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The Greenland Patrol was a United States Coast Guard operation during World War II. The patrol was formed to support the U.S. Army building aerodrome facilities in Greenland for ferrying aircraft to the British 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 powers military activities. The patrol escorted Allied shipping to and from Greenland, built navigation and communication facilities, and provided rescue and weather ship services in the area from 1941 through 1945.
United States Coast Guard personnel had acquired extensive experience in the waters around Greenland as part of their International Ice Patrol duties since 1915. Following negotiations with the Danish Minister to Washington, the United States opened a consulate at Nuuk; 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 Nautical chart. 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 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 Cayuga on 17 May 1941 to continue the survey expedition after Cayuga was turned over to the Royal Navy 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 and airfields at Narsarsuaq and at Kipisako near Ivittuut. Narsarsuaq Air Base 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 in the autumn of 1943, and Kehdingen in the autumn of 1944.
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.Willoughby (1957) pp.99&100
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 .Willoughby (1957) p.101
Danes, Norwegians, and Inuit 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 radio beacons to aid navigation. Northland landed 41 men with thirty tons of equipment to establish a high-frequency direction finding station on Jan Mayen 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 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 frigates became available for weather ship duties.Silverstone (1968) pp.246-252&384-385
From October 1943 Coast Guard Patrol Bombing Squadron Six operated twelve Consolidated PBY Catalinas from Narsarsuaq Air Base, Naval Station Argentia, and Reykjavík Airport 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, Denmark Strait, and south of Cape Farewell maintaining radio contact with trans-Atlantic aircraft flights and provided rescue service for aircraft ditching at sea.Willoughby (1957) pp.106&108 In November 1943, USCG Commodore Earl G. Rose, a decorated veteran of World War I 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 which was similarly intercepted. Capture of sixty German weather personnel effectively ended Axis weather observation from Greenland in October 1944.Willoughby (1957) pp.108-110
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.
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.
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]] or drowning in the worst United States troopship sinking of the war.Morison (1975) pp.331-334 ''Escanaba'' was later destroyed by a mysterious explosion on 13 June 1943.Tilley, pp.13&14
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 ) distributed supplies from those ports to smaller Army Bluie bases on remote without port facilities.Novak
unique 648 tonsSilverstone (1968) pp.353&359 1874 Bering Sea weather ship built as a seal catcher; carried a seaplane Bowdoin unique 110 tonsMorison (1962) p.103 1921 arctic exploration schooner Tampa-class cutters 1,780 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.365 16 knots 2 × 5"/51 caliber guns 1921 AlatokWilloughby (1957) p.107 386 tons 1922 naval trawler formerly HeklaKafka & Pepperburg (1946) p.317
Faunce
Frederick Lees 220 tonsSilverstone (1968) pp.378&380 11 knots 1 × 3"/23 caliber gunKafka & Pepperburg (1946) p.316 1926-1927 unique 2,065 tonsSilverstone (1968) pp.365&373 11 knots 2 × 3"/50 caliber guns 1927 Cork-insulated steel hull with icebreaker bow designed for Bering Sea operations; carried a Curtiss SOC Seagull seaplane. Equipped with sails. 256 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.219 1 × 3"/23 caliber gun 1931 minesweeping unique 1,435 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.376 1 × 3"/23 caliber gunWilloughby (1957) p.112 1932 wooden-hulled survey ship; carried a seaplane Algonquin Algonquin-class cutters 1,005 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.373 13 knots 2 × 3"/50 caliber guns 1932-1934 Arluk 163 tons 1934 naval trawler formerly Atlantic Aivik 251 tonsSilverstone (1968) pp.384&385 1936 naval trawler formerly Arlington Arvek 172 tons 1936 naval trawler formerly Triton Atak 243 tons 1937 naval trawler formerly Winchester Amarok 237 tons 1938 naval trawler formerly Lark Arundel
Manitou 328 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.388 12 knots 1939 ice-breaking tugs Nogak 176 tons 1940 naval trawler formerly St. George Aklak 170 tons 1941 naval trawler formerly Weymouth Nanok 220 tons 1 × 3"/23 caliber gunNovak, p.19 1941 naval trawler formerly North Star Natsek 225 tons 1 × 3"/23 caliber gun 1941 naval trawler formerly Belmont. Lost with crew on or after December 17, 1942. unique 1,715 tonsSilvertone (1968) p.391 13 knots 2 × 3"/50 caliber gun 1943 light icebreaker; carried a seaplaneTilley, p.7 s 3,500 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.378 16 knots 4 × 5"/38 caliber guns 1943 carried a seaplaneTilley, p.16 Citrus
Evergreen
Laurel 935 tons 14 knots 1 × 3"/50 caliber gun 1943 buoy tenders used as freighters, light icebreakers, and convoy escortsTilley, p.8 SC 527
SC 528
SC 688
SC 689
SC 704
SC 705s 95 tonsSilverstone (1968) p.254 20 knots 1 × 3"/50 caliber gunKafka & Pepperburg (1946) p.217 1941-1944
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
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