Greenland at War

Peter Harmsen's "Greenland at War: The United States, Germany and the Struggle for the Arctic, 1939-45" examines a lesser-known theater of the Second World War, one that unfolded far from the beaches of Normandy or the deserts of North Africa. Harmsen, known for his earlier works on the Pacific and China during the war years, turns his attention northward to a vast, sparsely populated island that became an unlikely strategic prize during the global conflict. The result is a well-researched and engaging account of how Greenland, a Danish territory, found itself caught between competing great powers.

The book's central premise rests on a simple but often overlooked fact: Greenland's location made it valuable to both the Allies and the Axis. For Germany, the island's weather stations offered crucial meteorological data that could inform military planning across the North Atlantic and even affect operations in Europe. For the United States, Greenland's proximity to North America and its role in air routes and shipping lanes made it a matter of hemispheric defense. Harmsen traces how these competing interests played out through a series of small but consequential episodes, including German efforts to establish covert weather stations and American countermeasures to root them out.

One of the strengths of Harmsen's approach is his ability to contextualize Greenland's wartime experience within the broader currents of the war. He explains how the German occupation of Denmark in 1940 created a peculiar situation for Greenland, which remained nominally under Danish administration even as the mother country fell under Nazi control. This diplomatic and political ambiguity opened the door for the United States to step in, establishing a protective presence that would later evolve into more formal arrangements. Harmsen does a commendable job of unpacking the diplomatic maneuvering involved, showing how figures like Henrik Kauffmann, the Danish ambassador in Washington, played pivotal roles in shaping Greenland's wartime status despite lacking clear authority from an occupied homeland.

The narrative also delves into the military dimension of the Greenland campaign, detailing the Arctic patrols, the search for German weather stations, and the logistical challenges of operating in such an inhospitable environment. Harmsen's prose captures the harshness of the terrain and climate, conveying how difficult conditions shaped every aspect of military operations there. These sections benefit from vivid descriptions that help readers understand why such a remote and forbidding landscape mattered so much to strategists on both sides.

Harmsen's research draws on a range of sources, and his attention to specific personalities and events lends the book a human dimension that might otherwise be missing from a topic centered on geopolitics and weather stations. The individuals who served in Greenland, whether as American servicemen, Danish colonial officials, or German meteorologists, emerge as figures navigating extraordinary circumstances in an extraordinarily remote setting.

The book's pacing is generally steady, moving chronologically through the war years while occasionally pausing to explore particular incidents in greater depth. This structure serves the material well, allowing readers to follow the escalating stakes as the war progressed and Greenland's strategic importance became increasingly apparent to policymakers in Washington and Berlin alike. Harmsen avoids overstating Greenland's centrality to the overall war effort, instead presenting it as a significant but ultimately secondary theater whose importance derived from its role in broader Atlantic and hemispheric considerations.

For readers interested in the peripheral or lesser-known aspects of the Second World War, "Greenland at War" offers a valuable contribution. It fills a gap in the popular historical literature by focusing on a region and set of events that rarely receive sustained attention. The book succeeds in demonstrating how even the most remote and inhospitable corners of the globe became entangled in the era's great power struggles, and how questions of sovereignty, alliance, and strategic necessity played out in unexpected places.

Overall, Harmsen has produced a solid work of military and diplomatic history that illuminates an overlooked chapter of the war. The book will appeal particularly to readers with an interest in Arctic history, small-scale military operations, or the diplomatic complexities faced by occupied nations and their overseas territories during wartime.