Operation Gauntlet

Operation Gauntlet was an Allied Combined Operation from 25 August until 3 September 1941, during the Second World War. Canadian, British and Norwegian armed forces in exile landed on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen in the Svalbard Archipelago.

Coal mines on the islands were owned and operated by Norway at Longyearbyen and by the Soviet Union at Barentsburg; both governments agreed to their destruction and the evacuation of their nationals. The objective of Gauntlet was to deny Germany the coal, mining and shipping infrastructure, equipment and stores on Spitzbergen and suppress the wireless stations on the archipelago, to prevent the Germans receiving weather reports.

Gauntlet was a success; the Germans were ignorant of the expedition until after it had departed, the raiders suffered no casualties, the civilians were repatriated, coal dumps were set on fire and mining equipment destroyed, several ships were taken as prizes and a German warship was sunk on the return journey.