In some respects, World War II for the United States commenced 69 years ago this week, not with the attack on Pearl Harbor, which occurred twelve weeks later.
In April 1941, the US Coast Guard began informal patrols in waters around Greenland.
In May, the German battleship
Bismarck sank the British battlecruiser
Hood in an engagement in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.
In June, the Danish Government in exile signed an agreement authorizing the United States to militarily defend Greenland.
The US Navy established the Greenland Patrol and officially assigned the mission to the Coast Guard.
On September 11, 1941, after the destroyer
USS Greer was fired on while on patrol off Iceland, President Roosevelt issued a “shoot to kill” order to US naval forces, establishing an aggressive self-defense policy.
On September 12, the USCG icebreaker
Northland, flagship of the Greenland Patrol, boarded the Norwegian sealer
Buskoe in McKenzie Bay on the east coast of Greenland.
The Danish and Norwegian crew claimed to be commercial hunters and trappers, but examination uncovered that the ship carried portable radio gear (highly unusual in that era).
Close questioning of the crew revealed that some men with similar radio gear had been put ashore further north.
The
Buskoe was seized and a prize crew placed on board.
The
Northland steamed up the Greenland coast toward the location where the other persons had been put ashore.
When the
Northland got to within five miles of the location, a landing party took a small boat ashore.
Traversing the icy coastline in the half-light of an Arctic nighttime, the Coast Guard landing party found the German hut early on the morning of September 14, 1941.
They rushed in and captured three German sympathizers with their weather monitoring gear, radio, and code books.
After the war, the
Northland was transferred to the new nation of Israel and served for several years as the flagship of the Israeli Navy.
The
Northland was finally scrapped in 1961.