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 It superseded Operation Fritham, an expedition in May, to secure the coal mines on Spitsbergen, the main island of the Svalbard Archipelago which had failed when attacked by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 116 long tons (118 t) 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 Luftwaffe 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.
OperationGearbox (30 June – 17 September 1942) was a joint Norwegian and British operation to occupy the Arctic island of Spitsbergen during the Second...
OperationGearbox II (17 September 1942 – 7 September 1943) was a Norwegian and British operation during the Second World War on the Arctic island of...
thwarted. OperationGearbox II (17 September 1942 – 7 September 1943) was a Norwegian and British operation. The reinforcements of OperationGearbox consolidated...
weather bases, evacuated wounded and rescued shipwrecked sailors. OperationGearbox (30 June – 17 September 1942) superseded Fritham, after HMS Manchester...
with disaster but by the summer of 1943, the later Allied OperationGearbox and OperationGearbox II secured Allied control of the islands. The Kriegsmarine...
engine to operate in a narrow range of rates of rotation, requiring a gearbox, operated manually or automatically, to drive the wheels over a wide range...
A preselector gearbox is a type of manual transmission mostly used on passenger cars and racing cars in the 1930s, in buses from 1940–1960 and in armoured...
A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift...
Cruiser Covering Force (CCF) with HMS Norfolk, Suffolk and London. OperationGearbox II, a concurrent supply run, was to be made to Svalbard by the cruisers...
The accessory drive is a gearbox that forms part of a gas turbine engine. Although not part of the engine's core, it drives the accessories – such as...
actuate shifts manually. Add-on AMTs can also function as a regular manual gearbox (with a manual shift lever), whereas integrated AMTs do not need a "normal"...
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...
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 the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. It involved two...
Operation Caesar (Unternehmen Kaiser) was a secret mission carried out by Germany in the Second World War to supply Japan with advanced technology. The...
geared turbofan is a type of turbofan aircraft engine with a planetary gearbox between the low pressure compressor / turbine and the fan, enabling each...
Operation Source was a series of attacks to neutralise the heavy German warships – Tirpitz, Scharnhorst and Lützow – based in northern Norway, using X-class...
The unsuccessful Operation Freshman was mounted the following month by British paratroopers, who were to rendezvous with the Operation Grouse Norwegians...
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