Iceland in World War II
Icelandic farm
When a modern person begins to think about World War II, Iceland is unlikely to come to his mind in the first place, whose significant role in World War II has not been as thoroughly analyzed and studied as the role of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition and the Axis powers.
But that doesn't mean Iceland's role in World War II is less interesting!
And the next vital question immediately arises - with which belligerent side was Iceland connected?
The answer may seem unexpected.
And I will try to explain this below.
Iceland's location in northern Europe
To this day, World War II remains the most destructive conflict in stories mankind, but Iceland remained unharmed, although many sailors and fishermen died.
It may seem surprising to many, but oddly enough, the war also had a positive impact on Iceland. And in this article I will try to take a closer look at the aftermath of World War II on this small island in the North Atlantic.
A bit of history
In 1874, after many years of Icelanders' aspirations for their independence, inspired by romantic, revolutionary and nationalist events in mainland Europe, these demands of the people were eventually met following the ratification of the Danish-Icelandic Union Act of 1918, and Denmark granted Iceland, albeit limited but still the ruling powers and the constitution.
Before falling under the rule of other states, Iceland was an independent territory inhabited by people of Norwegian descent and was ruled by a popular assembly called the Althingi (the earliest parliament in Europe). In 1262, a union was concluded between Iceland and Norway, and when Norway and Denmark formed an alliance in the XNUMXth century, Iceland became part of Denmark.
Years passed, and in 1918 the Act of Union was signed between Denmark and Iceland, and Iceland became an autonomous country, united with Denmark under the rule of one king. It was decided that Denmark would deal with Iceland's foreign policy and defense.
Both parliaments passed Danish-Icelandic federal law, according to which Iceland became an independent state in personal union with Denmark.
Iceland's economy before the war
Iceland by the beginning of World War II was still a remote and little-known territory with an almost barren volcanic land.
By 1940, the island was home to just over 120 people, who were mainly engaged in fishing and sheep breeding, and the surplus food was exported to Europe.
Icelandic fishermen with salmon
In the pre-war years, Iceland lagged significantly behind in modernization compared to the United States and the countries of Western Europe.
Most of the island's inhabitants still lived in turf houses and were directly dependent on the success of agriculture and fishing. Industrialization, on the other hand, began only at the beginning of the XNUMXth century, much later than in other European countries, which is not surprising, given that Iceland was an isolated island with a harsh northern climate and a small population.
In Iceland, May 11 is a holiday. Lokadagur is the last day of the fishing season in the southwest of Iceland. Traditionally it is celebrated by sailors
During the First World War, when world trade was significantly disrupted, Iceland became even more isolated, which led to a serious decrease in the standard of living of the island's population. There was a severe food shortage, and even the fact that Great Britain actively intervened in Iceland's trade with the northern countries, buying food from them, did not help, in order to prevent Icelandic exports to warring Germany.
After the end of World War I, the Great Depression ensued, which hit Iceland hard as the value of its export products plummeted.
Thus, it is safe to say that Iceland was going through very difficult times in the years before the outbreak of World War II.
At the start of the war, Britain began to actively control Icelandic foreign trade, just as it had during World War I, preventing Icelandic goods from being sent to Germany.
British occupation of Iceland
The geographical location of Iceland is interesting, which is located just between the routes of sea communications linking Great Britain and the United States. And the landing of German troops on the island, and the transformation of Iceland into a German base fleetwould quickly put a belligerent Britain in a difficult position.
Here is how the British Prime Minister (then still the First Lord of the Admiralty) W. Churchill described the situation:
“Whoever owns Iceland is holding a pistol aimed at England, America and Canada. The islands of Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland are located between Canada and England. All of them are close to the shortest path, or "great circle", between Halifax and Scotland ... In Greenland, there were absolutely no necessary resources, but the other two islands could quickly be turned into good military bases. "
HMS Rodney off the coast of Iceland during an official visit before World War II
Even before the outbreak of World War II, Germany asked Iceland to provide an opportunity for the construction of an airfield in Reykjavik for the Luftwaffe to operate from there, but the Icelandic parliament refused this request from Germany.
On April 9, 1940, during the German invasion of Denmark, contacts between the countries were interrupted, and Iceland declares its neutrality.
It also imposes restrictions on ships and aircraft from all belligerent powers visiting the island. At the same time, the ships of the Axis countries - Germany and Italy - often take refuge in Icelandic ports from the pursuit of the British Navy.
The British government did not like Iceland's neutrality, and it offered the Icelandic government to "guarantee" its sovereignty. This required only a small legal procedure - to allow the deployment of British troops and naval bases on the island. Iceland, as in the case of the German demands, also categorically rejected this proposal.
The headache for Great Britain, which closely followed the events taking place on the island, was also caused by the small diplomatic staff of Germany, several German residents and displaced war refugees, as well as 62 German sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Iceland.
The British military feared from these German citizens in Iceland an organized guerrilla movement or even a military coup against the Icelandic government, which had at its disposal only about 70 police officers armed only with pistols.
And at that moment Germany from the coast of Norway occupied by her could quickly organize a military invasion of the island. The way to Iceland from sea or air would then be open for Germany.
Alexander George Montagu Cadogan, UK's permanent undersecretary for foreign affairs, gives a good overview of the atmosphere in government in his diary:
“We plan to conquer Iceland next week. But it will probably be too late! "
Alexander Cadogan
One of the letters of Rear Admiral Walter Ansel contains a short description that summarizes the peculiar sentiments that existed both in Berlin and London in 1940:
"The Germans thought they could take anything, and the British thought that anything could happen."
Although this quote is very simplistic, it explains to some extent why the German high command believed that Hitler's plan was feasible ...
Walter Ansel
After several unsuccessful attempts, and failing to convince the Icelandic government by diplomatic means to join the Allies, on May 10, 1940, 746 British Marines led by Colonel Robert Grice Sturges invaded Iceland (Operation Fork) ...
The Icelanders simply had nothing to resist the British landing.
This is confirmed by the words of General George Lammy:
“A few shells or mortar rounds would be enough to raze everything here. Considering the strong winds that blow all year round, incendiary winds alone will suffice - the fire will spread quickly. "
Robert Sturges
The fact of the landing of British troops is also interesting.
Two Royal Navy destroyers, HMS Fearless and HMS Fortune, joined the British cruisers and brought the Marines to the Icelandic coast.
A curious crowd gathered at the marina, and the British Consul in Iceland, Gerald Shepherd, asked an Icelandic policeman standing in front of the astonished crowd:
"Could you please force the assembled crowd to move back a bit so that the soldiers can descend from the destroyer?"
Destroyer HMS Fearless
The officer obeyed.
Destroyer HMS Fortune
The Icelandic capital was taken without a shot being fired, with no casualties at all - with the exception of one suicide committed by a British Marine aboard the ship. The British quickly occupied all more or less important objects on the island and along the way arrested all German citizens who were at that time in Iceland.
Reykjavik
Although the Icelandic government made an official protest and maintained its neutrality, the British occupation was nonetheless tacitly accepted. Icelandic Prime Minister Hermann Jonasson called Great Britain a "friendly nation" and asked his people
"To treat British soldiers as guests and therefore to show them, as to all other guests, all the courtesy."
Hermann Jounnsson
After the British invasion, Iceland was divided into five administrative sectors, and the British government presented the leadership of the occupied island with a fait accompli.
Winston Churchill then cynically declared:
“With the consent of the Icelandic people, we occupied Iceland in 1940, when the Germans invaded Denmark. Now we could use it to fight German submarines and in April 1941 we organized bases there for our escort ships and aviation».
The Walrus aircraft that took part in the British invasion of Iceland in 1940
Immediately, construction began on the occupied island of airfields (including what would become Reykjavik's international airport), harbors, roads and other facilities.
Amazing in its northern beauty, the Hvalfjordur Fjord has become the naval base of the British Navy for merchant escorts and anti-submarine forces, with extensive facilities including a mine depot, pier and quays, living quarters, a fresh water system, an ammunition depot, a fleet bakery, and a bulk storage depot. cargo, recreation centers, direction finding station and fuel storage base.
Royal Cannon over Reykjavik Bay in Iceland, 1940
By 17 May, the number of British troops in Iceland reached 4, and by the end of 000, 1940.
British soldiers on the streets of Reykjavik
In connection with the Nazi occupation of Denmark, in March 1941, the Icelandic parliament decided to elect a regent for a period of one year, who should act as the head of the country and exercise royal powers temporarily assumed by the government.
The Parliament of Iceland also decided, after the official annulment of the treaty of Union with Denmark, to proclaim a republic in Iceland, and on June 17, 1941, the powers of the Danish king were entrusted to the regent elected by the parliament, who became Svein Björnsson, who had previously been envoy to Denmark.
Svein Björnsson
In June 1940, after the surrender of France, keeping Iceland under its control became even more important for Great Britain.
It was very important for Great Britain that she had at least one free route across the North Atlantic, and failure to do so would surely lead her to either starvation or military defeat.
British occupation of Iceland. May 8, 1940
Already in August 1941, allied convoys began to form in Hvalfjord to travel to the northern Soviet ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk.
And on August 21, the 1st Allied convoy (sometimes called PQ-0) with strategic cargoes, consisting of seven ships, sent to the USSR under the code name "Dervish" and was not detected by German aerial reconnaissance, this convoy arrived without loss to the port of Arkhangelsk on August 31, 1941.
First Arctic convoy of the British merchant fleet
This first British convoy delivered to the port strategically important raw materials - 10 tons of rubber, 000 tons of uniform boots, tin, wool, inventory and equipment, military equipment - 1 depth charges and magnetic mines, 500 Hurricane fighters disassembled, and one support vessel, Aldersdale, fully loaded with fuel.
Famous photograph dated May 10, 1940. British soldiers on Kirkjuströti street in Reykjavik and curious
Icelandic sailors were also included in the crews of the transport ships.
Armed soldiers on the road to Thingvellir
In 1944, British Naval Intelligence built a group of five Marconi direction finding stations on the coast west of Reykjavik. The stations were part of a ring of similar groups around the North Atlantic to locate wireless transmissions from submarines.
American troops in Iceland
By agreement with the Icelandic government, on July 7, 1941, the protection of the island was transferred from Great Britain to the United States (still considered neutral by that time), and American troops replaced the British.
British soldiers surrounded by Icelandic children
Here is what Walter Schellenberg writes in his post-war memoirs, who just a week ago became the head of German foreign policy intelligence:
“... In the meantime, I had to go through the first setbacks. The most difficult and dangerous of these was the occupation of Iceland by the Americans in the summer of 1941. Canaris could not get at all any information about the upcoming action. I sent up a Danish message, which, however, could not be considered too reliable. It lay on Himmler's desk, and Hitler first learned about the incident from foreign newspapers, and even then, with a delay. "
Winston Churchill visiting the American Marines in Iceland, August 16, 1941
Iceland's strategic position along the sea routes in the North Atlantic was ideal for air and naval bases and gave the island a new strategic importance.
At the time, the 40 American soldiers stationed in Iceland outnumbered all adult men in Iceland (remember, Iceland's population at the time was about 000). The United States and Iceland enter into an agreement providing for the withdrawal of these troops after the war, and most of the British occupying forces leave the island.
Reykjavik
At the same time, the presence of US troops on the island provides Icelanders with jobs and significantly increases their level of well-being.
Army of Iceland
Iceland, as a self-governing part of the Danish kingdom, relied on Denmark for its protection.
But since Denmark itself did not have significant military strength, this meant that Iceland could hardly rely on Denmark for its defense, and this country itself could not afford to create a military force worthy of any credibility.
Before the Nazis came to power in Germany, there was no real threat to Iceland's security at all, and the Icelandic army itself consisted of 300 poorly armed reservists and did not have any active duty soldiers at all.
This made it the smallest and least armed army in World War II.
The pier of the British ship service base in Hvalfjordur
During the war, German drifting mines became a serious problem for both the Icelanders and the Allied forces.
And to help deal with this problem, already the first Icelandic Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) personnel were trained in 1942 by the British Royal Navy. British troops also supplied the Icelandic Coast Guard weapon and ammunition, as well as depth charges against Axis submarines.
During the war, German submarines damaged and sank several Icelandic ships. Iceland's dependence on sea supplies for food and trade has resulted in significant loss of life.
Abandoned British ship service base in Hvalfjordur
Final withdrawal of troops
In 1945, the last Royal Navy forces were withdrawn from Iceland, and in March 1947, the last Royal Air Force pilots left.
Some American troops stayed behind after the end of the war, even despite the provisions of their invitation, and in 1946 an agreement was signed to grant the United States the use of all military facilities on the island.
The last American soldier left Iceland on September 30, 2006 ...
Former US and UK base during World War II
Germanic views of Iceland
Nazi Germany began to maintain contacts with Iceland as early as 1933, from the very moment when Hitler came to power in Germany, and the British government considered such contacts alarming for its safety.
The Reich's favor began with a friendly competition between German and Icelandic football teams and free training in the basics of gliding by German specialists who arrived on the island in the summer of 1938 by gliders and airplanes, which, according to the British, was ideal for drawing topographic maps and finding suitable landing sites. ...
Cruiser "Emden"
Suspicious groups of German historians, archaeologists and anthropologists also arrived on the island to survey the island and study the northern race, and Lufthansa was in talks with the Icelandic government, tried to initiate favorable aviation agreements and establish air links between Iceland and Germany, but, however, unsuccessfully.
Submarines repeatedly visited Reykjavik, and the cruiser Emden even made a friendly visit to the island, where the cruiser's sailors marched through the whole of Reykjavik, singing Nazi songs. Commercial trade between the two countries has also increased sharply.
In 1934, the Icelandic National Party was formed in Iceland, which copied the patterns of German National Socialism. It consisted of about five hundred people, mainly youth and students (in 1944, this party announced its self-dissolution).
Icelandic National Party March
Sir Hugh Gurney, the British envoy to Denmark, noted in his reports the alarming growth of fascist philosophy and outright Nazism:
“The conditions here are strange. On May 1, Icelandic Hitler fans marched through the city with banners and an orchestra in the largest procession I have ever seen here. If war breaks out, Germany can take this island with a small population, because there is no force there that can resist these determined young people, and, as far as I can tell, nothing will prevent the German consul from even equipping these troops. "
Hugh Gurney, British Ambassador to Denmark
Nazi-backed corporate agents assisting Iceland's National Party were specifically targeted to lobby for the construction of a German base on the island to serve as a staging post for the transatlantic route between Germany and the United States. All such requests were rejected by the Icelandic government, but Germany could no longer be contained.
Heinrich Himmler, one of the architects of the Holocaust and the head of the SS, especially admired Iceland - he considered Iceland a true model of Aryan supremacy after reading reports that all of its citizens had blonde hair and light eyes. Himmler believed that Iceland's anthropologically homogeneous population would serve as a source of nutrition for the millennial Reich, where a German empire of only Germanic peoples would rule the planet for millennia.
Ancient Germanic history and Old Norse sagas also influenced Himmler's particular interest in Iceland. Mythical figures such as Odin and Thor represented the strength and power that Himmler especially valued, and the violent stories of the Icelandic Vikings were supposed to fuel the bloodlust of the German Nazis.
Nazi operations in Iceland
After the invasions of Norway and Denmark in the spring of 1940, Hitler focused his attention on the capture of strategically valuable Iceland. Himmler and Hitler agreed that the island would be the ideal location for a North Atlantic fortress ...
Himmler sent Nazi Party fanatic Werner Gerlach (German consul in Iceland) to organize covert operations in Reykjavik in early 1940.
Gerlach's goal was to gain support for the Nazi cause among the population of Iceland and to induce powerful Icelanders to join the Nazis in pursuit of racial purity and domination of inferior peoples with a further aim of the possible capture of the island by Germany.
Werner Gerlach
Gerlach failed his mission miserably.
He found no friends among the inhabitants of Iceland. Not only did he fail to secure support for his cause, but the Icelandic people openly ridiculed Hitler and Nazi ideals. Gerlach kept personal notes expressing disappointment that the population of Iceland did not in the least resemble the physical ideals of the Aryan race, so colorfully described by the Nazis.
This could never have been the birthplace of the millennial Reich. All these of his reports were kept in Gerlach's personal papers, as he feared that Himmler's disappointment with the Icelanders would lead to his own political and financial losses.
Here are some quotes from his memoirs.
“It is nothing but arrogance when these 117 souls, one third of whom are degenerate weaklings, want to be an independent state. Add to this that the cultural level is not as high as they say. "
“Icelanders are a big disappointment. Raising children is a pitiful thing. Schools are out of bounds. The only school that is considered remotely acceptable is the Catholic school. In others, children learn only to argue. Lack of discipline. The educational director is a communist. Young people no longer know the sagas, Icelandic history, family or race. "
“We need to completely reconsider our position on Iceland. We need scientists to do their best, but otherwise, this humiliation, in which there is nothing good, must stop. Modern Icelanders do not deserve us either by their temperament or by their importance, with the exception of a few. "
“Before ten in the morning nobody can be woken up, and women not earlier than 12. Men work irregularly. Unemployment. Men do not use their energy for work, but in order not to go to the dogs. Everything that is not important to us becomes a goal for them (swimming, table tennis). Not all Germans who stayed here for a long time, or not all, or apathetic and stupid. "
“The musical life here is at a very low level. There are one or two good artists, but a lot of pretense and junk. Sculpture - Einar Jonsson is half-crazy, but very Icelandic. Then there is Asmundur Jonsson, who is called a cosmopolitan. Obviously Jewish degenerate art. A book has been published about him. "
“The views on Jews are completely incomprehensible. When discussing Jewish issues, the comrades asked an Icelandic student: "Would you marry a Jewish woman?" And he replied: "Yes, why not?" Even the director of the national museum has an ashtray with a picture of a black man in a red coat. "
"Constant inconvenience day and night from crazy or drunk men - or both."
His notes on Icelanders survived and are now kept in the National Archives of Iceland.
Werner Gerlach was released as a prisoner of war in 1941 as a result of an exchange of Allied diplomats. He died in 1963.
Gerlach tried to burn all his personal and official files as soon as he learned of the invasion, but was arrested. It was these notes of his that later helped historians understand the strategic and ideological nature of the Nazi obsession with Iceland.
Iceland's economy during the war
The occupation of Iceland by Great Britain, and then the United States, gave an incredible impetus to the development of the island economy, which was severely undermined by the Great Depression.
For many Icelanders, World War II is actually known as the "Blessed War," where the presence of foreign military forces created significant employment opportunities, dramatically expanded the island's infrastructure and introduced the latest technology to industry and agriculture.
Reykjavik airport
With only dirt roads and no airports on the island, Allied forces built paved roads and airports, including the largest and most important in Iceland today, Keflavik International Airport, 50 kilometers from Reykjavik.
Iceland also sold large quantities of fish to Great Britain, despite the Nazi German embargo on Iceland and the risk of German submarine attacks.
Reykjavik airport
The occupation of the island had a huge impact on the then 120 inhabitants of Iceland - Allied soldiers flooded the restaurants and cafes of Reykjavik, and the retail and service sectors took off.
"Situation". Women
Foreign soldiers in Iceland made a big impression on the provincial Icelanders and brought with them exciting new things hitherto unknown on the island, such as chewing gum, rock music and television, however, at the height of the occupation of Iceland by American troops, the number of soldiers on the island outnumbered all men. the population of Iceland, which caused particular concern among the patriarchal population, which, especially the older generation, did not like the friendship and relationship between young Icelandic women (future mothers of Iceland) and American soldiers.
American soldier with Icelandic girl
This phenomenon even got its own name - "condition" or "situation", and the women involved were often called prostitutes or traitors.
In order to "protect" Icelandic women, on behalf of the government, the Icelandic Minister of Justice actually appointed a special committee to deal with this issue (but apparently without much success). This committee interrogated and punished women who were associated with the soldiers, sending them to forced labor in the countryside.
American soldier with Icelandic girl
In 1942, two special institutions were even opened in Iceland to accommodate the so-called. “Corrupt” women, where young women were in inhuman conditions, including solitary confinement, but both closed the following year, as it became clear that in most cases, love relationships were between adults and by mutual consent.
But the Icelandic government has not only punished women.
In order to save the so-called. A "homogeneous national body", it introduced a secret ban on the stationing of black American military personnel in Iceland.
The Icelandic government believed that girls' relationship with white soldiers was bad, but their relationship with black soldiers was considered an unforgivable crime.
This ban was only changed in 1959.
Conclusions
Great Britain outplayed Germany with its invasion of Iceland.
Nazi invasion was averted, sea lanes were protected, and a base for Allied operations against the Axis powers was established.
The Allied tactical control of Iceland was an important turning point in the war, and Iceland itself remained intact compared to most other European countries during World War II and did not participate in hostilities, with the exception of about 200 Icelandic sailors who died at sea as victims of Nazi attacks. submarines.
During the entire period of World War II, about 900 US and British servicemen died from the actions of the German Luftwaffe and submarines in Iceland's territorial waters.
The British and American occupation, as mentioned above, ended unemployment on the island and helped to cope with the Great Depression in Iceland. Roads, housing and other infrastructure were built, such as the Reykjavik airport.
In addition, after the war, Iceland received a huge grant under the Marshall Plan, which was used to further modernize the country through the construction of dams, water intakes and irrigation systems.
In 1952, the island's first cement plant was opened, allowing the production of cheap concrete buildings.
And, undoubtedly, this war was for the Icelanders a turning point in the economy and culture.
Finally...
In 2000, Iceland's leading history magazine, History (Saga), published a series of articles on XNUMXth century Icelandic history. The editors asked a number of scholars to study how different periods and areas of Icelandic history were studied in academic and popular history literature.
The limited attention given by Icelandic specialists to World War II and its role in Icelandic history is immediately striking.
As a matter of fact, the history of the war is hardly mentioned, with the exception of an article on Icelandic foreign policy and its relationship with the outside world.
But this does not mean that the Second World War was ignored in Icelandic historical literature - it was described in numerous popular works and historical reviews of the twentieth century.
Information