Operation Gearbox (30 June – 17 September 1942) was a joint Norwegian and British operation to occupy the Arctic island of Spitsbergen during the Second World War. It superseded Operation Fritham, an expedition in May, to secure the coal mines on Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard Archipelago which had failed when attacked by four German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor reconnaissance bombers. The Norwegian force, with of supplies, arrived by British cruiser on 2 July.
The survivors from Fritham had salvaged what equipment they could and set up camp in Barentsburg (deserted since the Operation Gauntlet evacuation and sabotage operation in August–September 1941) and sent out reconnaissance parties. The Admiralty arranged a survey flight by a Catalina flying boat from RAF Coastal Command but already knew much of what had happened, through Ultra decrypts of Enigma coded wireless signals.
The reinforcements consolidated the Barentsburg defences and sent parties to attack the German weather party at Longyearbyen on 12 July, only to find that they had departed three days earlier. The German airstrip was blocked and on 23 July, a Ju 88, carrying an experienced crew and two senior officials, was shot down while flying low over the landing ground. In Operation Gearbox, Norwegian sovereignty had been asserted, no casualties had been suffered, the German plan to send another weather party had been thwarted and preparations had begun for Operation Gearbox II.
Background
Svalbard
The Svalbard Archipelago is in the Arctic Ocean from the North Pole. The islands are mountainous, with permanently snow-covered peaks, some glaciated; there are occasional river terraces at the bottom of steep valleys and some coastal plains. In winter, the islands are covered in snow and the bays ice over. Spitsbergen Island has several large fiords along its west coast and Isfjorden is up to wide. The Gulf Stream warms the waters and the sea is ice-free during the summer. Settlements were established at Longyearbyen and Barentsburg in inlets along the south shore of Isfjorden, in Kings Bay (Quade Hock) further north along the coast and in Van Mijenfjorden (Lowe Sound) to the south. The settlements attracted colonists of different nationalities and the treaty of 1920 neutralised the islands and recognised the mineral and fishing rights of the participating countries. Before 1939, the population consisted of about 3,000, mostly Norwegian and Russian people, who worked in the mining industry. Drift mines were linked to the shore by overhead cable tracks or rails and coal dumped over the winter was collected by ship after the summer thaw. By 1939 production was about a year, split between Norway and Russia.
Signals intelligence
The British Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) based at Bletchley Park housed a small industry of code-breakers and traffic analysts. By June 1941, the German Enigma machine Home Waters () settings used by surface ships and U-boats quickly could be read. On 1 February 1942, the Enigma machines used in U-boats in the Atlantic and Mediterranean were changed but German ships and the U-boats in Arctic waters continued with the older ( from 1942, Dolphin to the British). By mid-1941, British Y-stations were able to receive and read W/T transmissions and give advance warning of operations. In 1941, interception parties code-named Headaches were embarked on warships and from May 1942, computers sailed with the cruiser admirals in command of convoy escorts, to read W/T signals which could not be intercepted by land stations in Britain. The Admiralty sent details of wireless frequencies, call signs and the daily local codes to the computers. Combined with their knowledge of procedures, the computors could give fairly accurate details of German reconnaissance sorties and sometimes predicted attacks twenty minutes before they were detected by radar. In February 1942, the German (, Observation Service) of the (MND, Naval Intelligence Service) broke Naval Cypher No 3 and was able to read it until January 1943.
Naval operations, 1940–1941
The Germans left the Svalbard islands alone during the Norwegian campaign in 1940. Apart from a few Norwegians taking passage on Allied ships, little changed; wireless stations on the islands continued to broadcast weather reports. From 25 July to 9 August 1940, the cruiser Admiral Hipper sailed from Trondheim to search the area from Tromsø to Bear Island and Svalbard to intercept British ships returning from Petsamo but found only a Finnish freighter. On 12 July 1941, the Admiralty was ordered to assemble a force of ships to operate in the Arctic, in co-operation with the USSR, despite objections from Admiral John (Jack) Tovey, commander of the Home Fleet, who preferred to operate further south, where there were more targets and better air cover.
Rear-admirals Philip Vian and Geoffrey Miles flew to Polyarnoe and Miles established a British military mission in Moscow. Vian reported that Murmansk was close to German held territory, that its air defences were inadequate and that the prospects of offensive operations on German shipping were poor. Vian was sent to look at the west coast of Spitsbergen, the main island of Svalbard, which was mostly ice-free and from northern Norway, to assess its potential as a base. The cruisers and and two destroyers departed Iceland on 27 July but Vian judged the apparent advantages of Spitsbergen as a base to be exaggerated. The force closed on the Norwegian coast twice and each time was discovered by reconnaissance aircraft.
Operation Gauntlet
As Operation Dervish, the first Arctic convoy, was assembling in Iceland, Vian sailed with Force A for Svalbard on 19 August in Operation Gauntlet. Norwegian and Russian civilians were to be evacuated using the same two cruisers, with five destroyer escorts, an oiler and , a troop transport carrying 645 men, mainly Canadian infantry. The expedition landed at Barentsburg to sabotage the coal industry, evacuate the Norwegian and Soviet civilians and commandeer any shipping that could be found. About 2,000 Russians were taken to Arkhangelsk in Empress of Canada, escorted by one of the cruisers and the three destroyers, which rendezvoused with the rest of Force A off Barentsburg on 1 September. Normal business was kept up at the Barentsburg wireless station by the Norwegian Military Governor Designate, Lieutenant Ragnvald Tamber; three colliers sent from the mainland were hijacked along with the seal ship , the ice-breaker , a tug and two fishing boats. The Canadian landing parties embarked on 2 September and the force sailed for home the next day, with 800 Norwegian civilians and the prizes. The two cruisers diverted towards the Norwegian coast to hunt for German ships and early on 7 September, in stormy weather and poor visibility, found a German convoy off Porshanger near the North Cape. The cruisers sank the training ship but two troop transports, with 1,500 men aboard, escaped. Nigeria was damaged, thought to have hit a wreck, but the naval force reached Scapa Flow on 10 September.
Operation Bansö, 1941–1942
After Operation Gauntlet (25 August – 3 September 1941) the British had expected the Germans to occupy Svalbard as a base for attacks on Arctic convoys. The Germans were more interested in meteorological data, the Arctic being the origin of much of the weather over Western Europe. By August 1941, the Allies had eliminated German weather stations on Greenland, Jan Mayen Island, Bear Island () and the civil weather reports from Spitsbergen. The Germans used weather reports from U-boats, reconnaissance aircraft, trawlers and other ships but these were too vulnerable to attack. The and the surveyed land sites for weather stations in the range of sea and air supply, some to be manned and others automatic. 5 ( 5) part of , was based at Banak in northern Norway. The Heinkel He 111s and Junkers Ju 88s of 5 ranged over the Arctic Ocean, past Spitsbergen and Jan Mayen towards Greenland; the experience gained made the unit capable of the transporting and supplying manned and automatic weather stations.
After the wireless on Spitsbergen had mysteriously ceased transmission in early September, German reconnaissance flights from Banak discovered the Canadian demolitions, burning coal dumps and saw one man, a conscientious objector who had refused to leave, waving to them. Dr Erich Etienne, a former Polar explorer, commanded an operation to install a manned station on the islands but with winter imminent, time was short. Advent Bay (Adventfjorden) was chosen for its broad valley, making a safer approach for aircraft; its subsoil of alluvial gravel was acceptable for a landing ground. The south-east orientation of the high ground did not impede wireless communication with Banak and the settlement of Longyearbyen (Longyear Town) was close by. A north-west to south-east airstrip about was marked out, which was firm when dry and hard when frozen but liable to become boggy after rain or the spring thaw. The Germans used the Hans Lund Hut as a control room and wireless station, the Inner Hjorthamn Hut to the south-east being prepared as a substitute. The site received the code-name Bansö (from Banak and Spitsbergen Öya), ferry flights of men, equipment and supplies began on 25 September. He 111, Ju 88 and Ju 52 pilots gained experience of landing on soft ground, cut with ruts and boulders.
The British followed events from Bletchley Park through Ultra, made easier by German routine use of radio communication. Four British minesweepers en route from Arkhangelsk were diverted to investigate and reached Isfjorden on 19 October. A 5 aircraft crew spotted the ships as they prepared to land and the thirty men at Bansö quickly were flown to safety by the aircraft and two Ju 52 transport aircraft. Bansö was deserted when the British arrived but some code books were recovered; when the ships left, the Germans returned. After 38 supply flights Dr Albrecht Moll and three men arrived to spend the winter transmitting weather reports. On 29 October 1941, Hans Knoespel and five weathermen were installed by the at Lilliehöökfjorden, a branch of Krossfjord in the north-western Spitsbergen. Landing aircraft was riskier in winter, when the landing ground or an ice-covered bay was frozen solid, because soft snow on top could pile up in front of the wheels of the aircraft and jerk it to a stop or prevent it from reaching take-off speed. The blanket of snow could also cover holes, into which a wheel could fall, potentially to damage the undercarriage or propeller.
The Moll party at Bansö called for aircraft when the weather was adequate and after making low and slow passes, to check the landing ground for obstructions, the pilot decided whether to land. On 2 May 1942, the apparatus for an automatic weather station, a thermometer, barometer, transmitter and batteries arrived at Banak, in a box named (toad) by the aircrew. As soon as weather permitted, it was to be flown to Bansö and the Moll party brought back. It took until 12 May for a favourable weather report to reach Banak and a He 111 and a Ju 88 were sent with supplies and the technicians to install the . The aircraft reached Bansö at and after a careful examination of the ground, the Heinkel pilot eventually landed, keeping its tail well up out of the snow. The main wheels quickly packed snow in front of them and the aircraft almost nosed over. The ten crew and passengers joined the ground party, who welcomed them warmly, having been alone for six months; the Ju 88 pilot was warned off by a flare and returned to Banak.
Operation Fritham