![Northland Color 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Northland_Color_1.jpg)
The Greenland Patrol was a
United States Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mu ...
operation during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. The patrol was formed to support the
U.S. Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...
building aerodrome facilities in
Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
for ferrying aircraft to the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
, and to defend Greenland with special attention to preventing German operations in the northeast.
[Tilley, pp.5&6] Coast Guard cutters were assisted by aircraft and dog sled teams patrolling the Greenland coast for
Axis
An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to:
Mathematics
* Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis
* Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...
military activities. The patrol escorted Allied shipping to and from Greenland, built navigation and communication facilities, and provided rescue and
weather ship
A weather ship, or ocean station vessel, was a ship stationed in the ocean for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting. They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans, reportin ...
services in the area from 1941 through 1945.
Background
Earth's atmospheric circulation pattern requires westerly meteorological observations for prediction of weather conditions to the east. Weather observation stations in Greenland improved the accuracy of
weather forecasting
Weather forecasting is the application of science and technology to predict the conditions of the atmosphere for a given location and time. People have attempted to predict the weather informally for millennia and formally since the 19th cent ...
for the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
and
northern Europe for tactical advantage in the
Battle of the Atlantic and
European theatre of World War II
The European theatre of World War II was one of the two main theatres of combat during World War II. It saw heavy fighting across Europe for almost six years, starting with Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 and ending with the ...
.
[Ruge (1957) pp.285-287] Greenland
Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland i ...
had been part of the
Danish colonial empire
, conventional_long_name = Danish overseas colonies
, status = Empire
, status_text =
, life_span = 1536–1953 (Denmark)1536–1814 (Norway)
, government_type = Constitutional monarchy
, even ...
since 1814. Greenland appeared relatively unprotected following
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
of
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark
, establish ...
on 9 April 1940. The
Allies of World War II
The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...
became concerned about the possibility of Axis military bases on Greenland.
[Willoughby (1957) pp.95&96] The
cryolite
Cryolite ( Na3 Al F6, sodium hexafluoroaluminate) is an uncommon mineral identified with the once-large deposit at Ivittuut on the west coast of Greenland, mined commercially until 1987.
History
Cryolite was first described in 1798 by Danish vete ...
mine at
Ivittuut
Ivittuut (formerly, Ivigtût) (Kalaallisut: "Grassy Place") is an abandoned mining town near Cape Desolation in southwestern Greenland, in the modern Sermersooq municipality on the ruins of the former Norse Middle Settlement.
Ivittuut is one o ...
was a strategically important source of flux for
electrolysis of
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
ores by the
Hall–Héroult process
The Hall–Héroult process is the major industrial process for smelting aluminium. It involves dissolving aluminium oxide (alumina) (obtained most often from bauxite, aluminium's chief ore, through the Bayer process) in molten cryolite, and el ...
for aircraft production.
[Tilley, p.2&3]
United States Coast Guard personnel had acquired extensive experience in the waters around Greenland as part of their
International Ice Patrol
The International Ice Patrol is an organization with the purpose of monitoring the presence of icebergs in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans and reporting their movements for safety purposes. It is operated by United States Coast Guard but is fun ...
duties since 1915. Following negotiations with the Danish Minister to Washington, the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
opened a consulate at
Nuuk
Nuuk (; da, Nuuk, formerly ) is the capital and largest city of Greenland, a constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the country's largest cultural and economic centre. The major cities from other coun ...
; and the transported the first American Consul to Ivittuut in May 1940. The United States then agreed to sell armaments to Greenland; and fourteen Coast Guardsmen were discharged to act as civilian armed guards protecting the cryolite mine with a gun offloaded from the .
[ conducted an air survey of Greenland's west coast in August 1940, while cruised along Greenland's east coast searching for evidence of European military activity and compiling information for publication of a '' Greenland Pilot''. ''Northland'' discovered three weather reporting stations being operated by Norwegians reporting conditions to Germany. The United States State Department reported the situation to British authorities who dispatched a Norwegian gunboat to arrest the Norwegians and close the weather stations.][Hussey] On 17 March 1941 USCGC '' Cayuga'' sailed from Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
with the South Greenland Survey Expedition to locate and recommend sites for airfields, seaplane bases, radio stations, meteorological stations, and aids to navigation. ''Northland'' relieved ''Cuyuga'' on 17 May 1941 to continue the survey expedition after ''Cuyuga'' was turned over to the Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
as HMS ''Totland''.[
The United States occupied Greenland on 9 April 1941 under the expansive doctrine adopted at the Havana Conference (1940). As the survey results became available, construction began on a radio and aerological station on ]Akia Island
Akia Island ( da, Langø) is an uninhabited island in Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. The name of the island means "''turned on its side''" in the Greenlandic language.
Geography
Akia Island is located in the outer belt of i ...
and airfields at Narsarsuaq
Narsarsuaq (lit. ''Great Plan'';''Facts and History of Narsarsuaq'', Narsarsuad Tourist Information old spelling: ''Narssarssuaq'') is a settlement in the Kujalleq municipality in southern Greenland. It had 123 inhabitants in 2020. There is a thri ...
and at Kipisako near Ivittuut.[ ]Narsarsuaq Air Base
Bluie West One, later known as Narsarsuaq Air Base and Narsarsuaq Airport, was built on a glacial moraine at what is now the village of Narsarsuaq, near the southern tip of Greenland. Construction by the United States Army began in June 1941. Th ...
was code-named Bluie West 1 (or BW1), and became the major Allied airfield in Greenland. Thousands of planes stopped there to refuel en route to England.[
In the autumn of 1942, Germany implemented Operation Notch transporting a weather party to eastern Greenland aboard the weather ship '' Hermann''. The ship remained icebound while the weather party radioed weather observations hoping they would not be found in the darkness of polar winter. Similar weather station Operations Viola and Edelweiss were supported by the weather ships '']Coburg
Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it ...
'' in the autumn of 1943, and '' Kehdingen'' in the autumn of 1944.[
]
History
A South Greenland Patrol was established on 1 June 1941 with Geodetic Survey ship '' Bowdoin'', tug , and cutters USCGC ''Comanche'' and . with and USCGC ''Northland'' established a Northeast Greenland Patrol a month later. The two patrols were consolidated in October 1941 as Task Force 24.8, the Greenland Patrol of the Atlantic Fleet.[ USCG Commander Edward H. Smith, who had been in charge of the Northeast Greenland Patrol, was given command of the combined force and soon afterward promoted to Captain.
On 12 September 1941 ''Northland'' intercepted the Norwegian sealer '' Buskø'', which was supporting a German radio station transmitting weather information to Germany. ''Northland'' put a prize crew aboard ''Buskø'', captured the radio station with some code information, and interned the personnel at Boston.
The Greenland Patrol was responsible for escorting ships bringing men and supplies to Greenland, and sometimes for breaking a path through the ice to assist their arrival. On 25 August 1942 was escorting the United States Army Transport ''Chatham'' as the fast section of convoy SG 6 while and ''Algonquin'' were escorting the slow section of and with steamships ''Biscaya'', ''Arlyn'' and ''Alcoa Guard''. ''Chatham'' and ''Arlyn'' were sunk by and ''Laramie'' was damaged by .
Danes, Norwegians, and ]Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
were recruited into a sledge patrol to search for additional Axis weather reporting stations along the coast. Sledge expeditions also rescued Allied airmen making forced landings on the Greenland ice cap. Coast Guard work parties built range lights, shore markers and LORAN
LORAN, short for long range navigation, was a hyperbolic radio navigation system developed in the United States during World War II. It was similar to the UK's Gee system but operated at lower frequencies in order to provide an improved range u ...
radio beacons to aid navigation. ''Northland'' landed 41 men with thirty tons of equipment to establish a high-frequency direction finding
High-frequency direction finding, usually known by its abbreviation HF/DF or nickname huff-duff, is a type of radio direction finder (RDF) introduced in World War II. High frequency (HF) refers to a radio band that can effectively communicate over ...
station on Jan Mayen
Jan Mayen () is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger ...
in November 1942.[Willoughby (1957) pp.100-104] The sledge patrol attacked the Operation Notch weather station supported by ''Hermann'' and captured some weather station personnel before the remainder were rescued by German aircraft. ''Hermann'' was sunk by allied aircraft.[
The Greenland Patrol was augmented in the summer of 1942 by ten fishing trawlers purchased in Boston, repainted in blue and white Thayer system camouflage, and given Inuit names. ''Natsek'' disappeared on 17 December 1942 while transiting the ]Strait of Belle Isle
The Strait of Belle Isle (; french: Détroit de Belle Isle ) is a waterway in eastern Canada that separates the Labrador Peninsula from the island of Newfoundland, in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Location
The strait is the northern o ...
with ''Nanok'' and in gale-force winds with blinding snow. The trawler was never seen again, and may have been capsized by ice accumulation from freezing spray in heavy seas.[ Surviving trawlers were returned to their civilian owners in 1944 as ]Tacoma-class frigate
The ''Tacoma'' class of patrol frigates served in the United States Navy during World War II and the Korean War. Originally classified as gunboats (PG), they were reclassified as patrol frigates (PF) on 15 April 1943. The class is named for its l ...
s became available for weather ship duties.
of convoy SG 19 was torpedoed by on 2 February 1943 while being escorted by , and ''Comanche''. Despite rescue efforts by the cutters, 675 men died of hypothermia
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe ...
or drowning in the worst United States troopship sinking of the war. ''Escanaba'' was later destroyed by a mysterious explosion on 13 June 1943.
From October 1943 Coast Guard Patrol Bombing Squadron Six operated twelve Consolidated PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wi ...
s from Narsarsuaq Air Base, Naval Station Argentia
Naval Station Argentia is a former base of the United States Navy that operated from 1941 to 1994. It was established in the community of Argentia in what was then the Dominion of Newfoundland, which later became the tenth Canadian province, Ne ...
, and Reykjavík Airport
Reykjavík Airport ( Icelandic: ''Reykjavíkurflugvöllur'') is the main domestic airport serving Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, located about from the city centre.
Having shorter runways than the city's larger international airport Kef ...
providing reconnaissance, antisubmarine patrol, mail delivery, rescue service, and observation surveys of ice conditions for ships of the Greenland Patrol. Aircraft greatly improved patrol efficiency when weather conditions were suitable for flying. Ships of the Greenland Patrol acted as plane guards on weather patrol stations in the Davis Strait
Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Atlantic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John ...
, Denmark Strait
The Denmark Strait () or Greenland Strait ( , 'Greenland Sound') is an oceanic strait between Greenland to its northwest and Iceland to its southeast. The Norwegian island of Jan Mayen lies northeast of the strait.
Geography
The strait connect ...
, and south of Cape Farewell maintaining radio contact with trans-Atlantic aircraft flights and provided rescue service for aircraft ditching at sea. In November 1943, USCG Commodore Earl G. Rose, a decorated veteran of World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
escort duty, succeeded Edward Smith as commander of the Greenland Patrol.
Between July and October 1944, ''Northland'', , and operated against Axis weather stations on the northeast coast of Greenland. ''Coburg'' was destroyed in July after being damaged by ice and her weather party evacuated by a U-boat. ''Northland'' intercepted ''Kehdingen'' and captured her German weather party, while escaping an attack by the escorting '' U-703'' when the U-boat's torpedoes detonated on floating ice. Failure of the first attempt at Operation Edelweiss produced a followup effort by the weather ship ''Externsteine
The Externsteine () is a distinctive sandstone rock formation located in the Teutoburg Forest, near the town of Horn-Bad Meinberg in the Lippe district of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The formation is a tor consisting of severa ...
'' which was similarly intercepted.[ Capture of sixty German weather personnel effectively ended Axis weather observation from Greenland in October 1944.
]
Ships of the Greenland Patrol
Some ships of the Greenland Patrol were conventional cutters briefly assigned to the patrol. Others were unique and sometimes historic vessels specifically designed for polar exploration and well suited to conditions encountered by the patrol. Larger cutters escorted convoys of freighters and troopships between ydney and the larger reenland ports serving Narsarsuaq Air Base and the Ivittuut cryolite mine, while trawlers and tugs (sometimes towing barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s) distributed supplies from those ports to smaller Army Bluie
Bluie was the United States military code name for Greenland during World War II. It is remembered by the numbered sequence of base locations identified by the 1941 United States Coast Guard South Greenland Survey Expedition, and subsequently us ...
bases on remote fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Förden and East Jutland Fjorde, Germany, ...
s without port facilities.
Three cutters in the Patrol (''Bear'', ''Bowdoin'' and ''Northland'') were equipped with sails. This was, most probably, the last time sail powered ships were used for wartime missions.
Greenland Patrol Memorial
There is an annual memorial wreath dedication in memory of the Greenland Patrol, conducted by the U.S. Coast Guard.[''The Day'', World War II Greenland Patrol honored during ceremony]
Greenland Patrol in literature
Fiction
* Wilson, Sloan, ''Ice Brothers''. 1979. (Arbor House).
Nonfiction
* United States Coast Guard Aviation History. n.d., ''1941: The Coast Guard and the Greenland Operations''
*Novak, Thaddeus D. and P.J. Capelotti. 1942. ''Life and Death on the Greenland Patrol'', Reissued by the University Press of Florida (2005). . Novak kept a diary of his time as a Coast Guardsman in the North Atlantic.
*Tilley, John A. ''The Coast Guard and the Greenland Patrol''"The Coast Guard and the Greenland Patrol"
. United States Coast Guard. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
*Wilson, Sloan. 1976. ''What Shall We Wear to This Party?: The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Twenty Years Before & After'' (Arbor House). . Part 2, “Ignorance is Death,” pp. 55–129, describes the author's entry into the U.S. Coast Guard as an ensign, assigned first to the . He was transferred to the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter ''Nogak'' to become executive officer and later promoted to captain.
Notes
Citations
References used
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* {{cite book , last=Willoughby , first=Malcolm F. , title =The U.S. Coast Guard in World War II , url=https://archive.org/details/uscoastguardinw00will , url-access=registration , publisher =United States Naval Institute
The United States Naval Institute (USNI) is a private non-profit military association that offers independent, nonpartisan forums for debate of national security issues. In addition to publishing magazines and books, the Naval Institute holds se ...
, date =1957 , location = Annapolis, Maryland
Battle of the Atlantic
History of the United States Coast Guard