Soviet invasion of Iceland and Jay Mayen Island

Flag of Iceland — The official Icelandic.

Flag of Iceland - 1914 Proposal — The alternate Icelandic.

Flag of the Soviet Union — The Soviet/Remnant Soviet flag.

The location[]

Iceland[]

Considering Iceland's strategic position, which had also been noted in WW2, meant the Soviets had to invade the base air at Keflavík and secure the island, but would still face the risk of a counterstrike by the UK's Royal Navy, until the U.S. Marines could arrived and joined the battle along side the small American garrison force.

The volcanic island of Iceland has many geysers, including Geysir, from which the English word is for the geological entity derived; and thus widespread availability of geothermal power. There are rivers and waterfalls that can be for hydroelectricity.

The sub-polar oceanic climate of Iceland varies between different parts of the island and it's glaciers with, the south coast be warmer, wetter and windier than the north, the Central Highlands and the glaciers are the coldest part of the country and Low-lying inland areas in the north are the most arid. Snowfall in winter is more common in the north than the south, but less in the centre zone. The additional warmth of the North Atlantic Current ensures generally higher annual temperatures than in most places of similar latitude in the rest of the world.

The natural resources are: potential locations for hydroelectricity, basalt, fisheries and rhyolite.

Jan Mayen Island[]

The island had a strategic location.

The natural resources are: copper, zinc, cobalt, gold, silver, lithium, oil, gas, aggregate gravel, fisheries and rare earth metal scandium.

The plan[]

After Soviet invasion of Denmark and/or Operation Northern Norway, Jan Mayen Island, Iceland and the Fearo Islands would fall. Iceland would be attacked by a Soviet VDV Paratroopers, an amphibious attack and a minor gunboat or two.

The Soviet invasion of Jan Mayen Island would have also soon followed the fall of northern Norway, leading to the capture of the NATO held LORAN-C Station, near Olokin City (which is only actually a small village) on Jan Mayen. There would have been a few Norwegian and NATO troops as security guards, but many since the island is so small to maintain more that a few technicians, meteorologists and quarry workers. Jan Mayen has one unpaved airstrip, Jan Mayensfield, which is about 1,585 m (5,200 ft) long. The 124.1 km (77.1 mi) coast has no ports or harbours, only offshore anchorages.

After capturing the NATO air station at Keflavík and the near by intelligence gathering post, the next goal was the eliminating the SOSUS sonar buoy line in the GIUK gap which would allow the Soviet Navy to surge its submarines into the Atlantic Ocean without being detected and distribute sea mines in the region. The Soviet ships and submarines would then go on to engage and destroy NATO shipping in the North Atlantic.

The NATO Exercise Northern Viking was meant to plan how to counter such an attack and defeat it.

Eventually the Soviet invasion of Greenland would occur to prevent a Danish government in exile forming, assuming the American air bases had not already secured the island for NATO.

The forces[]

Iceland has the smallest population of any NATO member and is the only one with no standing army, its lightly armed coast guard being in charge of defence. The NATO bases were the only real armed forces the island had.

Bases[]

America had NATO air station at Hofn Air Station, Rockville Air Station and Keflavík International Airport were the only meaningful armed forces on the island. NATO also maintained a joint Icelandic civil and US/UK/Danish run high power military radio mast near Reykjavik from the early 1960s to the early 1980s.

Also see[]

Operation Square Leg (1980) and Exercise Hard Rock (1982)
Germany's Fulda Gap
Swedish pseudo-neutrality
The Swiss National Redoubt (1880-2010)
French nuclear plans and the Force de Dissuasion
North German Plain
Finnish pseudo-neutrality
Operation Northern Norway
The southern Danube route
Soviet/NATO invasion of Finland
The week of war policy
Operation Gladio
Greece, Turkey and southern Italy
Cold War secret police organisations
How Governments become Authoritarian
Nations in 1988
Nations in 1991
O.T.L. history notes
Today's OTL types of economies, societies and regimes
Why the USSR broke up in reality
Warsaw Pact
NATO