Chapter 204 Iceland

Iceland is the last uninhabited island in the world except New Zealand. Around the end of the 8th century, Irish monks first moved to Iceland. In the second half of the 9th century, Norwegians began to immigrate to Iceland. Later, Iceland was controlled by Norway, Denmark and other countries for a long time.

In 1918, Denmark recognized the Kingdom of Iceland (the king was also the King of Denmark) as a sovereign state affiliated with the Kingdom of Denmark. Iceland gained independence and sovereignty similar to that of a protectorate in domestic affairs, but foreign affairs were still controlled by Denmark.

When the news of Denmark's demise reached Iceland, the Icelanders cheered and jubilantly, and quickly announced that they would break away from Denmark's control, exercise sovereignty independently, and maintain a neutral state.

But Iceland's independence only lasted a few days. These idiots didn't think that Denmark had declared neutrality before, but it was still taken down by Germany?

However, it was not Germany that destroyed Iceland, but Britain.

As for why?

Iceland is located between the big triangle of Greenland, Norway and Britain in North America, and its geostrategic value alone is priceless. In addition, if Germany occupied Iceland, it could protect Norway under German occupation from the flank, creating better conditions for attacking the British mainland.

In view of this, Britain took the initiative to show goodwill to Iceland. British diplomats suggested that Britain and Iceland sign an alliance treaty and allow Britain to station troops in Iceland. However, these suggestions were rejected by the Icelandic government, which repeatedly emphasized that they would abide by neutrality and would not lean towards any party.

This caused dissatisfaction with the British government. Churchill believed that the agreement in black and white was useless, not to mention that the two mouths were even more unreliable. Iceland should be taken as quickly as possible. If it is slow, Germany may take the lead.

Therefore, Britain decided to implement the so-called "harpoon operation" against Iceland.

Why is it called the harpoon operation? It's very simple. Look at a fat fish on the water surface, and take the fish cleanly with a fork.

At this time, Iceland's population was only a few hundred thousand, and it didn't even have a decent army. The national (national) police (police) force had only 70 people.

But the British still didn't dare to take it lightly and sent a large army to Iceland.

How "large" is it?

There were 746 soldiers, and the 2nd Battalion of the Marine Corps served as the British expeditionary force. The commander-in-chief was the Navy Colonel Stengers. Two destroyers, the HMS Dreadnought and the HMS Luck, escorted two cruisers, the HMS Glasgow and the HMS Beve, and marched towards Iceland.

Upon hearing the news, the Icelanders were furious. They were going to lose their country just a few days after independence?

The Icelandic government questioned the British diplomatic representative in Iceland, asking what they wanted to do. The British representative told Iceland about Britain's concerns, saying that for the benefit of Britain, they hoped that Iceland would cooperate. The Icelandic government scolded Britain for bullying small countries, saying that we are a neutral country. Britain still said the same thing: for the benefit of Britain, you must accept reality.

Objectively speaking, Britain had no intention of hurting Iceland, but just to prevent Germany from seizing Iceland and hurting Britain. In other words, Britain only let Iceland play the role of a "slave of the lost country", and made it clear: the war was over, and the British army would get out of Iceland immediately.

In June 1940, France was defeated by Germany, which made British Prime Minister Churchill more worried about Iceland, fearing that Germany would quickly attack Iceland and then attack Britain on a large scale. So he continued to send troops to Iceland, and sent nearly 50,000 troops to Iceland one after another. In 1941, the United States also sent more than 40,000 troops to garrison Iceland. According to statistics, the number of British and American troops stationed in Iceland has exceeded the total number of all males in Iceland!

After the war, the British did evacuate Iceland, but the British troops left, but the US troops stayed and did not evacuate until 2006.

However, Iceland's independence also depends on the United States. In 1944, after the Allied landing in Normandy, the overall situation of World War II was determined, and it was time for the victorious countries to divide the benefits in advance. According to the pre-war situation, Iceland should be restored as a protectorate of Denmark, with self-control of internal affairs and foreign affairs controlled by Denmark.

However, the US military has a large military base in Iceland, and it is unwilling to give it to Denmark. In the eyes of the US military, I won the victory, and I can't make wedding clothes for you Denmark. So the United States made Iceland completely independent, but also left Greenland and the Faroe Islands to Denmark. Although Denmark was dissatisfied, it could do nothing.

In fact, Yannick didn't have much concern about the British and American occupation of Iceland. You know, Iceland was formed by the solidification of magma erupting from the gaps caused by the drift of continental plates. The glacier area of ​​the country is about 8,000 square kilometers. Almost the entire country is on volcanic rocks. Most of the land cannot be cultivated. It is called the "Land of Ice and Fire". There are more than 200 volcanoes in Iceland, including about 30 active volcanoes. The activities are quite frequent, with an average of one volcanic eruption every 5 years.

What will happen when he sends bombers to bomb those active volcanoes in Iceland after the British and American troops arrive, or simply hits the center of Iceland with a grand slam?

That scene is so beautiful that I can't imagine it!?

However, Yannick didn't want the British to succeed so easily. Just when the British "Expeditionary Army" drove to a place where Iceland could be seen, the front destroyer HMS Dreadnought suddenly exploded. The violent explosion even raised a mushroom cloud-this was obviously a secondary explosion of the ammunition depot (the explosion of a large amount of explosives may form a mushroom cloud, which is not exclusive to nuclear explosions). The entire warship disappeared on the sea in a moment.

Before the remaining destroyer Luck and the cruisers Glasgow and Bevee could react, the sailors on the watchtowers of the three warships rushed to issue shrill alarms.

"God!! It's a torpedo, it's a torpedo!!"

"Torpedo! Torpedo! They're on the port side!!"

"Torpedoes found on the starboard side!"

Captain Stengers, the commander-in-chief of the "Expeditionary Army", stood in the wheelhouse of the cruiser Beve, looking at the torpedoes coming from all directions, and could only shout to God in despair.

Of course, God had no time to pay attention to him. Amid the successive explosions, the Luck, Glasgow, and Beve sank to the bottom of the sea one after another. Fortunately, there were only a few British sailors floating on the sea.

Then the Icelandic government received a joint statement from Denmark and Germany, not recognizing Iceland's independence. If Iceland insisted on going its own way, it would be a declaration of war.

The Icelandic government was so depressed that it was about to vomit blood. It realized the truth that without strength, it was nothing. It simply announced that Iceland was undefended, and you could do whatever you wanted.

Germany sent a transport fleet to Iceland, and Britain, which received the news, sent a fleet that was finally put together, determined to take Iceland. But the British didn't know that the transport fleet and Iceland were just bait for the Germans.

Late at night, the German High Seas Fleet quietly sailed out of the port in the dark and entered the Norwegian Sea.