Operation Gauntlet

Operation Gauntlet
Part of World War II
Location map of Spitsbergen and Bear Island
Date 25 August – 3 September 1941 Location Longyearbyen, Norway Status Allied success
Belligerents
Canada  Norway  United Kingdom	Germany

During World War II, Operation Gauntlet was a Combined Operations raid by Canadian troops, with British Army logistics support and Free Norwegian Forces servicemen on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 600 miles south of the North Pole, from 25 August to 3 September 1941.

The objective was to destroy the rich coal mines there together with associated equipment and stores, which it was correctly assumed the Germans intended to make use of. These mines on Norwegian territory were owned and operated by Norway (at Longyearbyen) and by the Soviet Union (at Barentsburg) and both governments agreed to their destruction and the evacuation of their nationals.

German forces had completed their occupation of Norway in June 1940 and in June 1941, the Soviet Union (USSR) had been invaded in Operation Barbarossa. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill immediately declared common cause with the USSR. The Soviets requested a British naval presence off northern Russia and Rear Admiral Philip Vian visited Murmansk to assess the local situation. Due to logistical and other circumstances the British presence was limited to submarines.

Political pressure continued for an active British presence and Force K was formed at Scapa Flow to operate in the Arctic under the command of Philip Vian.

At the end of July 1941, Vian's Force visited Spitsbergen to ascertain the situation not knowing whether or not a German military presence was on the islands. There was not, and both the Norwegian and Soviet settlers were cooperative. A Norwegian officer, Lieutenant Ragnvald Tamber, was left at Longyearbyen to act as a representative and Force K returned to Britain with 70 volunteers for the Free Norwegian forces and a loaded collier. All this had been done without alerting the Germans, who remained in ignorance of Allied activity.

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