British Occupation of The Faroe Islands - The Occupation

The Occupation

At the time of the occupation, the Faroe Islands had the status of an amt (county) of Denmark. Following the invasion and occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, British forces launched "Operation Valentine" to occupy the Faroe Islands. On 11 April, Winston Churchill — then First Lord of the Admiralty — announced to the House of Commons that the Faroe Islands would be occupied:

We are also at this moment occupying the Faroe Islands, which belong to Denmark and which are a strategic point of high importance, and whose people showed every disposition to receive us with warm regard. We shall shield the Faroe Islands from all the severities of war and establish ourselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment comes when they will be handed back to Denmark liberated from the foul thraldom into which they have been plunged by German aggression.

An announcement was broadcast by the BBC radio. An aircraft of the Royal Air Force (RAF) was seen over Tórshavn on the same day.

On 12 April, two destroyers of the British Royal Navy arrived in Tórshavn harbour. Following a meeting with Carl Aage Hilbert (the Danish Prefect of the Islands) and Kristian Djurhuus (President of the Løgting, the Faroese Parliament), an emergency meeting of the Løgting was convened the same afternoon. Pro-independence members tried to declare the independence of the Faroe Islands but were outvoted. An official announcement was later made announcing the occupation and ordering a nighttime blackout in Tórshavn and neighbouring Argir, the censorship of post and telegraphy and the prohibition of the use of motor vehicles during the night without a permit.

On 13 April, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Suffolk arrived at Tórshavn. Colonel T B W Sandall (the British military commander) and Frederick Mason (the new British Consul to the Faroe Islands) then met with the Danish Prefect. The Prefect responded with what Sandall took to be a formal protest, though Hilbert maintained that owing to the occupation of Denmark he was unable to formally represent the Danish government. He duly accepted the British terms on the basis that the UK would not seek to interfere with the internal affairs of the islands. A formal protest was however made by the Løgting, though expressing the wish for friendly relations. 250 Royal Marines were disembarked, later to be replaced by other British troops. In practice, cordial relations were maintained between the British forces and the Faroese authorities.

In May, the Royal Marines were replaced by soldiers of the Lovat Scouts, a Scottish Regiment. In 1942, they were replaced by the Cameronians (Scottish Rifles). From 1944, the British garrison was considerably reduced.

The author Eric Linklater, an army officer, was part of the British garrison. His 1956 novel The Dark of Summer was set in the Faroe Islands during the war years. He also wrote The Northern Garrisons: The Army at War (HMSO, 1941) and the foreword to Kenneth Williamson's 1948 book The Atlantic Islands: a Study of the Faeroe Life and Scene.