Posted on 05/08/2025 6:05:16 AM PDT by marktwain
The Sledge Patrol, by David Howarth, 233 pages, published by Macmillan in 1957. $10 in mass market paperback from Amazon. First editions available as used copies.
The Sledge Patrol is a one of those fascinating glimpses of WWII which show the conflict through an unexpected and unusual lens. It is the story of the East Coast of Greenland and how a few men can affect a much larger conflict, in ways of which they are unaware. As a bonus, there is the description of a conflict between a polar bear and a man alone on the ice. The polar bear conflict is not listed in the Polar Bear Human-Information Management System (PBHIMS) database.
It should be included.
The King of Denmark ordered all Danes to submit. Greenland refused to do so because the administrator believed the King was acting under duress. The administrator, Eske Brun, decided to defy the order to submit. He believed, sooner or later, the Americans would enter the war. The Western coast of Greenland was easily under the protection of the United States. The East coast was another matter. It could only be patrolled unsatisfactorily by airplane at great expense; or it could be patrolled by a small number of men with dog teams. Thus was formed the Greenland Sledge Patrol, with 15 men who knew the hundreds of miles of coastline, and who could hunt, live off the land, and exist for months in their scattered and isolated hunting huts. The firearms in Greenland consisted of hunting rifles.
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
This is how they will beat us if we invade.
With Nazis and polar bears? Them dirty commies.
> The King of Denmark ordered all Danes to submit. <
It’s worth noting that the king, Christian X, was an honorable man. He did not flee his country after the Nazi invasion, but stayed with his people.
A story (maybe true, maybe just a legend):
The king was passing by a building in occupied Copenhagen and saw the Nazi flag flying. He told a German sentry to take the flag down as it was a violation of the armistice.
The sentry replied that this would not be done. The King then said that if the flag was not taken down, he would send a Danish soldier to take it down.
The sentry responded, “The soldier will be shot.” The King replied, “That Danish soldier will be me.” According to the story, the flag was taken down.
Totally unaware of this. Thanks for posting. Interesting bit of WW-2 history.
From the description:
In 1943, a group of brave Danish and Norwegian hunters carried out one of the most dramatic operations of World War II. Using dogsleds to patrol a stark 500-mile stretch of the Greenland coast, their wartime mission was to guard against Nazi interlopers--an unlikely scenario given the cruel climate. But one day, a footprint was spotted on desolate Sabine Island, along with other obvious signs of the enemy. Not expecting to find the trouble they did, the three Sledge Patrol members escaped to the nearest hunting hut only to have the Germans pursue them on foot. In the dead of the Arctic night, the men escaped capture at the last instant and, without their coats or sled dogs, walked fifty-six miles to get back to base. While the Sledge Patrol had only hunting rifles, resilience, and their knowledge of outdoor survival, the Germans were armed with machine guns and grenades and greatly outnumbered them. David Howarth skillfully relates the tensely exciting true tale of how the men of the Sledge Patrol fought capture or death in desolation by outwitting and outlasting the enemy. This is a saga of human skill, faith, and endurance--and one of the most remarkable Allied victories ever recorded.
Placed an order!
mark
Thanks for posting!
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