82 men SS Selis (transport ship) SS Isbjørn (icebreaker)
4 Focke-Wulf 200 Kondors
Casualties and losses
12 killed 15 wounded 2 died of wounds
4 (23 July 1942)
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t
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Military operations, Arctic 1941–1945
Continuation War (1941–1944)
Silberfuchs
Rentier
Platinfuchs
Polarfuchs
RAF, RN, Fleet Air Arm
Benedict
EF
Orator
Svalbard (1941–1945)
Gauntlet
Fritham
Gearbox
Gearbox II
Zitronella
Haudegen
Lapland War
Birke
Nordlicht
Associated articles
British occupation of the Faroe Islands
Petsamo–Kirkenes offensive
Liberation of Finnmark
Operation Fritham (30 April – 14 May 1942) was an Allied military operation during the Second World War to secure the coal mines on Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard Archipelago, 650 mi (1,050 km) from the North Pole and about the same distance from Norway. The operation was intended to deny the islands to Nazi Germany.
A party of Free Norwegian troops sailed from Scotland on 30 April 1942, to reoccupy the island and eject a German meteorological party. On 14 May four German reconnaissance bombers sank the ships in Green Harbour; the commander, Einar Sverdrup and eleven others were killed, eleven more members of the party were wounded and most of the supplies were lost with the ships.
On 26 May, P-Peter, a Catalina flying boat, was flown to Spitsbergen; the crew made contact with Fritham Force and destroyed a German Ju 88 bomber caught on the ground. More sorties delivered supplies, attacked German weather bases, evacuated wounded and rescued shipwrecked sailors. Operation Gearbox (30 June – 17 September 1942) superseded Fritham, after HMS Manchester and the destroyer HMS Eclipse delivered 57 more Norwegians and 116 long tons (118 t) of supplies. Operation Gearbox II began on 17 September.
By autumn, the Allied foothold on Svalbard had been consolidated and the Navy used Spitsbergen as a temporary base to refuel Arctic convoy escorts. On 22 September, a Catalina delivered new wireless equipment and in November, the cruiser USS Tuscaloosa and five destroyers delivered more Norwegian troops. In Operation Zitronella (6–9 September 1943) Barentsburg was bombarded by a German naval squadron, including the German battleship Tirpitz, and a landing party disembarked to destroy facilities.
OperationFritham (30 April – 14 May 1942) was an Allied military operation during the Second World War to secure the coal mines on Spitsbergen, the main...
Operation Gearbox (30 June – 17 September 1942) was a Norwegian and British operation that superseded OperationFritham. The survivors of Fritham Force...
island of Spitsbergen during the Second World War. It superseded OperationFritham, an expedition in May, to secure the coal mines on Spitsbergen, the...
supplies and the technicians to install the Kröte. In April 1942, OperationFritham, the landing of a Norwegian force at Barentsburg to occupy the islands...
establish a garrison in the islands, which was done in May 1942 during OperationFritham. Meanwhile, the Germans responded to the destruction of the weather...
World War II, he volunteered for a military operation, but was killed in action during OperationFritham. He was born in Solund as the son of Edvard Sverdrup...
in the Shetland Islands in May 1942 to re-equip the survivors of OperationFritham in Spitsbergen who had lost everything when their ship was sunk. The...
Operation Caesar (Unternehmen Kaiser) was a secret mission carried out by Germany in the Second World War to supply Japan with advanced technology. The...
Adventdalen, mostly to provide meteorological data. After the British OperationFritham regained control of Barentsburg, the German forces left Longyearbyen...
In Operation Doomsday, the British 1st Airborne Division acted as a police and military force during the Allied occupation of Norway in May 1945, immediately...
Operation Birke (Operation Birch) was a German operation late in World War II in Finnish Lapland to protect access to nickel. Finnish attempts to find...
Operation Silver Fox (German: Silberfuchs; Finnish: Hopeakettu) from 29 June to 17 November 1941, was a joint German–Finnish military operation during...
Operation Arctic Fox (German: Unternehmen Polarfuchs; Finnish: operaatio Napakettu; Russian: Кандалакшская операция)[a] was the codename given to a World...
The unsuccessful Operation Freshman was mounted the following month by British paratroopers, who were to rendezvous with the Operation Grouse Norwegians...
Operation Rentier ('Reindeer') was a German operation during World War II intended to secure the nickel mines around Petsamo in Finland, against a Soviet...
Operation Title was an unsuccessful Allied attack on the German battleship Tirpitz during World War II. It involved two British Chariot manned torpedoes...
veterans who meet in Svalbard to commemorate OperationFritham, a 1942 Free Norwegian forces operation to station forces there, killing, expelling or...
Murmansk. It was part of a larger operation, called Operation Silver Fox (Silberfuchs; Hopeakettu). At the beginning of Operation Barbarossa German units of...
Operation Source was a series of attacks to neutralise the heavy German warships – Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lützow – based in northern Norway, using X-class...
Operation Catechism was a British air raid of World War II that destroyed the German battleship Tirpitz. It was conducted on 12 November 1944 by 29 Royal...
The British invasion of Iceland (codenamed Operation Fork) by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and Royal Marines occurred on 10 May 1940, during World...
Operation Anklet was the codename given to a British Commando raid during the Second World War. The raid on the Lofoten Islands was carried out in December...
Operation Benedict (29 July – 6 December 1941) was the establishment of Force Benedict with units of the Soviet Air Forces (VVS, Voenno-Vozdushnye Sily)...
Global Information
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United Kingdom
Germany