The Northern Patrol combined regular cruisers in the 7th Cruiser Squadron with armed merchant cruisers grouped in the 10th under Vice-Admiral Max Horton. Reviving a First World War organization, it had two connected tasks: intercept German merchant shipping trying to return through northern waters and report enemy warships breaking into the Atlantic. Its patrol line ran from northern Scotland toward the Faroes, south of Iceland, and across toward Norway, a geography later associated with the GIUK gap. The mission demanded wide, cold-weather coverage at a point when the Royal Navy could not place a proper warship everywhere it needed one.
Chapter · 33:32-35:37
The Northern Patrol and the Greenland-Iceland-UK approaches
Rawalpindi's patrol formed part of the effort to watch the routes between Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom for German breakouts.