Operation Gauntlet

Battle context

Operation Gauntlet was an Allied Combined Operation conducted in the Svalbard Archipelago, landing Canadian, British, and Norwegian forces in exile on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen. Occurring in the early period of expanded Allied coordination, the operation demonstrated the capacity of Allied nations to project forces into the high Arctic, a remote theater roughly 650 miles from the North Pole. The inclusion of Norwegian forces in exile gave the operation political as well as military dimension, asserting Allied presence over Norwegian territory under German occupation. The operation ran from late August into early September 1941, situating it in the period shortly after the Soviet Union had entered the war and when Allied strategic priorities in the northern theater were in flux.