Play as · WW2 1939 · L1 · Danish Territory · About to Be US-Garrisoned

Greenland - 1939

Greenland in 1939 is the Danish territory - administered through the Royal Danish Greenland Trade Department under the long-standing post-1721 Hans Egede colonial-administrative architecture - and operating as a substantial part of the Kingdom of Denmark. Population about 17,000 (substantially Inuit indigenous-population alongside the small Danish administrative-and-trading community). The strategic identity is the Arctic Danish territory with the looming April 1940 German invasion of Denmark that will substantially-orphan the territory from Copenhagen-administrative engagement, the substantial post-1941 US protective-occupation under the Greenland Defense Agreement (negotiated with the Danish ambassador in Washington Henrik Kauffmann acting independently of the Nazi-occupied Copenhagen government), the substantial cryolite mining at Ivittuut (the only commercially-significant cryolite source in the world, critical for aluminum smelting and aluminum-aircraft production), and the broader Atlantic strategic-positioning that the wartime period will substantially elevate.

Starting position

Greenland has minimal indigenous-territorial-defense forces in 1939 - the small Danish-administered police-and-administrative formations totaling perhaps a few hundred personnel under varying levels of training and equipment. Equipment is light. The defense-against-external-threat function is institutionalized through the Danish-state framework rather than through indigenous military capacity. The post-1941 US protective-occupation will be the principal wartime strategic-development - about 5,000 US personnel will be deployed to the substantial post-1942 Bluie East and Bluie West airfield network (the Atlantic-crossing transit-and-weather-station architecture that the wartime aviation requires), the cryolite mining will be the principal continuing economic activity throughout the war, and the post-1945 Danish-administrative restoration will require substantial bilateral-cooperation with the United States.

What turns the campaign

What Greenland in 1939 wants is the Danish-administrative framework preserved through the looming wartime period, the cryolite mining production preserved at the substantial Allied-strategic-aluminum-production scale that the war will demand, the substantial Inuit indigenous-population administrative-and-cultural framework preserved through the wartime disruption, and the Atlantic strategic-positioning institutionalized through whatever bilateral framework will eventually emerge. What Greenland fears is exactly the historical sequence - the April 9, 1940 German invasion of Denmark leaves Greenland orphaned from Copenhagen-administrative engagement, the Danish ambassador in Washington Henrik Kauffmann acting independently negotiates the April 9, 1941 Greenland Defense Agreement with the United States that institutionalizes the US protective-occupation, the substantial post-1941 US strategic-infrastructure development at Bluie East and Bluie West airfields produces the multi-decade US-strategic-engagement legacy (the post-1951 Defense Agreement and the post-Thule Air Base development continue through the modern Pituffik-renamed era), and the post-1945 Danish-administrative restoration requires the bilateral-cooperation framework with the United States.

Signature challenge