How Iceland Changed the World by Egill Bjarnason

Author:Egill Bjarnason [Bjarnason, Egill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

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For anyone who is enduring a winter within the Arctic Circle, one thing is important to keep in mind: the sun pays back its debt in full. The annual hours of sunlight total the same, everywhere on earth. At the extreme end, the North Pole has six straight months of night, followed by six months of day. Iceland is a version of that, tuned down by 25° latitude.

The darkest day of the year is December 21. From then on, the days slowly get longer again. By February, the day is extending by seven minutes per day. Come March, bank robbers have just enough time to do their thing in broad daylight. By April, the Northern Lights fade into the ever-bright evenings, and birds arrive from their winter whereabouts. And May provides no place to hide—no darkness.

The British army invaded Reykjavík at five a.m. on a Friday in May. The mission, dubbed Operation Fork, was meant to surprise the people of Iceland, arriving as it did with the ship lights shut off. But when the four warships sailed into harbor, a massive crowd of onlookers stood there watching. They’d seen them miles away.

The convoy had first passed the Reykjanes Peninsula, the boot-shaped corner that stretches out of Reykjavík, with fishermen in Keflavík noticing the unusual convoy. But it was the middle of the night, and they didn’t see a reason to notify the authorities because Iceland had nothing to do with the war—those guys must be headed somewhere else. Britain, for its part, had not taken into consideration that the ships would arrive on a public holiday and a payday for fishermen, when a good number were awake in the middle of the night, drinking and dancing. Police and taxi drivers on drunkard duty were the first to spot ships on the horizon. One, two, three, four . . . gray . . . warships. Were they British or German? No one knew.

The British cabinet had decided not to notify Icelandic authorities ahead of their arrival and instead jumped straight to an actual invasion. Their reasoning was that despite unofficially leaning toward Britain in the war, the Icelandic government would likely reject any suggestion of military protection due to their “neutrality.” If they’d first been given the opportunity to reject the Brits, the forthcoming invasion might be met with more hostility. Plus, if word got out, Germany had their fleet in northern Norway and could get there faster than the British.

The only two people in Reykjavík certain about the nationality of the approaching ships were the British consul (thanks to a radio telegram) and the German consul (thanks to the process of elimination). Dr. Gerlach had long since sensed that the Icelandic public, as well as Icelandic politicians, favored the British in the war. “Iceland: a British country under a Danish crown,” he wrote in one of his secret files—the very documents he’d intended to burn before British forces arrived. “Bring the files! Light the boiler!” he’d ordered, realizing no one at the residence knew how to light the coal heater.

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