A Forgotten Theater of World War II

This absorbing book (first published in 2024 as Fury and Ice) describes the often surreal struggles and exploits involving Greenland during the Second World War. The immense Arctic island helped to shape events at lower latitudes in three pivotal respects. First, its cryolite mine was both essential for allied aircraft-building and vulnerable to attack. Second, its position in the mid-Atlantic made it a way-station between North America and Europe. This served the allies, but also fueled German fantasies of using Greenland as a springboard for air attacks against the United States. Finally, meteorological data collected in Greenland was valuable for planning and informing military operations across Europe. The author provides vivid descriptions of how small meteorological parties of Germans landed and ensconced themselves on remote Greenlandic shores, how the allies sought to detect such intrusions, and the ensuing micro-battles between handfuls of people struggling to survive in one of the world’s most unforgiving environments. Many of the hardy individuals engaged in such fights are described in terms of their backgrounds, motivations, and attitudes. In a book that could have easily relegated them to the role of military personnel known only by name and rank, they are instead characterized in ways that acknowledge their identities as real people during one of the most remote and unusual fronts of World War II. Some of these true stories would be dismissed as unbelievable if they appeared in fiction: the copious intelligence derived from left-behind diaries, or the story of a German commander escorting an allied prisoner through the wilderness, then deciding to switch roles with him by taking an arduous route to surrender.

Greenland at War explores other dimensions of how the war shaped Greenland, and vice versa. Denmark’s conquest by the Nazis in 1940 created a vast power vacuum in Greenland, which the U.S. helped to fill more than a year before its own entry into the war. The author describes the jostling among the allies over securing Greenland, as well as how individual power brokers—including within the Danish administration of Greenland—perceived and influenced events. While many indigenous Greenlanders were sympathetic to the plight of occupied Denmark, there was also a small pro-Nazi movement. The presence of U.S. personnel on the island impinged on its culture, even as U.S. and Danish authorities went to great lengths to minimize contact between Americans and Greenlanders.

In addition to being a great read, Greenland at War has contemporary relevance. In his preface, Harmsen notes that the island’s future has unexpectedly become a geopolitical issue; as in the 1940s, given its key position and its mineral resources. As geopolitical competition in the Arctic intensifies, study of past struggles in that region can inform the present. Moreover, as the author comments, if human beings ever fight on the Moon, there may be echoes of some of these minute battles in one of Earth’s most extreme environments. Beyond this, Greenland at War is full of fascinating characters and stories.

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Our Reviewer: Dr. Scott Savitz is a defense researcher in the Washington, DC area. He earned his doctorate and a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Yale University. A senior engineer at the RAND Corporation. He has led research on such diverse subjects as employment of unmanned maritime vehicles, the impact of non-lethal weapons, addressing threats from naval mines, testing of autonomous systems, gaps in Arctic military capabilities, how to make airbases less vulnerable, and many other topics. He is the author of The Fall of the Republic, a fictionalized account of the Catiline Conspiracy in ancient Rome. His previous reviews include Machiavelli's Legacy: The Prince After Five Hundred Years, The Machiavellian Enterprise: A Commentary on The Prince, Machiavelli's Three Romes, Great Power Clashes along the Maritime Silk Road, The Crisis of Catiline, War Underground: A History of Military Mining in Siege Warfare, Strategy and Grand Strategy, and The Quotable Machiavelli .

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Note: Greenland at War is also available in hardcover & e-editions.

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