gradually incorporated into the Reich.[62] He was also among the group of more esoteric National Socialists who believed either Iceland or Greenland to be the mystical land of Thule, a purported original homeland of the ancient Aryan race.[63] From a military point of view, the Kriegsmarine command hoped to see the Spitsbergen, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Isles and possibly the Shetland Isles (which were also claimed by the Quisling regime[64]) under its domination to guarantee German naval access to the mid-Atlantic.[65]